Uromastyx ocellata and their setup!

[HadesDragons]

Just though I'd put on a couple of photos of these two, which arrived last night (thanks to "X Danielle X" and Sam the Van Man).

I've set thing up with a similar principle to how I set up my geyri pair - they've got plenty of places to hide, high UV levels (MVB and UV tube), and sand/slate for substrate. Again the idea is to give them maximum security, in the hopes of getting them breeding in a year or two's time (the geyri thread can be seen here: Uromastyx geyri (yellow) and their setup!)

Male ("Malek"):


Female ("Meroe"):


Both of them:


Their caves - smaller uro species tend to live in rocky crevices rather than burrows, so I've given them the choice of two caves rather than a long tunnel. The one on the left is small and tight, whilst the one on the right is a bit bigger and more open inside - they've got the choice of whichever they feel safest with:

[xvickyx]

Awww they are gorgeous

[WildChildReptiles]

Absoloutely gorgeous!
Uromastyx are hopefully going to be my next venture. How big 's your setup for those two liccle monsters then? Thank you.

[HadesDragons]

Originally Posted by WildChildReptiles

Absoloutely gorgeous!
Uromastyx are hopefully going to be my next venture. How big 's your setup for those two liccle monsters then? Thank you.

Thanks! They're in a 4' x 2', although they probably don't need quite that much space, especially as they're not yet fully grown - for one of the smaller species a 3' x 2' or a 4' x 18" should be fine. Obviously the bigger the better though, as they need a pretty steep temperature gradient!

[matthew_harwood]

Hi can I just ask why you would go for a sand slate mix, sorry but that is the most dangerous form of substrate I could think of.
Uros love to dig the slate stops this for one, while they are moving the slate about so they can dig, it has chances of chipping, slate chips are not good for any lizard if accidentally swallowed.
your also doing it as a commercail venture hopeing to breed them why would you make so much more hard work for yourself trying to keep that clean will be a nightmare, personnally I use wildbird seed for all of my uros (no sunflower seeds) so much easier and safer.

regards

matt

[HadesDragons]

Originally Posted by matthew_harwood

Hi can I just ask why you would go for a sand slate mix, sorry but that is the most dangerous form of substrate I could think of.
Uros love to dig the slate stops this for one, while they are moving the slate about so they can dig, it has chances of chipping, slate chips are not good for any lizard if accidentally swallowed.
your also doing it as a commercail venture hopeing to breed them why would you make so much more hard work for yourself trying to keep that clean will be a nightmare, personnally I use wildbird seed for all of my uros (no sunflower seeds) so much easier and safer.

regards

matt

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your concern...

Firstly - commercial venture? If I was after making a profit, I wouldn't have chosen reptiles to do it in, and especially not lizards! You should see my livefood and electricity bills It would be a dream job if I could live off it, but I suspect too many corners would need to be cut to make that possible - unless I could figure out a way to do that without compromising on care and attention, it's never going to be "commercial"

The reason I went for slate chippings is aesthetic - I wanted a nice viv setup for this pair, as well as another sand/slate viv for a pair of U. geyri. The rest of my uros are housed on sand alone - it is easier to clean using a sieve, but a sand/slate mixture is very doable, especially when it's just a pair of uros occupying the viv. You just have to check regularly to keep on top of the poos / scattered veg. I used a large size of chipping which is substantially larger than their heads, and am yet to see any evidence of fragmentation or swallowable chips. It is something I'm aware of and keep an eye out for though.

With having the multiple caves in the viv, I've not actually noticed many attempts to dig fresh holes - they'll scratch around rocks and will clear sand/slate out from around the entrances to caves (as well as piling it up to block the entrances at night), but there's little in the way of fresh digging. Not that they seem to have any difficulty moving chippings around when they do try a bit of scratching around...

If anything it allows them to build better piles / tunnel blocks, as the slate gives the sand a bit of structural support - if you look at this photo and the way the sand/slate is built up over the cave, you'll hopefully see what I mean - you just wouldn't get that with sand (or bird seed) alone:



If it was just slate in there, or a fine grade of chipping (like "regular" reptile-branded woodchips), I could envisage a number of problems. However a mixture that allows them to scratch around and dig, gives support to any piles they do make, and which is too large to swallow and shows no signs of fragmentation seems to be working fine for both pairs - it's been almost 4 months now and all four appear to be thriving, with large weight gains all round and an improvement in overall body form.

I did consider bird seed as an alternative, but rejected it as it can't be sieved (making it no easier to clean than sand/slate in my opinion - you still have to go through with a fine tooth comb and pick out poos/scattered food), and doesn't appear fully 100% digestible unless chewed first - I've noticed you'll occasionally get whole seeds turning up in their poo (and yes, I am sad enough to do regular poo-checks on any reptile being kept on a substrate that is new to it, just to make sure nothing's going through that shouldn't be ) if they don't bite into them before swallowing.

To my mind that's no different to keeping them on grit or fine gravel - if some is swallowed, it has to pass out the other end whole. Being organic, I could also envisage more potential problems with bacteria etc if the seed gets wet, which it's likely to do immediately after the uro poos. Sand/slate is pretty inert, whereas seeds offer the possibility of bacterial growth.

Those are my reasons for the substrate choice for those two vivs

[Cookaaaaay]

They are gorgeous!

[matthew_harwood]

I agree with some of what you say but I prefer to be safe than sorry regarding the slate, it only needs to be one stray piece of slate fragment and by the time you notice it could be too late to save the uro.

a few points regarding the seed I've been using it for about 3 to 4 years I think, so health wise with bacteria etc I should would have seen health issues which I haven’t. seed isn’t as bad as sand bacteria wise, I know people keep sand for years or just keep washing it however if you have over a few inches of sand it can maintain moisture quite easily and promote a better environment for bacteria whereby seed does not stay wet as it uses the moisture to try and germinate and actually lowers the humidity of the viv.
I have 2 sieves that I use one is bigger than the seed and one is smaller this removes everything but the seed including the dust making it very very easy to clean my vivs the seed is changed once a year.
Regards
Matt

[gesh gecko]

Looking great Hades can't for for your Uro section of your WS to come out