Hey guys, So right now, I have a Crestie, and I love him, he's so cool! But I am thinking about getting another reptile, and I think I'm going to go with the Uromastyx. So I just have a few questions. What size of tank do they need? I heard it needs to quite large. If someone could tell me How tall, deep, and wide in FEET, that would be perfect. My parents have some left over tile from when we did our kitchen, can I use that as the substrate? I'm aware that I need a little place with some sand, but I hope the tile should be fine. Do I only need 2 different bulbs for it? From what I understand, just one bulb for the basking area (which should be 95F - 110F, I believe?) and then another bulb on the other side or middle just for the general heating? Or do I need one of those strip bulbs as well? Can they live just based on greens? From what I've read, they can live just on a salad that you make them every day. Is that true? Do I need to bathe it, like a Beardie? If they do, how often do they shed? Thanks all, any help would be greatly appreciated. Kent
Generally their cage needs to be around 4 feet long by 2 feet deep by at least 1 foot tall (they are not big climbers, but taller is sometimes better). You are going to want two bulbs to keep the temperature in the cage, but you also need a fluorescent bulb. It is REALLY important for them and MUST be supplied. The tile could make a fine substrate for uromastyx, just make sure it's not too slippery, as I have seen animals have a hard time getting around on glazed tiles. They can live based on just greens, I feed one of mine crickets every 2 weeks, but my other two don't like crickets so they don't eat them. They are fine and healthy without them. Uromastyx, naturally, are herbivores. Also, you do not need to bathe them. In fact, it is a bad idea. They are from VERY dry desert climates and even the slightest bit of moisture can cause them problems. Something you may not know, but they cannot even be supplied a water bowl because that is too moist for them. They get all of their moisture from the greens they eat. From my experience they shed much less often than most other lizards, and it tends to come off in pieces rather than in one large piece. Hope I helped!
Thanks a lot. so with the fluorescent bulb, do I need that on top of the other two bulbs? Is the fluorescent bulb one of those strip ones?
and just to add, the fluorescent bulb needs to provide the uro with the correct UV lighting. The recommended bulbs are the repti-sun 10.0 and 5.0 or the repti-glo 10.0. All of these bulbs do need to be replaced every 6 months whether or not they are still working b/c after this, they do not supply enough UV. Along with the UV lighting, the uro needs basking temps of 115-130 degrees. This means that you will need a high wattage basking bulb and a digital temp probe or temp gun to make sure your temps are in the right range. If you do not want to use two lighting sources (one for UV one for heat), then you can use a mercury vapour bulb that combines the heat and UV. These MVB are also great b/c they are good for one year before they need to be replaced For more info on MVB, check out reptileuv.com
