Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just this week I acquired two uros from a gentleman in Michigan. One is an Egyptian and one is a Mali. They're good friends, so I decided to take them both. The folks in Michigan had had them for four years, since they were about 4 inches long. They got pretty cold on their trip but seem to have recovered from that well.

The Egyptian (Ridley) is friendly, curious and alert. He even let me pet him today and seemed to enjoy it. (I haven't tried to sex them yet, so take the labels with a grain of salt!) He has eaten a little bit every day, particularly enjoying his greens and some lentils. He hasn't shown any interest in fruit yet, though I hear that they like apple.

The Mali (Clarice), on the other hand, is very shy, which I knew about before, but she also isn't eating, as far as I can tell. It's now been 3 or 4 days. She stays in her "cave" all the time, except when I remove it to force her to come out and get some light. Then she freaks out, climbing the glass walls and banging herself around trying to hide. I don't let this go on too long, of course, and put her cave back in so she can calm down.

Their habitat is right in the middle of things in our house, so I'm concerned that she'll never adjust and always be so skittish. I'm also very concerned that she hasn't eaten and worry that she's getting dehydrated.

They're warm enough and have UVA/UVB light.

My question to everyone is: Is this just an adjustment issue? Can I expect her to calm down soon? I know uros don't like change and upheaval in their lives, but I thought she'd at least eat. Is there anything else I should do or try?

There are so many problems I hardly know where to begin. Reptiles of different species and subspecies should not be housed together, and males should not be housed together. Lizards don't have friends and can be very territorial. One possible thing is that the Egyptian being a larger species could be dominating the other which is why it may be hiding.

However, yes most animals will need time to adjust and puting them in a high traffic area may spook an animal. When placing an animal in an ew environment they should be disturbed as little as possible and not physically handled for at least a week.

Finally you have given no important husbandry information. Not only do these need to be housed in seperate cages but these lizards need a large cage to animal size ratio becuase they can be very active and a proper temperature gradient is essenatial and hard to get in a cage that is less than a 40 gal breeder which is adequate for the Mali until reaching full size. Egyptian keepers suggest keeping the animal in 6 X 2 ft cage minmumn.

Heat and Light you say only that they have heat and light you do mention that UV light is available but what are the temperature gradients like? The animal needs a cool area of 80 at one end and a hot end of about 95 with a basking area at the hot end that reaches a temp of about 125 degrees. This is why they need relativley large area they need definitive gradient hot cold and in between and since their active these gradients need a surface area that means they are not forced to be between two gradients because of body size forces them to straddle them.

Finally are you offering calcium supplementation with their food?

As for diet mixed greens except things with oxialates which bind calcium like broccoli, spinach, etc. Breeder Doug Dix of Deer Fern Farms feeds his exclusively on greens with toppings of ground Mazuri tortise mix and Repashy Uromastyx Dust(now made by T-Rex). I have added dustings with Bird fruit/seed mix and grounf 15 bean soup mix. Use a topping every other day and use indoor MIner-All for every other day for calcium/vitamin supplementation.

The long of short of this is no one can know exactly what may be wrong if anything until you get you husbandry sorted out properly. Keep in mind also that even with correct husbandry these animals tend to be skittish and are not necesaarily animlas that want to be handled. Some become very tame and don't mind handling others remian skittish and forcing them to be handled will only stress them.

The Mali I got from Doug when it first came stayed almost exclusively in its hideout when I was around and walking into the room would cause it to flee for safety. Now the animal as long as I don't make sudden moves doesn't mind being observed close up and if I'm very careful can remove lights/lamps and the cage top and carefully reach in and touch it, but it took patience to get this far.

Doug Dix's site has a link to it at the top of this forum its Deer Fern Farms. It has lots of helpful information and you can always send him an email, he is very helpful even if you didn't get your animlas from him.