Uromastyx.org

Anyone heard of any hybrids with the Uromastyx?

I spoke with Doug from deerfernfarms a while back, and he was telling me that he's been experimenting with crossing Saharans with the Moroccans, the objective being a smaller Uro with Moroccan's more amiable personality. He said, while not aggressive, Saharans tend to be a little "touchy" and nervous when handled. I can see it with my own animals, so I can sort of understand the goal.

Whats everyone's thoughts on this?

I wouldn't mind perhaps trying cross one of the more colorful species with an Egyptian to possibly get a really beautiful giant Uro!

I am anti-hybrid, especially with uncommon animals.

We all have different agendas, but my agenda is to produce healthy pure animals if possible.

I understand some of the benefits of a hybrid.....but it just isn't my cup of tea.

Yeah, I do have some rather mixed feelings about hybrids in general. For a while, I wasn't really wild about them, but as long as people were not misrepresenting what they had, I wasn't against them either.

Part of me definitely wants to keep pure bloodlines and localities pure and distinct. But on the flip side, if the animals will reproduce with each other, that tells me that iti can't be that big of deal. Of course, the bottom line for me is that the bloodlines stay pure in their native environments where its important. In captivity, is it really that critical?

It's one thing to be genuinely curious (after all, that's where we get the common pet goldfish from!), but I do feel people get a little crazy with it. I do roll my eyes when I see ads on Kingsnake for this colubrid that has, like, 4 different species in it!

I'm mainly thinking out loud really. I certainly respect everyone's opinion on this often controversial issue.

You do you have some good points and I do find hybrids interesting. I think some people may misrepresent hybrids, but there are people who misrepresent pure animals as well.



If you decide to do any hybrid projects, be sure to keep us all posted!

I"d hate to see uromastyx become like leopard geckos and have a million different shades and morphs and color etc. Then again, I don't really mind the idea of crosses, so I'm not sure what I think of it.

I think that cross breeding uromastyx won't be very good for the species because you might end up with only hybrid uros. I like each uro to be unique between speicies. It would be disrespectful to cross breed them.

Yeah, given that Uros in general are lot more difficult to breed to begin with (especially when compared to beardies, geckos, and snakes), I wouldn't worry too much about the market becoming flooded with "mutt" Uros. There's just not that many people working with them (namely just the members on this forum, Deer Fern Farms and perhaps a small handful of others!).

I'd be interested to see if there are any naturally-occuring intergrades. My general stance on hybrids is that I'd prefer to keep any Frankenstein projects to species that at least might share the same geographic range. For instance, I would never cross an Indian with a Saharan.

You're right, it probably would never end up like the geckos, but if we can figure out easier breeding practices, it could. I don't think humans should just be free to change a species and make something they want out of uros. I'd like to see uros be the one thing humans don't totally change. I mean, can't humans just keep one thing natural and unchanged. I know, it's not natural to have them in a cage, but I still think this should stay the way it is.

The majority of us humans are destructive in nature and do not know moderation, but that is another whole can of refried beans.

I would like to do more selective captive breeding, while keeping the genetics diversified.

My gut reaction is to keep a species pure, or as it is found in the wild. As wild habitats disappear, there becomes less available space or fragmented areas for the wild animals to exist. Almost entirely, the result of human impact on envrionment/animals. If a day comes when the wild populations are extinct and the only animals left are those in captivity, the pure species may be the only animals suited for reintroduction to the wild (assuming there is a habitat to reintroduce to). Thus, hybrids could be detrimental to the species since it would be difficult to determine which animals were best suited for a certain specific habitat. So I do have concern for species and sub-species preservation.

On the other hand....could the availability of hybrids reduce the impact on wild populations from collectors? With animals like leopard geckos, the hybrid animals are the ones most sought after now and a "normal" animal is worth very little to nothing in financial terms. If the focus is on hybrids, those wild (normal) animals become devalued. Thus, there would be no demand for wild caught animals and perhaps these animals would be left alone.

You may be able to infer that I support only limited wild collecting inasmuch as it establishes captive groups from which hobbyists can purchase animals. We try to always buy captive bred animals.