Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My uro Eddie was diagnosed by a herp vet with tail rot on Thursday the 23rd. He is getting a shot of Amikacin every three days. Since he was diagnosed, he has only pooped once and he has not eaten. He still runs, runs, runs in the bedroom every day but I'm worried that he's dying. He used to poop every two days like clockwork and gobble mealworms. His tail rot has not gotten any better. Any advice? Eddie is two years old, toilet trained and a very happy boy.

You said he gobbled mealworms? Uros are herbivores. The only time they benefit from insects is when they are growing, and even then you're supposed to feed them sparingly. As adults uros should only be eating insects as an occasional snack. Too much insects will cause kidney problems. A diet of greens and some veggies is the way to go with these guys.

Often times treatments will cause an animal to go off feed. Sometimes it's also just the stress of being sick and being treated that will throw them off feed.

Take it from me, mealworms aren't a good source of food for uromastyx (they especially aren't good for bearded dragons also).

Mealworms have a chemeical in them called critin ( I believe that's how you spell it). But its in their shell and it makes it real hard to digest them. I suggest if you do feed your uro any insect it be either crickets or wax worms and even then only 1 time a week and not a whole lot (maybe about 10 crickets, or 3 wax worms).

You could try putting bee pollen on his greens and see if he eats. I hear that it stimulates appetites in our uromastyx's.

Good Luck and I hope everything turns out fine.

PS: Never EVER feed superworms to anything you own, I accidentally did that with my bearded dragon Hades and he almost died as a result of their hard shell (I thought it was ok because I read it on a couple bearded dragon sites, never trust sites unless you know for sure the person is an experienced bd breeder).
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2 Mali Uromastyx-Ares & Apollo
2 Bearded Dragons- Draco & Hades
1 Saharan Uromastyx-Iris
1 Leopard Gecko-Kalypso
1 Tokay Gecko-Sid Vicious
1 Tarantula-Peter Parker
1 Amazon Red Head Parrot-Pancho
1 African Gray Parrot-Keya
1 Dog-Cheeka
3 Fish-no names
1 Beta Fish-also no name
1 Zebra Finch-Beeps (we used to have 5, but some went on a killing spree).

Sure glad hes okay, keep an eye on that tail
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Eve / PHEve

Have you tried soaking him? That may help him with a "movement", though his lack of "output" may just be from lack of "input". Try giving him more of a variety of foods than usual, maybe something bright will grab his fancy like a small piece of strawberry, or cantelope, sugar snap pea pieces or zuchini will usually entice mine to eat.

Good Luck with him and keep us posted! I am intrigued by this idea of being house trained...

Elizabeth
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1.0 Mali Uro Archimedes
0.0.1 Egyptian Uro Zuberi Mosca Khu (Mosca)
0.0 Fish
0.1 Sulcata Minnie
1.1 Iguanas Flik and Loki
0.1 Newfoundland Jasmine
0.1 Feline Winter
Indiana & Wisconsin