Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all! It's been awhile since I posted here but I'm a frequent reader. I have some baby uro's coming (5months) in a couple of days and it was suggested to use wild bird seed (primarily millet)...well, I bought a big bag of premium wild bird seed and it's FULL of little black bugs..YUCK! Now, I had uro's and a beardie before and I always used Repti Sand but I'm concerned with these guys being so little if that's the right choice. I can take this big bag of seed back and go get a couple of smaller bags sealed in clear plastic so I'll know they don't have any visible bugs but I'm concerned now that the seed will attract bugs. Any suggestions? I'm about ready to just go get my trusted Repti Sand and go with that.

A good rule of thumb for "baby uros" is to keep them on
paper. I use butcher paper but newspaper is more readily
available and easy to change out when soiled.

I always keep young uros on paper from 6-9 months of
age but this also depends on their size. If they are large for
say, six month old juveniles, then you can continue to doing
your homework on just what you want them on in the next
few months. In the mean time, just use paper till you decide.

There's little chance for young juveniles to develop intestinal
blockage if kept on paper till they're six to nine months of age.

Yeah, take the bug riddled seed bag back and get your hard
earned money back ... for sure!

John

I suggest newspaper or paper towels for the young ones til they are older. You can try freezing the seeds to kill the bugs later down the road. Its frustrating when you get those seed bugs going in the cages!! I had the same thing happen to rabbit pellets (alfalfa pellets)I was keeping my bearded dragon and uros on.

I am curious.. where are you getting 5 month old Uro's from?

Also, as for keeping young/small Uro's I would use paper towels, newspaper or butcher paper for a while. Paper towel is the easiest to maintain I found. If there is food, snalt, dirty business on the towels, just toss em out and replace. It is however, going to hold back less heat, so you may want to play with bulbs to get your temps right before the Uro's arrive.

Thanks for the all the advice everyone! They arrived today in great condition and seem very curious about their new home...hiding for an hour or so then coming out to bask and check it out. The one is very friendly and curious upfront, the other is taking her time. I've always gotten my uros as juveniles so I'm really floored at how little these are...they're just so adorable=) My little girl is already head over heels and I'm explaining and re-explaining about their need for peace and quiet for awhile.

I actually got them from Doug Dix...I was poking around about being on waiting lists and he was the first to respond and happened to have these available and I was thrilled.

I'll post pics as soon as I can figure out how to do that on here.

Thanks!
Molly