hello everyone, i'm new to the site and wanted to know if its okay (normal) that my uro will shake his head when he eats or drinks. i know i shouldn't have water in his cage. i try to feed him greens but they always go bad so fast i can't always keep them on hand. i have bird seed in his cage as what he eats the most (with calcium dust on it). so i keep just a little water in his big cage so he can drink if he needs it. i also make sure he isn't walking in it. when he eats or drinks he will shake his head like he is choking but hes not. it will only last for a few seconds and then he will go back to running all over the cage and trying to climb the glass. so he is very active. i have a hot side and a cold side with a hide on each side. i have only had him for 3 years. i'm not sure how old he is i got him at triple L (LLL Reptile & supply co.) in Escondido CA. so i'm not sure how old he was when i got him. i don't know if this is a quirk they do or if its just mine. some one please let me know what you think.

I have no useful advice. I have a large boa, 2 cats, a dog and my son came home with a tree frog today. I can tell you that they are all nuts. Roxy, the boa, must have been a fussy cat in her past life-or a supermodel, she has the most annoying eating habits. Hang in there and let's wait for the experts to weigh in.

i'm not a expert, but i don't think that they should only eat bird seed......
maybe you could look at the care sheet for uros. as far as the head shaking, mine hasn't done that yet so i'm not sure.
some more people should chime in soon.

do you know of anything else they can eat. we also have a beaded dragon and they have food you just add water to. i know greens are what they should eat the most but there has to be some type of food that will last a little longer but be better then bird seed. i tryed using the stuff for our dragon and chop it up real small but he didn't eat it. he can be such a snob when it comes to eating.

well, if you don't use any pesticides in your lawn, and your a normal American, you should have some dandelions that you can feed to them. they eat the yellow flowers from dandelions and the dandelion greens. mine really loves em'

i heard that, but i live in an apt. there really are no stores here but the norm (petco, petsmart etc.) they don't really have anything or know anything there. that and no one in tucson az have grass. lol. but thanks for the idea.

ooooh, that makes it a little harder.....
i've heard some people use thawed frozen mixed veggies for part of their deit, maybe you could try that since it would last longer.

tell us a little about the rest of his setup. What size is it? What are you temps?

This is from our care sheet about diet:
Uromastyx are Omnivorous. The majority of their diet consists of vegetables with the occasional insects as a treat. Vegetables include carrots, beans, peas, corn, mustard greens, bok choy, collard greens, parsnips, squash and dandelion flowers. You can also offer birdseed and finch pellets in to the vegetable mix. Make sure anything picked from a garden or yard is 100% pesticide and herbicide free.
Veggies not to feed would be, spinach, beet greens, Swiss chard, cabbage and limit broccoli and kale, these tend to bind important nutrients or tend to induce metabolic problems overtime. Romaine lettuce and regular lettuce provide no nutritional value. Insects include: crickets, mealworms, superworms and waxworms. Insects should be used sparingly because of their kidneys inability to process large amounts of protein. All foods should be dusted with Vitamin D3 and calcium.

Uromastyx Caresheet - Reptile Information - Caresheets Database

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

his cage is about 2' high 2' deep and 4' long. we got it for our bearded dragon first and was told it was a breaders cage. i have it set up with hot and cold side with a hide on both ends. the hot is at 120 and the cool is at 110. i have calci sand in there with a wood branch. i have a total of 3 zoo med bulbs. one of them is a 60 watt daylight blue uvb fluorescent bulb. i'm not sure of his age. i got him from a reptile store about 2 1/2 yrs ago. hes about 10" long. we had him in a different cage but when i put him in this one is when he started it. so maybe about 3 or 4 months. i use to have him in a shredded wood chip bed before but it kept getting in his food to much, so he is new to the sand.

i would get rid of the calci sand and just use regular play sand. Calici sand is calcium carbonate and gets very dusty. That stuff is horrible. Here is a good thread to read up on it.

Calcium Carbonate Substrates

__________________
My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.