Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've just been on the Deer Fern Farms Care Site, and it says that collard greens shouldn't be used, it's binding. What is everyone else using on your uros? I've been giving Yugi collard greens, turnip greens, carrots, squash, snap peas, sprinkled with the reptivite. Is this ok? Yugi seems to eat them fine. I love hibiscus and coming from Florida - easy to grow, in fact, I've got a hibiscus tree in the yard I'm going to add the flowers to Yugi's diet and see what happens. I've made a list and am going to buy some of the different foods to give Yugi a variety. Any other suggestions are welcome info.!! Thanks in advanced!

neither helga nor hugo like collared greens and i did not know until more recently that they should not have them either, so it actually works ok with me.
i always swtich up the leafy greens so that they can get a full spectrum of nutrients.
repti-vite is just a vitamin supplement and should be given like once a week. you need to get just a plain calcium to sprinkle on several times a week. that is what my vet recommended to me and he said there is not enough calcium in those vitamin supplements.
i hope this helps
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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 ***

I'm the one with the Uro that acts like it's lost it's equilibrium. When I first got Yugi, he was in a small tank until we could buy him a 55 gallon - petstore actually didn't have that big in stock - waiting on shipment - but we bought the calci-sand. When we upgraded to the big tank, @ $16 a bag, we couldn't afford calci-sand, we switched to play sand. Do you think a lack of calcium, too much collards is playing a part in his loss of equilibrium? What do they act like when they go into hybernation? Yugi has good days and bad days, but he's still acting funny. I have an appointment with the vet tommorow. What would they do? Blood tests? Should I give him a feces sample? I'm so new to owning a uro and have become most attached (almost favor him to my dogs )and would be crushed if this pet dies on me. All the help is most welcome to my endless questions! P.s. How do I send an image to this?

calci-sand is no good. it is too big and causes impactions easily. the concept is nice but it does more harm than good to most lizards. playsand is good and not expensive, but how old is your uro? if it is a baby it may be good to keep him on paper towels until he is bigger
torey just wrote that collards are not all bad so that should not be playing into it
in the winter lizards will slow down. they act lazy and sleep longer and maybe bask a little less. since your guy is new it would be best not to let him hibernate because only a healthy animal should hibernate.
since he is acting funny, they may want to do blood tests to check out his nutrient levels. since he is new, they should do a fecal on him to make sure that he does not have any parasites. if he poops anytime today or tomorrow before the appointment, just put the sample in the fridge and try to get it with the least amount of sand possible. if he has not pooped, the vet might give him an enema type thing or they may just tell you to bring back a sample. unfortunately if he does have parasites, you will have to dump the sand, keep him on paper towels till treatment is over and then buy new sand (if he is old enought to live on sand).
also take all these questions to your vet tomorrow too. my vet has literature out the wazoo so maybe your vet can give you reading material too
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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 ***

Hope this helps, if there is a problem PLEASE ask again and we will try our best to get ya fixed up

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Eve / PHEve

just be careful with picking flowers because there could be pesticides and fertilizers that could hurt the uro and even if you stop giving them these things i think it takes 6 months to get it completely out of the plant's system.
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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 ***

One note about Dr. Dix's site - it does say to limit collards, but not the avoid them completely. In an earlier paragraph, he says they feed collard greens to their stock. The point with collards and kale is that if fed every day, they can be a problem. A little bit once in a while is no problem - even a good thing, since variety is the best way to be sure your uro gets all the vitamins needed.

For supplements, I use calcium 3x per week, multivitamin once per week. All other days they get bene-bac. I have calcium with and without D3 and swap it up depending on the state of my UVB lights. :-p I don't know if this is correct, but that's what my vet told me way back at the beginning, and I haven't had problems since.

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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