To start off... The Uro came home about 5 days ago was lethargic for the first day and pepped up the second... Since then he has been avoiding his hides except to sleep, and as of the last 2 nights he has slept the whole night on one of his Magnatural rocks the is on the hot side of the tank. This morning he woke up I fed him then removed him and cleaned out his tank of poop and dried food... as I was reaching in I noticed he was panting heavily so I left him alone for a few minutes and observed and he did it three times (from the looks of it he is purging the salt crystals from his nose) but I haven't been able to find much explaination for it, he is ONLY doing this under the heat lamp which reads 138 when I read the heat hitting his back and his body doesnt get any more than 107.6 so far. If anyone has any answers to this it would be very helpful. Also after I cleaned out his tank and set him back in there he showed a strange behavioral pattern which I found almost agressive... the first time he did it I had just placed him back in his tank and my dog (Sherman the Wolf) came up to the glass and met the Uro face to face, the Uro after observing him for a brief moment stands up tall, and beings running in circles about 6 times stops looks around shifting his head side to side (showing 1 eye at a time left to right) up and down kinda. He chilled out and went to his bask spot for about 15 minutes, then out of nowhere stood up tall again, charged his food bowl at a couple peas and a leaf of Bok Choy the climbed up one of his branches that I have next to a ledge he sits on and circled there another 6-7 times. I have read nothing about this activity any info would be GREAT! Merry Christmas to all.
Hi, Firstly... Merry Christmas to you and yours. Having looked at the pictures of your uro, which are very nice, I assume it's an Egyptian. These are well known to be very shy and skittish, far more than ornates or mali's. They do take a lot of time to settle in and I suspect it's behaviour is due to stress. I know this may be hard but can you restrict Sherman's access to tank ? Can you make a cover for the front of tank to create total privacy for a while, and only access tank to remove poop and feeding, then remove cover very slowly as well. I've had my egyptian 8 months now and he still goes crazy when I feed or try to clean him out. I think it's a matter of patience and slow movements when near tank, till he settles in more. Mine has temps up to 135F but he never basks directly under the lamp, a Lucky Reptile halogen, his usual basking spot is around 118F, he will decide what spot he refers. I would also allow him to wake up at his own time, rather than you waking him, even if the lights go on at the same time every day, they do react to the natural light as well. My lights go on at 7.30am every day but some days, like today, he didn't get up till noon. This is something which is hard for humans to grasp, we are a complicated species.....lol.....when it comes to reptiles, you have to up your "reptile head" on and think like a reptile, which is a basic survival instinct, what I'm trying to say is, we have to let them do what they want to do rather than what we would like them to do. Please forgive me, I'm not saying what you are doing is wrong, continue feeding at usual and clean as usual, but dont wake him up, work round him. He will get used to this and settle much more readily. Hope this helps a little.
I was able to talk to the breeder of my Uro and he said he was from a clutch of Malis he hatched 3 years ago. Ive noticed though he is a bit inquisitive any noise or movement he senses he moves towards it til he hits the glass and then looks around like a maniac. He adapted quickly to his enviroment, but seems to spend most of his time either sleeping on his ledge or under the CHE, and his activity mainly belongs to prowling the glass for noise and eating or climbing back to his basking spot
Ive spoken with Doug over at Deer Fern and he says "He must be seeing his reflection. The circling is territorial marking behavior. Head bobbing is usually only done if they see another Uromastyx"
