Mali Uromastyx
(Uromastyx maliensis)
AKA: Spiny Tailed Lizard, Uro

Supplied by forum member Fish_geek

Introduction: The Mali Uromastyx is the most common species of Uromastyx found in the pet trade and is often captive bred, though many other species (and subspecies) will occasionally be seen in stores. These lizards are very active reptiles and require a lot of space to roam. They also require a very specific set-up to get started, so as with any animal, make sure you’re prepared before you bring one home!
Origin: Northern Africa, desert regions
Temperament: For the most part, these lizards are gentle and curious, and they tend to make wonderful pets if cared for properly. Many have described their personalities, as well as their care requirements, to be very much like the ever-popular Bearded Dragons.
Life Span: 30 years or more if kept in substantial conditions.
Adult Size: Approximately 12 inches, sometimes bigger.
Active Time: Diurnal (active during the day).

Set-up: If using a glass aquarium, go with a minimum size of a four foot long enclosure for one or two adults, preferably bigger than that if possible. More than two will require more space. Be sure to provide ample food, hiding and basking spots for each animal.
Building your own wooden/acrylic enclosure is another option and can be a fun experience. You’ll find a lot of ideas and instructions online if you look. If you decide to go this route, keep in mind they don’t climb much and will benefit from a longer enclosure with more floor space rather than a taller one. Make it at least 4 feet long to get a good heat gradient (difference between hot side and cool side) and give them room to roam. Longer enclosure may require more than one incandescent or other heat producing buld to maintain an appropriate gradient. Since they usually don’t like to climb you’ll want to make sure their UVB light can be close enough to benefit them down on the ground, so make the enclosure no more than 12 inches high if you’re sitting the lights on top and use the strongest UVB bulb you can get.
Two hide boxes or caves (one on the hot side and one on the cool, the hide on the hot side may be able to double as a basking site) must be added two make the animal feel secure. In order for them to feel secure they must be able to fit snuggly(though not get stuck) in the hide box.
(Something to watch out for: Young or sick/stressed Uros may hide too much and not get any beneficial UV exposure from your light, and in these cases you may need to take the hide box away for some time during the to encourage them to come out into the light. Don’t confuse this with their natural instinct to run for the hide box when you enter the room!)

Substrate: Most Uros like to dig and burrow, so a particulate (sand or birdseed in this case) substrate is often preferred Avoid “lizard litter”, bark or anything made of crushed walnut shells. If your Uro swallows any of this it can be injured internally or become impacted. Also stay away from Calci-sand or any supposedly “digestible” sands that are advertised especially for lizards. These are the leading causes of impaction and can also cause respiratory and skin problems, no matter what money-hungry companies may say.
If you want to go with a particulate substrate, stick with washed/screened play sand (available here at the store and also at hardware stores) or birdseeds without sunflower seeds or other big bits (parakeet seed is a good one). The benefit of birdseed as a substrate is that it’s part of the Uro’s diet and shouldn’t do any harm if they get a mouthful. Still, if swallowed in excessive amounts the birdseed could possible cause a blockage, so watch your Uro to make sure it’s not eating too much of this.
Many people prefer to avoid the risk altogether and go with reptile carpet, newspaper or just a towel to cover the bottom of the enclosure. These work just fine and are pretty easy to clean, so if you’re not going for the “natural” look or you’re nervous about impaction risks, we recommend you go with one of these safer choices. Another recently “discovered” suitable Uromastyx substrate is a soil, sand, sphagnum moss mix.
A word on collecting décor from outside: If you collect rocks, driftwood or any other decorations from outside, just make sure to clean them well to avoid introducing parasites or unwanted pathogens into your Uro’s home! You can boil these in a large pot or bake them in the oven, carefully supervised of course, for at least 30 minutes at about 400 degrees.

Temperature/Humidity: Since this is a desert animal, high humidity or low temperatures can be very bad for their health. Aside from skin and shedding problems, high humidity or low temperatures can lead to serious respiratory infections and other similar health problems, along with digestive problems and lowered immunity. Keep the humidity as low as possible. Ideally, the daytime temperatures should be pretty hot. Here are the temps we recommend:
Hot side: Warm Side- high 80’s F to mid 90's F
Basking Spot- 110 F to 120 F (slightly cooler for younger specimens)
Cool Side- high 70s F to mid 80s F
Nighttime- 70 F to 80 F

No light is required at night. A black or red bulb might create too much heat for the Uro to have a significant cool-down during the night. If you’re concerned about the temperature dropping too low, an under tank heating pad is a good idea. It’s much safer than a heat rock and can be left on 24 hours a day too.

Lighting: A basking light is needed. These are usually dome-shaped clamp lights that can either set on the screen covering your enclosure or be clamped to something. Whatever you do with it, make sure it’s angled towards a nice flat rock (slate retains the heat best) and adjust the distance to get the right basking temperature. The only really accurate way to measure the basking temp is with a digital probe thermometer. Stick-on or dial thermometers are made to sense ambient temperature (temp of the air in that area of the enclosure) but not surface temperature. Digi-probe thermometers are available at a fairly low price at most hardware stores and garden supply stores, as well as in the thermometers section of most large retail stores. To measure the ambient temperature and humidity, the dial thermometers and humidity gauges work much better than the stick-on ones.

UV light is absolutely essential to the Uromastyx’s health. Without this light, they will become very sick and can even die. It’s a big part of their natural body processes. It is present in natural sunlight and is only able to be created in small amounts in fluorescent light bulbs made especially to put out this type of light. These bulbs put out less and less UVB as time goes by, so they should be changed at least once a year, though changing it every six months would be best to ensure your lizard is getting enough UV. We recommend either the Reptisun 10.0 or Reptiglo 8.0 to get the most UV output for your Uro.

Still, nothing beats natural sunlight, so take your Uro out for a walk every chance you get and let it soak up those rays! Just don’t let it eat anything out there and don’t leave it outside in its tank. Just a side note to put a common myth to rest: sitting the tank by a window is NOT an effective way to get UV because this part of the sun light cannot pass through glass, so unless you live in a warm dry climate and can keep your Uro outside full time, you’ll need the UV light made for reptiles.
Leave the UV and heat lights on for 12-14 hours per day and turn them off at night. It’s best for their health to be on a very regular light cycle, so putting the lights on a timer is a really good idea.

Feeding: Almost exclusively herbivorous. Feed mostly vegetables, sometimes fruits as a snack, and some occasional live foods (dusted with calcium and vitamin powder).
Live foods: Occasionally you can give them a few crickets, silkworms or phoenix worms. Make sure live foods are given very rarely, due to the negative effects of too much protein in an herbivore’s diet. Dust them with calcium and vitamin powder supplements, or gutload them at least 24 hours before feeding.

Vegetables: Darker leaf lettuces, dandelion greens and flowers (if you get them from outside make sure no chemicals had been sprayed on them and rinse them carefully), mustard greens, turnip greens, endive, escarole, nappa, cucumbers, green and yellow squash, carrots, thawed frozen vegetables (green beans, carrots, lima beans, corn; dust these with vitamin and calcium powder), occasionally add some collard greens to the diet but not too much (Uros can’t handle the kind of darker leafy vegetables that most other herbivorous lizards require). You can also include millet spray, parakeet seed or alfalfa pellets in your Uro’s salad to provide extra roughage. They like bits of fruit like banana, apple, mango, kiwi and papaya as a snack. Avoid kale, broccoli and spinach because of the nutrient-binding qualities they possess, and of course no iceberg lettuce(it is void of nutrients) or celery because it will upset their stomachs and make them dehydrated.
No water dish is required. Uros get the little water they need from the food they eat, and keeping a water dish in their enclosure would only risk raising the humidity to unsafe levels. Rinsing greens before feeding may be beneficial to maintaining hydration.
Typical Health Issues to Watch Out for: Respiratory infections due to excessive humidity/low temp, metabolic bone disease and other similar conditions due to lack of UVB light or poor diet, calcium/vitamin deficiencies due to poor diet, parasites/bacterial infections, impaction, etc.

Basic Equipment: Heating pad, Tank, Basking Light, Screen Lid
Heat bulb, Bowl for food, Hide box(2), Substrate, Strip light fixture Calcium and Vitamin Powder (or Gut load), UV bulb, Thermometer, Humidity Gauge and Digital Probe Thermometer
Light Timer

For more information on the Mali Uromastyx, we recommend www.deerfernfarms.com



If you have more questions about this type of animal or just want to connect to other people with the same interests as you then visit  our forums here.