hi there, hope we are all well. Just had a thought so here I am I have a mali, one thing I have learned, is the majority of uromastyx have the same 'feeding phase' A uromastyx natural time to mow down on his food is during the day, when the sun is out, being the heat gods they are. During the eve is when they normally burrow to get away from natural predators, as most of them can not bare hunting in those temps, let alone their talons landing on rocks reaching 140 degrees. So, in my opinion, from experice with my mali, and I work from home, so I get to study him all day; is, put food in as early as you can in the morning, when you go to bed at night, take the food out. The mali; by natural instinct, will not intake what its body does not want to, so leaving the food in does no damage to anything, So, I guess in short, what my opinion is, is, if you are worried about wilted veggies, then put the food in as early as you can in the morn, and take them out at night. This will work with his natural instinct. I put food at both ends of Koda’s home. A helping in the hot end, and a helping in the cool end. I hope this helps in some manner for you. Good luck Tanya
Ummm so are you asking about crickets too? If so, I don't feed mine crickets. Occassionally, like once every couple of months, he might get a small one I find in the bunch for my Beardie but I have read too much conflicting info on feeding protein and the risks seem to outweigh the benefits. Welcome to the forum.
NEVER. Uro's do not have the proper organs or the capability to properly digest animal protein. There are many studies going on to explain the reason why most uro love to eat insect although they cannot really digest it. Bottom line is when you give your uro insects (it is proven through research and statistics) you are also shortening their lives and putting their health in jeopardy.
to be honest, i do give moe some crix. His old owner gave him them weekly, which I disagree with, but I give him about one every 3 weeks. He loves chasing them aorund the room!
I have only given Koda crickets once, mind you, it was the first time. He seems ok, this was about a week ago. It hopped around the cage happily for some time while Koda basked on his rock, but once he caught glance of it, it became a game of hide and seek for the two of them. When koda was still, the crik would come out and hop around, but the minute koda even made a slight movement the cricket went beeming off to the little bushes, Koda would ever so slowly creep up to where the crik was, sit still and wait for it to come out, and it woudl start all over again. He finally caught it though, after the 4th time i believe
is it a problem if i don't give my uro crickets very often? The reason is becasue he never is really interested
it is perfectly fine and probably best that your uro never gets crickets, a uro can live a perfectly healthy life without any bugs.
I agree with Pat on this one its actually not recomended for uromastyxs to eat crickets. They say use it as a treat but I am sure there are other treats.
I must say I don't really get the no inverts thing. Surely they would eat insects in the wild so they must be a part of the natural diet.
From what I have read, various analysis of uro feces found in nature have shown that they eat very little if any live prey. In addition, their digestive systems are built to process veges, not insects. However, in the wild it is to be expected that they would eat the odd bug. Like I said before, I give Moe the odd cricket when I am feeding them to the others. He will go nuts chasing it around the room trying to catch it. I personally would never feed bugs on a regular basis though, just the odd one as a treat.
My hubby bought meal worms for our baby mali's ... I threw them away ... he was giving them to them 1x every 3 days ... I asked him to stop, he said "NO", so I tossed them. LOL My babies will not eat bugs, thats why I got a VEGETARIAN lizard !!
I was sent home from Petco with Mealworms. I like you Anne, tossed them in the circular file. Although the thought of watching Moe chasing a cricket sounds amusing Jayhay, I am happy to keep Nines strictly on veggies!!!
I totally agree with this outlook. I really do not see the point of starting a uro on feeders when they have never had them before. As I said, their bodies are not really built for it. Moe really only eats the crickets that drop on the floor (and that I don't catch first), and so as I said before, it is really only one or two every few weeks (he is not always out when I am feeding). He can certainly catch them, and being wc, I would not be surprized if he ate the odd one in the wild. The problem is that people take things too far - they read that you can give insects as treats and before you know it, you have people posting on forums like this saying that bought/adopted a uro that only eats crickets. These animals are built to eat vegges, I can only imagine what a high insect diet does to them. I will never understand why people will buy one of the very few vegetarian reptiles available and then try to make them meat eaters, lol.
Just to point out I have no intention of feeding them insects (unless one strays into their viv). It is hard enough to keep up with my ackies intake without needing more.
Ok i see that there is a lot of mis information and hear say going around this thread. First a very small percentage of a uros diet in the wild consist of insects, about 1 percent. This 1 percent comes mostly from ants which are obviously on bulbs of the trees uros eat out of. The reason herpetologist know its ants is because many uros in the wild carry a parasite that they can only get from eating ants. If any of the noobs want to doubt me thats fine, ill break out the scientific journals and give you page numbers. Now uros are strictly herbivores not omnivores like say a beardie. A uros body is not set up to properly digest animal protein which is very different than plant protein. So will feeding a uro a single cricket hurt it??? NO!!! However feeding a uro a insect only diet will eventually lead to organ failure and death. So feeding crickets once in a blue moon as a treat, not such a bad thing. But keep in mind were talking about 6 crickets a month. There is some speculation although not proven that juvi uros in the wild eat about a 50/50 mix of insects and plant.
I think we brought this up about 2 months ago. I had chimed in about a study, or just an authors thoughts, that stated Juvie Uro's were more opportunistic feeders than adults were in the wild, and that they were much more likely to chow down on the wild bug that just happened by. Dragonguy, you added basically what you said above. The main reason I keep Nines a herbivore, is because I don't like insects. I simply don't want the hassle of feeding them. I like Greens, and lentils, and fruit, because they're easy. Dragonguy, your point is well taken. I see nothing wrong with feeding a bug as a treat. I simply don't do it for the above stated reason. But, I would enjoy watching Jayhay's Moe chase a cricket around his pen, if that is indeed what Moe does.
It is quit amusing watching those porky reptiles chase down a cricket. I give spike a couple every week or two.
LOL, Moe basically has free roam of the reptile room these days when I take him out (now that the cats have been banned). He scampers (hmmm, that is not quite the right word for such a "robust" gentleman..) around and basically watches me feed the rest of the gang. But watch out when a cricket falls, he goes nuts for it! He is pretty good at catching them, but when they get away, he is very unimpressed. I love how they turn their head to the side before eating the cricket, lol. I should try to get a video of it, it is really funny to watch!
You know JayHay. I bet you'd get a lot of hits if you posted the video of Moe chasing a cricket on YouTube. I bet it is truly ammusing. We could have a Forum wide vote. Funnist Uro Video! You add Dragonguy could go head to head.
Have any of yo ever taken you uro outside??? I live in new mexico so I will take mine outside or like 20 minutes at a time in the summer. Those porky little lizards can haul A$$, not kidding, I recommend getting a harness if you ever try it. It's really is something to see though.
