There are a few things you can do to improve your uros habitat. First check the temperatures with a digital thermometer (much more accurate than a regular thermometer.) If your using a regular thermometer your temperatures may be too hot or cool. They should read 100 on the hot side and about 85 on the cool side. Directly underneath the basking light the temperature should be between 125 - 130. The basking temperature is best measured with a temp. gun (you can get one for $25.00 or so.) Some Uro owners concern themselves so much with the high temperatures that they forget it is just as important for the Uro to have an area to cool down. Juvenile Uros are more susceptible to dehydrating in these high temperatures, so you have to be careful.

Second, stop feeding insects. Uros do not need them in their diet and in fact it only causes problems. Keep feeding leafy greens. Carrots and squash are only treats to be added to the main salad on a rotating basis. The basic salad should be made from Chickory, Dandelion greens and Endive. To this add other items but keep these three as the backbone of the salad mix.Turnip, Mustard and collard greens can be added once or twice a month. Do not feed seeds or any dry food to your Uro until it is larger as these types of foods can dehydrate young Uros.

Third, Stop using the red night light. Uromastyyx (and other Reptiles) can see these lights, Which causes them to become confused about the time of day. If your keeping the light on for heat at night, you don't need it. In order for Uros to remain healthy they need a temperature drop at night to about the low 70's.

Finally, even for a small Uromastyx such as yours, the size of the tank is too small. A temperature gradient of 100 on the hot end and 85 on the cool is very difficult to achieve in a tank that size. You may either be keeping your Uro too cool or slowly cooking him.

Please do not take this as an attack on the way you keep your Uro, as I and most experienced Uro keepers made many of the same mistakes when we started.

The tail whipping is normal. Depending on the individual, Egyptian Uros can be sweet, trusting lizards or nasty tail whipping terrors (especially at their adult size.)

Your Egyptian is still too young to accurately sex.

Good luck!

OK well I see you say you only had it a week and a half. i would say you are stressing him/her out handling it at the moment. you need to leave it be for at least a month so it can get adjusted to its new surroundings.

Also I would say it would rather be out then in that small tank you got it in. A Mali should have a floor space of 4ft by 2ft. Height isnt much of a issue as there not really climbers. However I would go with 22 inch high then you can put a 160wt megaray on him and you will see a big improvement in its eating habits. Now for a egyption uro you will need a 6ftx2ft floor space. I understand that he isnt that big yet. however I dont see how it is possible to get a proper temp gradient in that size tank. You need 100F air temp on the hot side and 82-85F on the cool side with a basking (surface temp of 130F) you must use a ir temp gun to measure this. I believe his basking area temp is too low and he isnt digesting as he should hence not eating alot.

Also its not a good idea to have any blue/red lights on at night. they can see the light on and will not fall into a deep sleep. if you having a problem with heat at night go with a ceramic heat emitter. Also do you have any uvb on him? is there a screen between the lights and your lizard? This is all I can come up without seeing your setup or any other info.