Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

My name is Martin I'm from the Uk, I've been on the chuckwalla forum on here before as I have 6 chuckwallas wich are great. Since getting them I was thinking about selling my ackie monitor in order to get an egyptian uromastyx as they have very similar care requirements to my chuckwallas, and it would mean no more insects to mess around with lol. I saw one advertised on saturday for £120.00 including the viv and everything, so I thought that was a good oppertunity to get one, they said he was fairly tame and was just a bit sensative about his tail being touched, so I thought it sounded ok and that I could work with him. I ended up picking him and everything else up yesterday and I got it all for £100.00. I did hold him yesterday at his previous home, and he seemed ok and quite friendly, he crawled from his previous owner over to me and did seem a bit sensitive about his tail being touched, he was a bit cool at the time (temperature I mean lol). Any how, he's had some food and is roaming around and digging etc and seems ok, I'm just after as much advice and reasurance about the aggression, as I let him out this morning and and he did whip a little bit and then wasn't too bad, and he let me pick him up ok to put him back in the viv, I haven't had him out since as I think it would be best not to fuss with him too much so he can settle in. He seems to tail whip at the slightest thing in the viv I think he is teratorial with it, the other thing was I was putting some bird seed in his food bowl and he was at the other side of it, he seemed a bit tence and then started to his at me, so after that I'm thinking oh great they didn't tell me he hissed as well, and I'm just wondering if I might have bitten off more than I can chew. I just need some advice on what you think about the behaviour I have described and how best to tame him down? also he is around 2 years old and aprox 16" long, is it too late to tame him or have any of you do this, I hope it's not as bad as I'm thinking as I feel slightly misled by what the previous owners said about him. Please don't think I didn't do my reasearch about them as I did so for months and have been looking for one for some time, so it wasn't an impulse buy as such although I did act quickley on it as I thought someone else would snap him up. I also know a lot about my chuckwallas and get on fine with them they are fantastic lizards to keep, I just hope I can have something like that with Frank (thats what I've decided to call him). I'll leave it at that for now as this will be a long post any way, I know what size viv he will need and all that and I will be improving his set up and what not, it's just this is pretty much the exact set up he had at his last home, the only thing I've put in is the UVB tube and the infra red bulb and the breeze blocks, I will be getting him a mvb bulb some time this week. Any way I look forward to hearing your advice.
Thanks very much.
Martin

Hi again,
The previous owner has just e-mailed me to ask if we got back ok and everything which is nice. I e-mailed him back and asked if he had ever hissed at them, and he said he never did with them, as he said he may just need to adjust. I've just been near the viv and he was looking up at me as if to say who the hell are you lol, so hopefully he might just need to settle in. Do you think the aggression could be partly to do with that? Any way I'll try to keep out of his way for the next few days and just let him get used to the sight of me, which he should do as his viv is facing where I watch tv so he will get used to me moving around in front of him and so on. Any way just thought I'd tell you all as I thought it was interesting that he didn't hiss at them.
Thanks
Martin

I personally wouldnt touch him for atleast two weeks. Maybe even throw a towel or sheet over the glass so he cant see out. Put the greens in his cage right before the lights come on and clean the cage after they go off. That way his days are uninterrupted and stress free. They usually take a few weeks to adjust to being moved so I would say that is a big part of it. Even though the setup may be similar everything is still new and then to be handled by a stranger is adding more stress. First he needs to get used to his new surroundings then after a few weeks start handling him again.
I might have missed it but is he wild caught or captive bred? Either way, Egyptians are known to be the friendliest of the Uros but if he's wild caught it will probably take longer for him to calm down.
It looks like you have 1 hide spot in the cage. I would add atleast 2 more when you can. I have 4 hide spots in my Uro cages and they use each one. He might be whipping his tail and hissing becuase he feels cornered and cant find the hide spot.

Hi,
Thank you so much for your excellent advice I feel a million times better now lol. I was so worried that I had got my self in to something that I couldn't handle. Before I forget I'm told he is captive bred, you also mentioned about the egyptians been one of the friendliest uro's, thats one of the reasons I wanted one, that along with the fact that I wanted a larger sized lizard, I have just been reading through some more care guides thinking have I missed something, but all of them seem to paint them out to be a "docile" type of lizard which is what I read before. Any way, I will get the hides done when he is basking at the other end as putting more hides in makes sence to me, to be honest he just had a piece of bark to crawl under with his previous owners, before I put the blocks in for him so thats an improvement. I can't wait to get him an mvb bulb too as I got one for my chuckwallas and noticed excellent changes in one of my males who wasn't in peak condition, he's doing great now and eating better and so on. So do you think in a few weeks if I do what you say that he should calm down enough to perhaps not be so agro? and in the long term do you think it will be fairly easy to tame him down so that he is a good companian?.
Thanks a million, I'll let you know how he is in a few weeks.
Martin

Hi again,
Just thought I'd post pics of what I've done, as you can see I've put the middle block on to bricks and the end one is the same but facing towards the end of the viv. I'm sure he'll like this becasue as you can see he has taken to his basking spot very well, there again he didn't have a basking rock/block before so I don't think he would have been able to warm up properly as going on the size of the reflector, I don't think the bulb would have been any larger than the one I've got 70w. As I mentioned I will be getting an mvb soon the lowest wattage is 100w so I might have to lower the basking spot a bit.
Cheers
Martin