Hi all, im new to uro keeping, done quite a lot of research and she's getting all her requirements food wise, calcium, uvb greens ect...thing is she seems real attracted to weird stuff, I was hand feeding her some greens today and she was more interested in my rings trying to bite the stones off them, she also tried for ages to bite the lettering offa cig packet, and she cant get enough crickets...

Now the thing is, I dont want to put her on sand as substrate im so against sand always have been, and if I was to give her sand it would be when she's bigger, tonight I was busy cleaning ect, when I walked in my room she had ripped up all her paper towel and had a piece hanging out her mouth, I pulled it out and she had a big soggy clump of it in there I had to get out, now I dont know if its cause shes just being greedy or what.

she sure has an appetite, I had an apple fritter and went to give her a little taste to see if she would taste it, she nearly took my fingers with it...

anyone have any idea why she would eat her paper towel? its one of the safest of substates or sposed to be lol...

I had my dragon on paper towels until he started sampling them and then I moved him onto newpaper which he ate, so onto cotton towels he went, until he ate those, now hes on shelf liner that is secrured down so he can't get at it, but he still goes after weird things like wash cloths, rubberbands, dust bunnies, the dog, candy wrappers, cheetos...etc. You get the point, if its not food he'll eat it, jsut like a little kids. I've found that keeping an immaculate room and always monitoring his bowel movemenmts puts me at ease that way I knwo he hasnt eaten anytihng to plug himself up with.

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Apple fritter? Why? Not a good idea. Once he's around 6 - 8 months put him on a mix of soil/sand substrate. Not a good idea to give him all the crickets he wants. Should be on a 70/30 veggie to insect diet. But as he gets older they can be pretty much eliminated.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

Hey Donna,,,here is the complete caresheet for Uro's, hope this helps...Kriminaal did a fantastic job on the substrate section.

http://www.herphabitats.com/reptile_.../uromastyx.htm

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MARSHA
A man without a woman is a bachelor, A woman without a man is a genius!.

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I have 2 uro's, i have both on paper towels. My male when catching crickets sometimes will get a little bit of paper towel in his mouth, but i've always seen him pass the little peices to. So I like that idea. I also like the news paper idea. I also have a box and cut a hole in the top and the side and I put desert snow underneath and I let him dig in there sort of like a sand box with out the nasty sand. I don't reccommen sand at all for anything every and I will personally never use it. Good Luck

Brizzy, we get the point about you disliking sand. But,,,everyone has their own opinion and experiences. Just like I think they should not be fed inside the tank,,,but people still do it, dont they.

Donna, you can try shelf liner, I use it for the Leopard Geckos and my Bearded Dragons.

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MARSHA
A man without a woman is a bachelor, A woman without a man is a genius!.

We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart!

I am not feeding her apple fritter, it was a tiny taste, I didnt go chop one up and feed it her......its Not part of her everyday diet

shes getting all her greens, and she enjoys the crickets, although I have cut down the crix trying to get her to eat more greens, which she eats real well too.. I think she has hollow legs...she didnt eat the paper towel accidently while chasing crickets, I havent give her crix for about 3 days now, she was tearing the paper towel with her mouth with a real mischievious look on her face.

Ive also read about someone who kept uro's fed one soley greens and another insects and greens, the one on insects was 3 inches bigger than the one not taking insects, she takes them fine and I dont see it causing her any problems as long as shes getting all the right greens, calcium ect.

Thanks for the care sheet..

And thanks Marsha, I think I may go for shelf liner.

haha oh my that was the most addorable story ever...and same with the chasing the dog and cheetos lol. Sounds like you have a little Uro kitten. You might want to go with the shelf liner idea or slate, ceramic, make your own, not sure if reptile carpet works for those guys I didn't particularly like it for my leo and switched back to paper towel before going to ceramic.

Depending on your tank you have you may get pieces out of one roll. I never did though lol. But wheres my apple fritter? :0 im feeling left out on this lol. You could try some tile or vnily flooring.

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Nate....you want apple fritter, go buy some lol, im saving mine for the uro....lol j/k

I ate them all and yumm yumm....Donna licks fingers and smacks lips....Mmmmmmmm, I don't know who's more greedy......me or Bailey