Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[Thimble]

We currently have one 5yr old Iguana and 2 Anoles. My bf has started showing sudden interest in getting a Uro. So I sent him off to research. (Well I told him to research only for him to ask "Will you get me some info?", which really means will I reasearch and tell him if he can have one). Fine.

I also said, before you get anything, we will build a tank for it (my thinking being, I have bought tanks before and never really been happy much prefer to do it myself).

Now I am after people opinions, are Uro's a good pet to have. We are willing to put in the work, but before we head in the deep end I would like to learn about them. Not just their requirements (I can get that from care sheets) but what they are like, characters etc.
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Proud owner of one monster of an Iguana, and two of the cutest little Anoles you have ever seen.

[2uros]

As you can probably tell, I own 2 Uromastyx of the Occellatus variety. These are quite rare compared to many other pet reptiles and are a bit more tricky to keep. The best place I have found for information is:

http://www.deerfernfarms.com/Uromastyx_Care.htm

I found this site after my female decided to lay 7 eggs.

The 3 key points with these things is:

1) Temperature. They like it HOT, HOT, HOT. Like 120F+ in the basking spot

2) Water. These guys absorb all the water they need from their food. They live in arid conditions. i.e. less than 2cm rainfall per year! We never put water into the viv. as this can cause it to become humid and the animals will start to 'rot'. We do bathe them in warm water every 10-14 days and they absorb some moisture that way.

3) Food. They are mainly vegetarian so we feed them things like peas (thaw them out first though), peppers, carrot, watercress, dandelions. They cannot eat onions or iceberg lettuce (other types of lettuce are OK but ours just turn their nose up at it). We give then 10-12 medium locusts not more than once a week and supplement them with calcium dust and Uromastyx dust.

As for breeding, they are quite fickle and if things arent just right they wont bother. Incubating the eggs is proving to be challenging at the moment due to relativaly low temperature and high humidity requirements. Again deerfernfarms cover that in great detail.

Hope this helps on way or the other...

Paul

[Scott W]

good luck with the uros Paul, would love to find some space here for some but couldn't squeeze anything else in at the moment.