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Soulstrfier Soulstrfier Vers Soulstrfier Vers Soulstrfier Vers Soulstrfier Vers Soulstrfier Vers |
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Soulstrfier View Profile |
A Little Concerned.
which are local to the area here, even then I have never kept them long. I currently have a leopard gecko (Master Chief - high yellow giant) and I am very aware of his need for a humid climate. He is basically the direct opposite of my uro. We have had Bowser for about... three months now. Bowser is a Mali Uromastyx and he is only about...four inches long. I don’t have a grams scale so I am unsure of his weight. His tank is 12X12X24. His hide is on the far side in the coolest area of the tank and he has a log on the other side that allows a variety of heights under his lamp. His feeding dish and seed dish are between the hide and the basking area. He is on his own in the tank so I don’t worry about fighting or anything of that nature. On the basking side of his tank the temperature is kept at a constant 90* the cool side is left at room temp which is about... 70*. I have a UVB bulb as well as a red bulb both zoo-med bulbs both new. The reason for the red bulb is that in New Mexico he wasn’t getting enough heat and it made him lethargic. The log I have in there for him allows him to get within about eight inches of the bulb but I have never seen him up that high on it. Usually he sits in the middle at about 13 inches from the lamps. He is a spoiled little guy so he gets a verity of foods. From fresh dandelion greens and mustard greens to romaine lettuce, bock choy, berries of his liking, and collard greens... he does NOT like carrots we have come to that conclusion. Food is replenished daily. Right now while the coconut husk dries out completely we have him on paper towels. I have had terrible experiences with lizards on anything else. We had a leo die on us after we bought her because they had her ( juvenile) on sand and she got impacted. We didn’t catch it in time or we might have been able to save her. Master Chief, my giant leo, suffered corneal lacerations after getting sand in his eyes. He got very very sick and even with us carefully flushing his eyes with saline he wasn’t getting better we ended up having to go to the vet. Feeding a half blind leo for a little over three weeks was not easy and putting drops in his eyes was no easier. Lucky for us he got better, thank gods as I am terribly attached to him. So I am weary of sands. As far as his daily routine goes... I am not entirely sure. Both me and my fiancee work and so it is hard to figure out his routine. Usually in the mornings when I get up he is out basking and that can be anywhere from 5 am - 9 am. I feed him then and when I come home there is seed all over as he is a terribly messy eater and he has dragged the greens about the tank most of which are gone. I rarely see him in his hide, and I am a night owl because I am doubling work and college so all my homework and study has to be done after work. Again it is hard to tell how much he eats. The first few days he would eat out of my hand or sitting on my lap. The only way I can assume he is eating is if the seed is all over and if the greens are spread around his tank. On rare occasion I can catch him digging and munching the lentils in his seed dish. I can’t leave him at home and since summer has come around I came to Texas to visit my parents. My fiancee kept the leo with him because there is no place to buy crickets here. So he had to travel but he doesn’t seem to be bothered at all. I do know however that the humidity down here is a lot more than what we have back home. I am however monitoring the humidity closely as I have been told too much moisture is bad for them. He gets handles for a small amount of time every day. We typically sit and play video games together. I will play halo and he hands out in my lap, my bra or on my shoulder. He is still a baby so we don’t have too much problem other than the fact that he is terribly clumsy and likes to sprint off. I am careful to keep him from falling from any extreme height. Bowser has recently started shedding. I have been told upon asking, that they are rather slow shedders compared to my leos. I was told not to get too worried about them and just keep an eye on them. He has a few scales under his eyes that are coming up and look alright. I noticed that the end of his tail looks to have been damaged at some point in time. underneath his has a pink scar that is skin and not scale and the very end of his tail is hard and stiff and bend slightly to the side. It doesn’t seem to bother him at all and the scar looks healthy. Now my main concern is I checked on him today and upon looking him over I found one of his outside toes was black on the end and up the knuckle was red and looked choked. I moistened it a little and used a q-tip and gently coaxed the edge of the shed up, however I can not coax it to come off as it seems to be adhered to the blackened scales on the end of the toe... almost like a scab. I am afraid of hurting him so I just let the skin get moist before putting him back. I am afraid it is too late and the end of the appendage is already dead. I am at a loss. I had a gecko eat her toes when I was younger because she couldn’t get the shedding skin off, and have since then learned to watch my geckos very closely. Any pointers? I will take him to the vet if I have to, to get the toe removed. In the future, how should I handle their shedding and should I dampen the hide like I do for my gecko? I was told they do not need water dishes in the tank and didn’t need their tanks misted like my leo does. I am terribly afraid of him getting some sort of pneumonia from too much moisture or any other sort of respiratory infection. Any help would be welcomed. I will try to post a picture of the toe later on today. |
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| 06/11/12 12:44pm |
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Soulstrfier View Profile |
Message To: Soulstrfier In reference to Message Id: 2269602 A Little Concerned.
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| 06/11/12 12:46pm |
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Vers View Profile |
Message To: Soulstrfier In reference to Message Id: 2269602 A Little Concerned.
I noticed you said the enclosure was 12x12x24--this is far too small for any species of uro, even when small. The absolute minimum is 24x48 (WxD) with a sufficient height which may depend on the type of lighting used. Not only will this provide the animal with room to roam but it will also help support a proper temperature/thermal gradient, which is necessary for the animal to thermoregulate. You should be providing a basking area with a surface temp ~120f and a cool side, opposite the basking area, with ambient temps in the upper 80s. Both sides of the enclosure should include a proper, low clearance hide that is closed off enough to create relatively high humidity levels (~40%). Ambient rh levels should be no higher than 40% on the cool end and lower on the warm end. As for the toe, you can try applying some topical ointment (non-anesthetic) or mineral oil to break up the shed, but do not try to remove it yourself. Uros are known to develop stuck shed around their digits, extremities and tail when not provided enough humidity within their hides. If the issue appears to get worse I would recommend a trip to the vet. What type of UVB bulb (be exact) are you currently using and how far away from the basking surface is it? I know you said 13" but I’m concerned more about the UVB bulb specifically. If you’re using a MVB bulb you should increase the distance between the bulb and the basking area (usually ~17-24" depending on the bulb) and if it’s a t8 or t5 10.0 or 12.0 fluorescent it should be closer (8-12"). If it happens to be a compact fluorescent UVB bulb I would recommend discontinuing it’s use as these bulbs have been known to cause serious injury. These lizards are also sensitive to cold, so keeping them away from heat for extended periods will most likely stress them out. Diet wise you should avoid large amounts of romaine and mustard greens. Instead look for escarole, curly endive and smaller amounts of dandelion greens as staple food items. You can choose to mix in various other food items such as radicchio, collards, arugula, bok choy, winter squash (i.e. spaghetti squash), bell pepper, shredded carrot, soaked lentils, rose petals, dandelion, hibiscus, violet and alfalfa flowers etc etc every couple of days and zucchini, green peas and shredded green beans once or twice a month. Of course you want to make sure the above food items were not exposed to pesticides or herbicides. I offer my uros a shallow dish of dry ground lentils, split green peas, navy beans and white millet as a snack and source of fiber (a coffee grinder works well for this). If you use birdseed ensure all corn, sunflower and other fatty seeds are removed. I buy 10-15lb bags of ’wild birdseed’ which contains millet, sunflower and safflower seeds and simply run it through a strainer, which allows the smaller safflower and millet to pass and retains the larger sunflower seeds. Would it be possible for you to take a few pictures of the current setup along with some snaps of the foot and the uro itself? Try to do so without stressing the animal. I hope that helps. For more info please check out UroWiki (google it) and read through every chapter--you will find it extremely helpful. |
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| 06/11/12 02:36pm |
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Soulstrfier View Profile |
Message To: Vers In reference to Message Id: 2269621 A Little Concerned.
I have a mating pair of pythons that I can use the husk for so that isn’t a big deal. I was just extremely uneasy about the sand due to past problems. I will look into it though as soon as I get the chance. I also plan to get a nice slab of sandstone for him to bask on as wood does not retain the heat the same way the stone will. I will put some mineral oil on it. We have this a lot with our leo so I am used to spending a bit of extra time caring for digits. As with any reptile I leave the shedding to them if I can, no forceful anything. One of my western diamond backs constantly has shedding problems and i end up spending large amounts of time watching to make sure all goes well. I know that’s completely different from a uro but yeah. I know the bulb I am using is NOT a compact fluorescent and nor is it an MVB. I didn’t have the money to pay for the MVB at the time. It is hot down here and the house never gets lower than 70. I also have the vents in the reptile room closed off, so the cool air can’t get in. I will do my best to get everything set up as I am currently rather ashamed of the set up. We have spent so much time setting up my leos tank and have fallen into a little hard time ( i got fired from my main job and so have a lot less cash coming in) so it’s hard. Between the reptiles we also have five horses, two of which are draft and eat twice what the others eat. Anyway. I will certainly change his diet up. I will also get some pictures of him up. He is fat and seems relatively happy and hasn’t changed in personality or anything like that. I was just overly concerned about the toe. Here is an image of him from a few weeks ago.
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| 06/11/12 03:34pm |
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Vers View Profile |
Message To: Soulstrfier In reference to Message Id: 2269635 A Little Concerned.
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| 06/11/12 03:48pm |
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Soulstrfier View Profile |
Message To: Vers In reference to Message Id: 2269638 A Little Concerned.
I will have to upload images of my collection of snakes and my lovely leo.
Here you can see the toe that I am concerned about. To save space and not spam I will just link you to the temporary set up we have going right now. http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj231/Wraithhunter/DSC_0559.jpg Like I said I am certainly not proud of this at all. I know he needs better. And against my other tanks this is a sad excuse for a terrarium. |
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| 06/11/12 04:06pm |
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Vers View Profile |
Message To: Soulstrfier In reference to Message Id: 2269640 A Little Concerned.
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| 06/11/12 05:43pm |
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Soulstrfier View Profile |
Message To: Vers In reference to Message Id: 2269660 A Little Concerned.
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| 06/11/12 07:14pm |
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Vers View Profile |
Message To: Soulstrfier In reference to Message Id: 2269681 A Little Concerned.
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| 06/12/12 11:20pm |
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Soulstrfier View Profile |
Message To: Vers In reference to Message Id: 2269829 A Little Concerned.
Now he is having some huge problems shedding. Add onto it that our Leo’s eyes are bad AGAIN. I’m about to pull out my hair. |
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| 07/31/12 05:20am |
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Vers View Profile |
Message To: Soulstrfier In reference to Message Id: 2275021 A Little Concerned.
As for the leo, what type of substrate and lighting are you using (be exact)? |
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| 07/31/12 10:22am |
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