Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently acuired a U. Geryi from a friend who had sand in the cage. When I got it I started reading everything I could find about Uro's. I've read about impaction dangers, especially in juveniles I do not know exactly how old he is, he has started the red phase though. I want to change to bird seed to avoid this potential danger, however I don't want to stress him out anymore than the move has and I rearranged his cage so he is not fully acclimated to me or his surroundings. I use a food bowl to try and avoid contact with the sand. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to if I should wait to change it, and/or what should I do with him while I am changing it. If anyone has some input I would appreciate it.

When I got my saharan's in from Doug Dix I initially had them on sand, then put them on bird seed. I suggest bird seed it keeps them from impaction IMO. If you do use bird seed take out the sunflower seeds.

I use a paper plate to feed on or else they throw their food on the ground in order to get to it.

I hope this helps and congratulations on your new friend!
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GUY: You know I have a tendency to grow on people.
GAL: Yeah, so does fungus.

"Maybe there is no actual place called hell. Maybe hell is just having to listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they're eating sandwiches."

thanks for the input I have some bird seed but the sunflower seeds are hulled is this ok or no? also I was wondering about crushing some bird seed and mixing it with uncrushed to provide a deeper more stable substrate consisting of bird seed, for burrowing and diggin' around in general, do you think this will cause too much dust, any input would be great thanks again everyone
Greg

Does hulled mean it doesn't have a shell on it? If it does then that should be fine.

I just put in a couple of bags of bird seed to make a nice substrate, I use it only with my saharan's because they're new and I don't want them getting impaction of any sort.

I just keep their hide in there cause if they don't have it, then they'll dig under the supper plate and hide.

Crushing might create a little more dust than I'd like to see in a cage because my fear is that if they inhale the dust while digging then they might get a respiratory infection and die and that'd just be too hard to take.

If I were you I'd just buy more seeds (w/out sunflower seeds if possible) and put that in there with him/her for the time being.
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GUY: You know I have a tendency to grow on people.
GAL: Yeah, so does fungus.

"Maybe there is no actual place called hell. Maybe hell is just having to listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they're eating sandwiches."