Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My husband and I want to get a Uromastyx. We have a 70 gallon herp aquarium already. What are good resources for getting started? We'd really like to know what we're getting into before we bring that cute baby home. (novel approach, I know but we've learned the hard way on a few other pets)

Any assistance would be appreciated. The uro we're looking at is a baby Mali.

Thanks,

Items Recommended - Exo-Terra Reptiglo 8.0 (UVB Bulb), 100 watt basking light, a basking site, a cool hide on the cool side that is tight fitting to make the lizard feel safer. The warm side at the basking area should be around 120-130... most say 120. The cool side should remain 80-85... I havent gotten my lizards yet, but thats what I have setup, mine are on the way as well, tonight I spent $100 on more accessories/toys for them. Also for more information you can try this link, im sure some of the "Euro Experts" here can help you a little more, they did a great job helping me! Thanks again guys for your patience with a newbie!

http://www.deerfernfarms.com/Uromastyx_Species.htm

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1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Pyro/Sandfire/Orange Cross)
0.1.0 High Yellow Leopard Gecko
0.1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko
1.0.0 Choclate/Tan Dapple Miniature Dachshund
1.0.0 Isabella Miniature Dachshund
0.1.0 Red/White Piebald Miniature Dachshund

Aol Instant Messanger - Bdubedub

you should also have a nice tight fitting hide on the warm side, otherwise the uro will have to decide between feeling safe or being warm each day. Reptiglo 8.0 are not as good as zoomed reptisun 5.0. The numbers mean nothing because they are different brands and the numbers aren't a standard measurement of how much UV they give off.

For substrate, there's basically three main ones to choose from. You can go the sand route, or you can do millet, or (my favorite), some dirt. You can use dirt from outside, or get some playsand, topsoil, and vermiculite, and make a mixture of about 25%, 50%, 25%, respectively. If you have enough depth, put a foot of it in, and work with it before getting the uro so that you can find the right amounts, and the right amount of water to add each week or twice a week so that it will hold good burrows. In the wild, uros retreat to deep burrows for the majority of the day. If you can't get all of that dirt in there, you can do what I did, which seems to work pretty good for the standard owner like you or myself. Just put a thin layer in (an inch or two....more if you can stretch it), and then you can put hides over it and keep at least one of them fairly humid. When I get my new cages done, I'm going to do one of two things.

1. Put a rubbermaid box full of dirt in with a 3" flexible tube partially filled with dirt leading into it.

2. put the first layer of dirt down, then put a piece of plywood over about half of it (or however big you want it to be), and then start digging a hole underneath it that's big enough for the uro to get under and start digging. Then you can cover that with a very thin layer of dirt and it's actually pretty realistic.

Everything I've ever read about uros in care sheets or from forum members stated that even minimal humidity is detrimental to uromastyx, causing skin/tail rot and respiratory infections, to the point where not even a water bowl should be kept in the cage.... wouldn't moist/humid substrate be a really bad idea then?

I'm new to Uros, so forgive me if I'm wrong.
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~ Vamppire
Queens, New York City

The substrate setup that Ryan is referring to is a very particular one, that's modified from what Robyn at Proexotics uses. People fuss back and forth with each other about the soil substrate - I highly recommend doing a search for it (or go to Robyn's page for the links) and read up on it so you can decide for yourself.

It's true that a constant high humidity is a bad idea for uros (over 50% is the general number tossed out), but I think it's good to have a humidity gradient available to your uros just like a good temperature gradient. They can choose what feels comfortable to them that way but not be forced to live in the damp. I have a dry substrate, plus rubbermaid tub den hide in the uro cages with a soil/sand mix that I keep slightly damp. It's the most frequently used hide.

A small water dish will not kill your uro, either. Some actually do drink from a dish, and as long as it isn't a swimming pool, it won't make a hint of difference to the overall cage humidity. I'm more concerned about them walking through it and getting stuff stuck to them. I have water dishes in each cage right now available during brumation - I don't keep one in there during normal times.

Others undoubtedly have different thoughts, but it's worked very well for me.
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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

yeah...not being able to escape high humidity is what causes problems.

In the wild, most species of uromastyx build burrows. These burrows go down several feet (I think basically as far as they have to go to get the right humidity, be it 2 feet or 8). They probably spend the majority of their time in these burrows. The area they live in is harsh. Above ground it's very dry...too dry for a uro to live without dying of dehydration I would imagine (in the wild their food probably doesn't have nearly the water content of the food we fed them though). I would think they probably come above ground at certain times in the day, when they can find food and bask for a bit, then retire back to the burrows where they won't dry out like jerky. In the humid burrows basically any water realeased through respiration remains in the shelter and is taken back in again.

I was worried at first that it would cause problems, but she's been on it for about six monthes now and she seems much healthier than ever before. The setup robyn uses at pro exotics is far superior though....10 foot round metal troughes with 2' of good, diggable soil, and basking sites reaching up as high as around 150 degrees (if memory serves).

Which reminds me....one of the key things to running a setup where humidity is involved is keeping the heat up. Low heat and high humidity is a recipe for disaster.

I agree with having a slightly humid hide. The burrow that my uros sleep in has some humidity in it and it has worked wonders during their shedding periods (it's also very refreshing after basking in their 140F basking spot). In fact, Isis has finally started shedding her tail (which was coated with several layers of unshed skin) with the help of a humid hide.
A healthy and happy uro won't spend enough in a humid hide, however a sickly one may decide to stay put, thus resulting in pneumonia and eventual death.

Here she is with the unshed skin on her tail. I'll try getting some pics of her with her currently-shedding tail.

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1.1 Mali Uromastyx (Ra and Isis)

in that pic your uro looks a lot like my fat uro, minus the unshed tail.

Also, in my little conquest to get my uro to lose some weight, I've noticed something. She only poos regularly on the weekends, because I'm there to take her out while she's still basking. On the weekdays she is already retired to her humid hide by the time I get home from school and whatnot, so I have to wake her from her slumber, and she's too cool to want to go or anything. She's a strange lizard. I wonder if she realizes how much control she has over me. When I get the new cages done (looks like it's going to take quite a while at our current pace...we only get a chance to work on them for 2-3 hours a week, and it's a fairly time consuming design to construct), I think I'm going to try to put my foot down on this whole not pooping in the cage thing. I'll put her in and let her get adjusted, and I'll only take her out after she has already pooped. I'll see how that works. if it does work out then I won't have to take her out of the cage so much. I'll see what happens.

Thanks so much for all the help. Since we'll likely be getting a baby, I think we can probably put a foot or two in the large tank for now though it's been suggested that we partition it off so that it's not so wide open for such a small lizard.

Again, thanks for all the help and advice.

Good for you for doing your research! Uros are lots of fun as pets, but lots of preparation is good. Best bet is to read read read read. Then ask questions for anything that isn't clear.

Lighting is important - read up on the UVB/D3 debate if you aren't familiar with it. Best UVB lights (if you don't have a meter) are Reptisun 5.0. The number at the end means nothing in terms of how much UVB it puts out.

Heat, hides, substrate (very much differs by preference), etc, are all addressed in the links below. There's

Please feel free to ask all the questions you like! Welcome to the forum!

Deer Fern Farms
Uromastyx Specialties
Many care sheets on Kingsnake
UVB Meter Owners group
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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

>>My husband and I want to get a Uromastyx. We have a 70 gallon herp aquarium already. What are good resources for getting started? We'd really like to know what we're getting into before we bring that cute baby home. (novel approach, I know but we've learned the hard way on a few other pets)
>>
>>Any assistance would be appreciated. The uro we're looking at is a baby Mali.
>>
>>Thanks,

It's nice to see people getting into these extremely precious reptiles. Many people just brush them off, but they are the coolest pets one can get in my opinion.

Also, baby mali's are sooo cute and small. If you start holding them at the right age, they get so acclimated to you that they'll sleep on your stomach or anywhere you put them.

I suggest getting the reading the following books (not thick novel type books, probably only 30 pages or so).

Uromastyx & Butterfly Agamids
Jerry G. Walls

Spiny-Tailed Agamids: Uromastyx and Xenagama
Richard D. Bartlett, Patricia Bartlett

I'm going to get them for christmas.

They're at Barnes and Noble's website.

I hope you find one that you fall in love with!
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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