Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, so Im sure some of you've seen me posting about bearded or uro. Well, I had initially gone with the bearded, figured its a little more liking being held and it eats moving stuff which kind of grasps my attention.
Well I get my bearded home and have been feeding him, amazes me how much they love mice and crickets. Well I didnt notify my girlfriend that I'd gone out and bought crickets for the guy, she came home and saw huge crickets crawling all over the cage and that did it.
So!, coming to the actual story/questions. I have thankfully been able to exchange this guy for a yellow nigerian uromastyx and I just couldn't be happier. This guy is so cool looking and I think I got the brightest one out of the bunch.
Now a couple questions.

1) Do they tend to spend most of their first few days hiding and not moving much.He's founda nice place to burrow and he was there from around 6 or so last evening till 8am this morning. I picked him up last night from the same spot and he didnt move at all for a min or so. I pick him up though and once he I dunno, realizes whats going on, he just starts licking away.
2) eating. Is it going to be a couple days before he starts eating? Im assuming he didnt touch the food alst night because he was sleeping last night all night.
3) Heat. I have a 120watt bulb above him. Do I just shut this off at night? Do you recommend maybe getting a nighttime heatbulb to keep the cage warm?I think my house maintains at least 70 overnight.

Thanks for reading all this I know its alot. Im just real excited about this and wouldnt want to hurt the little guy.

basically all reptiles (with the exception of some bearded dragons) are going to be very stressed out when you first get them. Uro's are just the same, so you should just leave the little guy alone for a while. At least until he starts eating again and acting normal. Handling him will just stress him out and make it even harder for him to acclimate to his new environment.

Also, beardies are a lot more hands-on than most uro species (with the exception of some malis and egyptians...and of course there are some exceptions in the other species as well). Handling them too much can and will stress them out. Some do take it better than others and they will adapt to handling sessions, there's no doubt about that, but I think you'll find that it will be much easier to maintain a healthy uro if you don't handle it on a regular basis. Also, what kind of substrate do you use?

I have always just turned my lights off at night for my uro and my bearded. I haven't run into a problem related to that, though lately my uro came down with a bad case of pinworms, and I think that having heat on at night would help her, so I might get a red bulb to put over her basking spot at night. She is recovering quite well though (she is showing signs that the liver problems are going away too!). I have heard that if your house stays in the 70's or at least the late 60's at night, it should be fine. I think it's just if the temps go below 60 that you could have a problem, and below 50 will definately cause a problem. I'm not completely sure either though. I haven't found a lot on the web about the night time cool down for uromastyx, so I've just been turning out the lights at night. If anyone has any insight to this, let me know to.

Hope I helped a little. For the night time heat thing, just research it and do what you think will be best. It's starting to get a little cold at night in my room (sometimes as low as 65 degrees), so I think I may go out and purchase some sort of heat source for night time.

did some more research real quick just now, and as I had seen before (long time ago), it is recomended that at night the tank temps drop to mid 60's to mid 70's, so yes, simply turning off all of the lights will be fine.

By the way, what are your other temps like? Remember you should have a basking spot that gets hotter than 120 degrees. Remember to check the surface temps. You can do this with a temp gun. You can also use a digital thermometer to check, but remember, usually the reading on the digital thermo will be a little bit less than the actual surface temp, which is why I reccomend getting a temp gun. Knowing how to read your lizard will also help get the temps right. If the uro is healthy and the temps are right, they only need to bask for a few hours each day. Other time will often be spend either eating, or in hiding, though they do like to explore their surroundings sometimes.

Also, you should give a young uromastyx live prey every once in a while. It's not completely necessary, and if given too much they can develop kidney problems, but just a few each week could be beneficial. Adults can be fed them as a snack. A couple crix, roachs, or meal/silk/wax worms every week or two isn't bad. Primarily they are herbivores though, so keep that in mind. If you don't want to feed live prey, you can get away with just a strictly vegetarian diet, but you could also supplement it with repcal bearded dragon pellets every now and then.

Thanks for checking into that. I havent temp'd my basking area yet. I have a 120watt bulb that is supposed to be one of the best. I dont see him spending all his time under it, he likes to hide under the logs and such alot, in fact the light was on last night when he fell asleep under the logs. So I assume he's receiving good temp range.
One question, how long do you leave your lights on? I turned it off around 10 at night and turned it on around 7:30 am.You think going off that on a regular basis, 7am on 10pm off, is ok?

Yeah I figure I shouldnt handle him too much right now. He doesnt seem to mind when I pick him up but its almost like he plays dead or something. He doesnt move any of his arms or legs I just picked him up to make sure he was ok. Ive never seen a reptile sleep so deep hahaa.

Right now I have him on bird seed. The place I got him from uses that for all of them and say its best. He seems to enjoy it, very easy for him to burrow in and blend in which he is very good at doing.

He hasnt eaten anything in a while so I dunno I was just concerned. My house doesnt get below 70 I dont believe so Im glad to know you're following the same night time steps as I am. And all advice is helpful.

Do you suggest a different substrate?

Well, bird seed seems to be a tried and true substrate, much like sand, but I've been using a thin layer of soil with my uro and she really seems to enjoy it. She likes to go into the bottom or her basking stack and dig a nice place out to sleep at night. You have to water it a couple times a week so that the surface is almost dry but just beneath it is moist. In my new cages I may end up using a much thicker layer of soil (up to 10" for my uro so that she can build a real burrow, but the hard part is finding a soil that will burrow just right. Right now since the ground is frozen outside I'll probably end up doing a mix of organic topsoil from homedepot and some sort of sand...maybe some vermiculite too. Just whatever works that can actually hold a burrow in only 10" (2' would be better).

A burrowing setup is going to be much harder to maintain, because then it is very important that I make sure I have just enough water in it so that it will hold a burrow. Uromastyx are burrowers by nature, so they will actually only spend a few hours outside each day in the wild before retreating to their humid burrows. If they didn't they would get dehydrated and die. In captivity there isn't as much of a problem with dehydration because of how much water the food we feed has in it, but in the desert where they come from, there isn't a lot of water anywhere but under ground, so it helps them conserve moisture. A lot of people that keep their uros on sand and seed tend to have problems with uros not shedding well, and that's because they are kept so dry. If you do use seed or soil, I would recomend keeping a box of moist soil in the cage (look on deer fern farms website for an example), and they will utilize this often. Other desert species also need to find places of higher humidity to hang out. Leopard geckos hang out in moist rock crevaces, bearded dragons most likely would hide under flat pieces of wood or brush or something if they need more moisture...but they tend to not have as much of a problem with it because of the area they come from. Some uro species prefer to just dig underneath large rocks as opposed to building a burrow.

the worst part of your posts is that you have no idea what your temps are. 120 watt bulb doesn't mean diddly. what are the degrees Fahrenheit?!?!?!?!?! (or Celsius : )

KNOW your temps, use a good tool to check and set them, get a temp gun and a digital thermometer. it is a small investment, and yet it is the number one MOST IMPORTANT factor in getting a proper setup.

and don't assume your local pet shop is the "be all to end all" when it comes to advice. most are 10 years behind the tames and husbandry is barely adequate.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles