Uromastyx.org

Anyone have any experience with feeding insects? Have read uros eat mainly plant material in the wild but also an occassional insect. We have not done this since we followed the advice of others with more experience. However, the idea with this forum is to hear what other people know/have experienced. So what do you know?

Everything I've read on says NOT to give them insects. Although they might occasionally snag one in nature, their digestive systems (like those of green iguanas) are designed for regular invertebrate ingestion.

Mine get a strict veggie diet, as well. No bugs, no animal protein. Seems to work well!

No bugs for uros! As I've said in earlier posts, the uros may enjoy bugs, but they cannot have bugs.

I don't have a uro yet but I'm curious. If you gave a uromastyx insects would they begin to expect it? My adult bearded dragon will hold out for 2-3 days waiting for something other than greens.

I am not sure if they will expect it, but from what I have seen they will ALWAYS take them. Like a kid and ice cream.

I've had my Uro since late 2008 or early 2009, and he/she/it (see my post in the Mali forum ~_~) has always taken insects willingly. Since everything says they're primarily herbivorous, I left crickets in the cage to feed another of my reptiles sharing it temporarily- a Bearded Dragon- and the Uro eagerly devours any and all insects it sees moving. There don't seem to be any health issues with it, as mine is quite healthy and has been since I got it. Furthermore, mine shows unusually carnivorous behaviour in other areas. Back when I was just getting started with herp keeping, I had a gaggle of Western Fence Lizards I caught around my house, and in order to clean their cage, I put them in the tank with the Uro. Well....that didn't go so well, Scute (my Mali's name) chomped on two of the fence lizards, biting them by their head until they died, then proceeding to eat them. I'd never heard of any Uro being like that, and neither has anyone I've talked to.

I work in a petstore locally, and once or twice our staff had the idea to house beardies and Uros together. The last instance was when a large adult Uro went on a rampage and bit off all the beardie's tails off (Adult & subadult beardies!). After that, they never tried housing the 2 species again.

I'm only going by what DeerFern Farms suggest in diet, concerning the absolute absence of insects in the Uro diet. I figure professional breeders know what they're doing well enough to warrant their credibility, so I dont offer insects.

It definitely can be said that just because an animal will readily accept something as food, it doesn't necessarily mean its healthy for them. I've seen iguanas eat pizza before, and some dogs that are addicted to rotisseire chicken from walmart.

I myself, really think uros should have what all successful uromastyx keepers give them: Greens. Flowers, sqaush, carrot, parsnip, lettuce, weeds, all sorts of things like that. Not bugs. In my opinion, a uro will grap an insect because they have to, not they want to.