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My ornate uro, Nick, is starting to go downhill, and I don't really know why. We had them in the unfinished basement, where their temps were a bit under where they would normally have been, and they weren't receiving fancy food or the best care. Then we had them in the hot hot garage. I mean, the room temp in there reached the 90's. Then we moved him to a new cage, and into the finished basement again, and now he's doing horribly. He barely eats, I haven't seen him up on the hotrock in weeks and I don't know what's wrong. His hot rock is 120, and overall he's about 80. I weighted him the other day and he was about 118 grams. I've had him up in the mid 120's before we started the move. We've thought about putting a blanket on his cage, so he can't see us, and we were going to try putting my nasty female in with him to see if that would change his behavior, and they were together for a few hours yesterday before I canned the plan out of fear of losing my female as well as my quickly declining boy. My female has lost a considerable amount of weight, but I mentioned less than ideal care. She gets up on her hotrock and basks, she eats a little, but she's never been a big eater. I'm not worried about her for the moment, but should I be? She lost about 40 grams since June. That was just before all the changes went on in their environments. I had Nick out yesterday, his eyes are bright and he looks fine except that he's as skinny as death. No lizard of mine should look like that. He looks like an import. I've tried hiding the dish under the hotrock, but that didn't really seem to help. Yesterday was the first time I've held him in weeks. I took all his hides out today except his hotrock, which he can hide under, out of the hopes of keeping him warm. He's a captive, and I've done fairly well with him. He's actually one of Nick and Austin's that I purchased sometime earlier this year. He's a beautiful boy, and I'd hate to see him go. I just don't know what's wrong with him. Will someone please help me before I lose him?

Hi. Do you think the problem might be due to high humidity? Cellars tend to have higher humidity. Maybe the Uro is having respiratory problems.

I will definitely consider that. I don't really know what the humidity is down here, but I will try to find out. Thanks for the suggestion. Also, his cage is right above my female's. Could he be smelling her, or something? Would that be a reason? I mean, last time they were together, he hid in a hide, and we couldn't get him out of it to eat. I'm doubting this has anything to do wtih it, but maybe?

Humidity is a possibility. If you have a fan in the house put that in the room and aim it at the cage. Get a humidity guage and toss it in the cage. I think the highest its supposed to go is around 70 on the cool end of the cage. On the hot end maybe 30 or 40.
I have my male in a cage above my female. I dont think they can sense or smell eachother.
It could just be the moving around. Even though he is in the same cage the view outside is changed so he may think he's being moved into a whole other world. What are you feeding them? I'm sure a lot will advise against it but I would personally offer him a wax worm or cricket. I never feed my Uros insects but if its a matter of life and death I would give him one or two to put some weight on him. There is also this calorie supplement called jump-start. You can try that if you dont mind force feeding him.
Got a picture of him and the setup? Got all the right uvb lights and supplements?

Could be a lot of things but the temperature is the one thing that pops out at me. With lower than optimal temps you run the risk of lowering metobolic rate and immune function allowing pathogens to be a much higher risk to the animal. IMO, daytime ambient (cool side) temps for Uros should be closer to 86-90, even to the low 90's for a couple hours. Basking spots should ALWAYS be provides by use of an overhead heat light source. Heatrocks or hotrocks, heating pads, and ceramic heaters just don't work at all for Uros, or for most diurnal lizards in any case. I read somewhere that this is because heat rocks or heating pads only penetrate the outer layers of an animals body where as radiant heat is better able to "soak" throughout the animals body, bringing the core body temp to adequate levels.

Greg

I am certainly willing to try that.



He gets greens, (endive, escarole, greenleaf,) daily as well as Mazuri tortoise chow, peas, and other things occsionally.



That's not a bad idea. He looks really, really thin.



I keep him exactly the same as I keep my female. Thanks for all your help!

Okay, I just temped him. His basking spot was about 125 overall. By the way, it's not an actual hotrock, but just a tile under an overhead light. Then around his cage, he was in the 90's. I didn't find a single 80. Is that too hot?

Thanks, Greg.

Temps should be fine then...Hope the guy perks up. A wax worm or 2-3 probably wouldn't hurt. Flax seeds will help to put weight on and Uros usually really like those. Don't feed him too many though. Maybe even dust them with a multivitamin and calcium w D3 to give him some nutrients, if you haven't already done it.