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Slate care and feeding4/7/2023 Linoleum squares with adhesive backs can be stuck together for an easily removed, easily cleaned substrate. If your Uromastyx tends to eat bird seed bedding and ignores his or her greens, you can choose bare floors or butcher paper covered with slate or ceramic tiles. It can be challenging to get the setup right.įor a more simple enclosure, we recommend housing uros (especially young ones) on white proso millet, a common bird seed, that can serve as a snack as well as bedding! Once you are used to the rest of their care and your reptile is large enough, you can introduce a natural substrate, as they do enjoy burrowing but do note that substrate can be eaten and cause an impaction. For stability, place heavy objects on the bottom of the tank and fill in the substrate around them. Adult and sub-adult uros can be placed on a substrate mix of washed playsand and organic soil/compost/peat moss. Be careful with a deep substrate, they can burrow underneath rocks and other objects, causing fatal injuries. However, uros do enjoy this type of substrate as it allows them their natural behavior of digging. At MVR, we have attempted a natural terrarium for our Uromastyx with limited results for the plants – it is quite warm and dry inside their tank. Some substrates will hold a burrow and provide a more natural enclosure. Many substrates pose an impaction risk if they are ingested, so setup might need to be adjusted to include elevated feeding spots to minimize this risk. You can go very simple or very complex, depending on the age and health of your lizard. Uromastyx SubstrateĪ big component to Uromastyx care is choosing the right substrate for you and your pet. Uros are burrowers by nature, but you can use artificial burrows or hide boxes to satisfy their need for a burrow. Most of their predators are swooping birds of prey, and you may notice that shadows and overhead movement can send them into a panic, especially when just settling in. Specially made 4′ long reptile cages with sliding front doors are great, as picking up a uro from above may startle them. The length of the terrarium is more important than height, as Uromastyx are a terrestrial reptile. Females and males can be very aggressive to same-sex cage mates. Unless paired young, individuals may not tolerate sharing space with others, even of a different sex. A 75+ gallon tank is necessary when keeping a breeding or same-sex pair together. For a single adult, a 40-gallon “breeder” tank will work as absolute minimum, but a larger enclosure is preferred. A hatchling (under 6 inches in total length) can be housed in a 20 gallon “long” tank, but anything smaller is problematic because it doesn’t allow a proper temperature gradient. ![]() ![]() Uros are an active, diurnal lizard and require large enclosures. ![]() ![]() Their ultimate adult size will dictate the enclosure size, so be sure you chose the right Uro species for the space you have. Uromastyx species vary in size from 10 inches to nearly 3 feet. The name Uromastyx comes from Ancient Greek words: ourá meaning “tail” and mastigo meaning “whip” or “scourge”. Reptiles in the Uromastyx genus are also known as spiny-tailed lizards for one obvious reason: they boast a thick, spicky tail that makes up about one third of their body. We prefer to listen to experts like Doug Dix at Deer Fern Farms he has detailed care information on his site but we wanted to provide a basic guide as well. There are several really awful Uromastyx Care sheets out there, and a lot of advice on the internet is sketchy.
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