Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was talking with a vet the other day, he said that lizards in gerneral are very emotional and more social than most people realize. That if tank mates are attached to one another and one dies, the other is likely to lose its will to live. I was asking about my two uros, because shortly after Zazu died, Tiki began starving himself. Yet, his fecal was fine. His health was fine; he just wouldn't eat. My boyfriend and i syringe fed him a mixture of juiced veggies, tried baby food and his favorite hibiscus, but with no luck. He eventually passed away. In the end, we had him with my boyfriend's red niger, Koopa. To our complete surprise Koopa took Tiki under his wing, so to speak. In Tiki's final days Koopa was near his side 24/7, even propping Tiki's head up with his arm when Tiki was too weak. We'd never seen anything like it, much less expected it. The morning after Tiki passed away, Koopa frantically ran around the tank looking for him. When he realized Tiki was gone he whipped his tail a few times and crawled over to the exact spot where Tiki had passed and did not move from it the entire day. I was just wandering if anyone else had ever witnessed this same sort of behavior?

We had a Mali and a Saharan together.The two of them were always within inches of each other.Our Mali became ill and she passed away.We had her in a seperate enclosure at the end because we werent sure what was wrong with her.Our Saharan acted different as soon as we took her out of the cage.He would walk around the cage more than he normaly would and he kept going to the spot that she was last laying on.He wasnt eating like he normaly would for about a week.So yes I believe what your vet said.

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1 Saharan named "Flick"
1 Mali named "URO" We will never forget you button!

well, knock on wood, i haven't lost a uro yet, but last fall one of my female collareds died and it was just the wrong time of year to find another female so one male was alone and i would have to divide the time of who lived with ivan the girl because walter would never wake up and kaiser is a bit of a spaz and the more he was alone, the spazzier he became.
i am sorry about your uros. i hope you are feeling better soon
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vonnie
***The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.
— Mark Russell***

Long term monogamy has been found in lizards. Although I've aware of no research with regards to Uros.

>>I was talking with a vet the other day, he said that lizards
>>in gerneral are very emotional and more social than most
>>people realize. That if tank mates are attached to one
>>another and one dies, the other is likely to lose its will to
>>live.

As far as I know, emotions originate from the limbic system in the mid-brain, a structure that reptiles lack by definition. On questionign regarding other issues, my vet has indicated that reptiles are VERY routine-oriented animals and have difficulty/take time adjusting to even small changes (think acclimation period). He suggests their daily routine is regualr enough one could "set a watch to it". As a result, my animals do NOT observe daylight savings time.
In dealing with so many Uros I have seen in numerous cases where separating animals that have been together for a period but are/have become hostile to each other has had negative implications for both (for short term anyway), apparently due to the change in daily environment.

You must be careful not to attribute your feelings to the animals you deal with or otherwise meaningless events in the world. If you impose your feelings on things that lack them or events that are unassociated, you can quickly read more into trivial or meaningless circumstances than is truly there.

A minor advisory for future safety- if an animal is "on the out", the last thing I would do is combine them with another healthy animal. Even if fecal tests come back negative, there's lots of nasty things that aren't necessarily detectable or even looked for in those scans (think virus). You run the risk of losing them all in that case.
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uromastyx geyri (Saharan/Nigerian), hardwickii (Indian),
macfadyeni (Somalian), ocellata (Sudanese), ornata (Ornate), benti pseudophilbyi

Yes, i realize this, but my boyfriend thought it would help Tiki. I told him to keep them separate, but he is stubborn. In Tiki's final days, he did seem to be comfoted by the other lizard. So we were hopeful, but he just refused to live. Right now I am taking a hiatus from Uros. I love them, but right now i feel like a lizard killer. I know i did nothing wrong; maybe it's just bad luck. Thank you all for your feedback. This has been enlightening.