Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am the proud new owner of a cute little mali hatchling. I don't know if the little guy is a boy or girl How soon do you think I will be able to tell. Right now he/she is about 3 inches long and fat as a butterball. I'm feeding collards, carrots, peas, green beans, squash (all finely chooped of course). With an occassinal cricket. It's so funny watching him chase them around.
My question is, regarding substrate, I've read that for hatchlings the best thing is newspaper. Does everyone agree on this and if not, what is better? Thats what I have him on right now. I read your not supposed to use playsand on the babies because of the risk of impactions. I would like input on this to be sure I'm doing the right thing.
I don't have a digital camera but do plan to get some pics and post so everyone can see how cute he is
Thanks!

Congrats! I can't wait to see pictures!!

Sounds to me as though you're doing things just fine. Newspaper is great (if you don't mind ink smudges), as is butcher paper or paper towels.

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
2.0.1 Uromastyx Dispar Maliensis (Tank, Turtle, and new neighbor Spike)
1.2 Anolis Carolinensis (Bowser, Leeloo, and Sprocket)
1.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Bruce and Sheila)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)
And several miscellaneous community fish

congrats on your new baby! i think you will have to wait awhile before you can tell the sex for sure. however, i think you should call "it" butterball until you find out! that description made me smile.
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vonnie
***There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. Mary Wilson Little ***

That's terrific.

Newspaper is fine, that's what I read on every care sheet I've ever looked up.

I was going to say, if you wanted to (speaking from my personal experience) if you had a big enough regular towel to put in there you could also do that.

(when I had iris seperated from Orion she was on a towel, and it kept it's warmth real well).

That's just MY OPINION though.
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1.1 mali uro's-Ares and Apollo
1.saharan uro- Iris
1.2 bearded dragon-Hades and Draco
0.2 leo gecko-Kalypso
0.3 tokaye gecko-Sid Vicious
1.0 tarantula-Peter Parker
0.2 dog-cheeka
0.2 zebra finch-beeps
0.2 african gray parrot-keya
1.0 red headed parrot-pancho
0.3 Fish (sorry no names for them)

For questions, comments or updates email is: uromastyx101@yahoo.com

Congratulations, Will look forward to seeing the little PUDGY guy, sounds adorable, glad hes doing so well.

You sure do sound proud ,and thats just wonderful!

HAPPY for ya!

IT'S A LAW HERE ** MUST GET A CAMERA AND POST MANY PICS !

AHHHHHAAAA !
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Eve / PHEve

Thanks so much everyone. Just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing. Yes, I'm very proud. Butterball as I called he/she is cute as a button. I promise to soon get pics. Will have to take them and get them developed. Maybe this is a good excuse to get a digital camera
Oh, and something else I wanted to share. I believe it was jimbo that previously told me about the digital thermometer to use to get tank readings. It has been worth it's weight in gold as far as getting the temps right. It has the probe that you put inside the tank and also reads outside temp. Great investment there! It wasn't but like $8.00.
It's so nice knowing I can get on here and discuss things with those that are knowledgable and have the same interests. I know some boards can get pretty heated and negative but that's never really been much of a problem here and that is nice.
Anyways, thanks again!

i love this forum and i highly respect everyone's opinion but when i first got helga in may, i think the forum was going through a rough time. there was lots of yelling going on then, well at least compared to the collared lizard forum, and i was afraid of you all. i posted in the chuckwalla forum because those people know alot about alot of different lizards
phew, i feel better getting that off my chest
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vonnie
***There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. Mary Wilson Little ***