Uromastyx.org

i have 2 egyptians and 2 red saharan uros. and i read in books and online plus petshops and almost everywere i looked that uros eat minimal insects. now i found this forum and a couple others plus urowiki and they say no insects ever cause of liver problems. i cut mine off insects once i found that out but am a little worried now that they may have problems later on down the road i guess i will deal with that when the issue comes around. but does anyone know why they will eat insects if they are available even though they are not supposed to eat them? i also feed a huge handfull of every variety green i can get them daily and they eat those but still always went for bugs first to me i would think if they can have only veggies why they would even try bugs its like a snake going after a salad instead of a rat right in front of it.

I kind of see bugs as the candy or ice cream in a uro's world. They LOVE them but it isn't really good for them. I don't think any knows for certain just what damage bugs can cause, but it certainly is not recommended. Nice looking Saharan.

Hi. I agree with Tim. To take it a step further, there are feeder insects that are regarded as "treats" within the insectivorous lizard world. The waxworm is such. From what I understand, they have a high fat content and therefore should not be used a diet staple. I think you will be OK because you have young Uros and I suspect organ damage might occur over a lengthy period of feeding a high percentage diet of insects.

thanks. yea i guess that fits to make sence its just odd they would take something they don't need so readily. but yea my beardies (that are housed seperatly) would eat nothing but waxworms if they could but they are too high in fat i do those like maybe once a month unless its a breeding female then i want her to have a little extra fat in her. and i just noticed i posted this in the chuck section instead of the uro one so my bad if anyone was wondering why it was here LOL another reason you shouldn't play online while at work

No prob, I will move it to the Uro section.

A lot of time captive animals will do things that they would rarely do in the wild. Some of it is from stress, handling, and simply from being confined. Iguanas often eat insects or even foreign objects, possibly because they are very opportunistic and want to explore every possible food source. There is a "super-stimulus" effect to watch out for as well. If they don't generally encounter insects in their daily foraging, when presented with them in a captive environment they may react in a way that would not be harmful if it was a rare event in the wild. Gila monsters, for example, will sit in a bowl of water for so long that it may start growing algae on its back! Soaking in a pool of water found rarely in the desert wouldn't be harmful in the wild, the pool would soon dry up. As with Uros, insects make up around 1% of their diet, mostly from being "hidden" in their veggies and fruit in the wild.

In captivity, a Uro owner may mistake this response as "normal" and continue to offer insects to a level that becomes harmful. Since we don't know what a "safe" level is for an herbivorous lizard, I think it's best to err on the side of caution and not provide insects.