Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay. I have a friend who had a Mali Uro, but for various reasons could not keep it any longer. I agreed to take it in for a while. At first, it was supposed to be a temporary thing, but I got attached to the little girl. However, it seems that the terrarium I was given with her was designed more for looks than for function.

If we are right, Vash (who was originally assumed to be male) is just under 5 years old.

Original Basking Temp: ~105 degrees
Original Warm End Temp: ~90 degrees
Original Cool Air Temp: ~80 degrees

I am most concerned about her tail. She hasn't finished shedding for a while, and began quite a while ago. Worried about the lack of spines on the new layer, as well as the stubborn remaining layers. I tried the bathing process, and got a small piece off (about half of one row.) She fought ferociously, but eventually resigned herself to a little bit of tail dampness. Unfortunately, I noticed what appeared to be blood slowly dripping into the water from one of her spines. I was unable to find the location of this after I dried her off.

She also appeared rather thin when I first got her, especially compared to most other Uro's I've seen. I have been feeding her daily, but only in modest amounts at first. I didn't want her overeating, although that's probably rare with Uros.

I've also upped the heating.

Daytime: 150 watt basking lamp, 100 watt basking lamp, 100 or 150 watt daylight lamp.

Basking spot: 120 degrees
Warm End Ambient: 100 degrees
Cool End Ambient: 80 degrees

Nighttime: 150 watt infrared lamp.

Warm end ambient: 80 degrees
Cool End Ambient: ~65 degrees

Humidity is usually about 30 degrees.

I live in the northeast and it is freezing these days. I have tried covering part of the tank in a clean towel to retain heat, but I'm not sure about any negative effect this might have. I also have a space heater running in the room, but it rarely gets the room as warm as I'd like it to be.

As for diet, I have been feeding her Dole Field Greens. It consists of romaine lettuce, curly endive, carrots and radicchio. I have slowly been introducing Bok Choy into her diet, and plan on one or two calcium-stuffed crickets a week.

My final concern is about my local veterinarian. I am afraid that they wouldn't have experience with this kind of animal. Is this going to be a problem, or do they more than likely know what they're doing?

Please review and tell me what I could be doing to make this a happier, healthier lizard.
A small selection of pictures.

You don't need a light at night... to up temps at night, use a MegaRay Heat Projector or Ceramic Heat Emitter. Uro's can see lights at night and it will disrupt there sleeping.

Uro's are STRICTLY VEGETARIAN, no bugs, no crickets. Also, Romaine lettuce has no nutritional value at all, if you can, remove it. Carrots are high in sugar and should be limited. Other staple greens besides Curly Endive include Escarole and dandelion leaves. If you want to add more rotational foods, try grated squash and/or zuchinni, bell peppers (all colors), cilantro, soaked lentils and soaked lima beans. You can also give them pesticide free flower like pansies, hibiscus, nasturtiums and dandelion flowers, but these are mostly treats only and shouldn't be given too often.

As for the vet, call around to other vet clinics, there is a list of vets at www.repticzone.com. You may need to travel a bit farther from home, but its better to spend a little more in gas to get a good Reptile Vet.

Good Luck with her.

Oh yeah, and get rid of the dial thermometers .. they can be up to 20 degrees wrong. Get some digital thermometers, I have found that Fluker's are the best, but you can get a decent one with probs at Home Depot or Lowe's.

I knew Iceberg lettuce was a bad idea, but I thought Romaine had some. Thank you for the heads up on that.

I had a suspicion the dials weren't reading correctly. Especially when I saw how they were constructed.

Completely oblivious to the perception of red light. I will look into those alternatives.

Any other comments on cage construction?

The link below is a list of good herp vets. Just click on the state you are in and it should show you the address of the vet nearest to you in your state.

And try not to feed it lettuce any type of lettuce because it has no nutritional value whatsoever. For the vegetarian part of the diet you do not need to restrict how much he eats. You can't really get fat from eating greens and veggies because there is not fat in it at all. You feed it as much as it's hind guts is content. I feed my Uro and iguana as much veggies and greens as it wants and they never get fat.
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What size tank is that? It looks like it may be a bit on the small side, and definitely change the diet and thermometers, you will be shocked how far off those temps may be. I would follow what missanne mentioned and that should definitely help a bit

" You can't really get fat from eating greens and veggies because there is not fat in it at all.'

This is not an accurate statement.

Uromastyx can become obese on a vegetarian diet and some species ( ornates quickly come to mind) seem to have more of a propensity for this.

I have turned down private purchases on animal that were grossly overweight that had been fed inferior diets high in items such as corn, peas, and other legumes.

The body will convert the carbohydrate and proteins from the food we feed into energy and just like the basic principle that applies to all of us, excess will be stored as fat. It does not take ingestion of a saturated fat or animal protein to have fat storage/deposits. As a captive uromastyx is limited to a confined space and activity is often restricted, it is not unusual to see a uromastyx that appears to be well over the weight of those typical found in their habitat.

So yes, a uromastyx can get fat from eating greens and veggies if the amount of calories ingested greatly exceeds that of the energy expenditure.

Artic,

You mentioned that you managed to get a small piece of the thickened tail skin off during bathing and also mentioned that there was blood in the bath water. I would not attempt to remove this thickened skin. I would however remove all particulate substrate so that it does not irritate this area.

This is likely a bacterial or fungal infection and there is always a risk that a condition like this can become systemic. It sounds as if you have concerns so my suggestion would be to refrain from further bathing and make a vet appointment and ask the vet to culture beneath the excess skin of one of the whorls. This culture could provide insight into an effective course of treatment by identifying the organism you are dealing with and the appropriate medication to treat the condition.

You stated that the enclosure given to you with this animal was designed more for looks than function- hopefully you have corrected this with a proper enclosure. If not, this should be high on your list of priorities as well.

I've heard corn, carrots and peas can convert to sugar and it's not healthy. However I do not feed those to my iguana and Uro. Instead they get veggies like parsnips, which is high in protein, and butternut squash mixed in with the greens like mustard, dandelion, collard, endive, and escarole. I give them as much as they want and they never get fat. I was doing research on iguana on anapsid.org and Melissa Kaplan said to feed iguanas as much as they will eat. I feed her iguana salad to my Uro. She does say to stay away from corn, and carrots, though.