wohnzimmer spots
hello fans of reptil.tv and welcome to episode 112 today's introduction animal is a savannah monitor, varanus exanthematicus he has a very nice color, a so called ghost around here, he is the favorite animal of my wife as you can see, he is a little bit stubborn, but with my wife he is very calm shows their intelligence he wants to get away from me, while my wife can do anything with him we named him drago when you look at him, when he has his head down
perhaps you know the movie dragon heart, with the dragon drago and he looks just like him especially him that's why i choose him for my introduction today but today's main topic are the uromasticinae we talk about these nice animals now this is a uromastyx geyri the german name for them is terrible and that's only one of many sub types of them
they are wide spread and consequently there are many sub types of them thomas willms is a widely known expert for them he described them very well there are three main types uromastyx acanthinurathere are three main types uromastyx acanthinura in the earlier das most where just called that and this includes the geyri
acanthinura belongs to them, of course dispar belongs to them maliensis belongs to them we also have the main type aegyptia containing the uromastyx aegyptia and some other rare types more the bigger ones, i think and as a third type the uromastyx ornata and independent of that there are also princeps and thomasi
thomasi from oman princeps from somalia they don't belong to any main type and that's a rough overview of all major types as i just said, they are wide spread a very common reptile in africa just think of the norther part of africa down to the sahara, where you find uromasticinae from east to west
and over to the arabian peninsula dubai, oman, saudi arabia and over to the western part of indiadubai, oman, saudi arabia and over to the western part of india a real big area about 500 km from east to west and accordingly different they are and there different sizes, like small ones thomasi won't become big
about 20 cm and you have real big ones, like the aegyptia up to 80 cm just google it in the internet, uromastyx aegyptia xxl photos or something like this you see real big ones 4 to 5 kilograms, really impressive most ones, like the geyris or acanthinura become about 20 cm, head to body length
and the same length for the tail so we have a typical length of 30 to 50 cm i just talked about their big sizes as i said, some type can become really big interestingly enough, they grow really slow as we know, bearded dragons can grow up within one year and reach their maximum size this one is a one year old uromastyx ornata they are small like a bearded dragon with 3 month
most types grow really slow where the ornata is amongst the fastest growing types and they will become mature with 3 to 4 years others like the acanthinura they take 6 to 7 years to become mature aegyptia will grow faster and become big also takes 6 to 7 years to become mature they grow really slow about the keeping guidelines
the german law specifies 5 x 4 x 3 head to body length this is without tail this one has 8 cm head to body length this would than be 40 x 32 x 24 as a size for a terrarium per animal each additional animal 20% more ok for a young animal and you might even build it larger in size for young animals about 1 meter by 50 by 50 or 50 cm is a good size and you can decorate it easily
that's a perfect size for the uromastyx any by the way uromastyx are very relaxed animals they don't seem to know how to bite even they don't run away, if you take them out really nice to have of course, they are no pets but if you take them out, they are not shy they don't run away immediately, they stay ad have a look
now about keeping them i show you the most important things light is the outmost important thing the uromastyx live in the desert they like it hot, they want lots of light heat and light is what they need and they do well we can only achieve this with real good lamps like those hqi devices also called odium-vapor lamps
they produce the best light, containing maximum uv they are the optimum is also the most expensive solution because you need cut-in unit and a fitting but they are the best lights and there are these hwl lamps they don't require a cut-in unit they are big lamps, 100 to 160 watts, depending on the size of your terrarium tehy are bright and warm
they are the alternative to the hqi lamps of course you need a fitting with a heat resistant cable these lamps are spotlights, they don't spread light in all directions so you don't need a reflector but if you like it, you can use one makes it look nicer but the main thing are thses big and powerful spotlights in a small terrarium one is enough for a larger one you need more spotlights
some use t5 lamps or leds additionally to get some basic lightning i'm not a fan of that better invest good money into these spotlights depending on the size of the terrarium we need some more of them to give you a hint a small terrarium with 1 meter by 50 by 60 cm needs at least a 100 watt spotlight, coming in from the side this way you have it perfect, including the hv part
and the animals will like it underneath this spot they need temperatures up to 50 degrees celsius they like it this way for the coldest part of the terrarium round about 30 degrees on the side of the terrarium and as i said, very bright you don't need any heat panels heating mats, heating stone, not necessary
the animals want the heat in combination with the light they want to sit in the sun, where the heat is and you will see that your uromastyx grow up perfectly now about the interior lets start with the ground sand is the best material for them you can mix it with this substrate it will become a little bit thicker but be careful when they dig through it, not to bury them
you could argue this could happen in nature as well, but we don't want any accidents not to much, if you want really deep tunnels better use a pipe out of cork usually 10 to 15 cm substrate is enough, depending on the size of the animals mixing sand and substrate important is to create hiding places artificial ones don't look that nice or you use natural materials, like cork, which looks nicer and important point, the animals want it hot and dry
they like the sun in the hiding places they need moister this is when you can use the moss again put it into the hiding places and keep it wet its like in nature in there is wet you can test out what the like more offer them a dry and a wet hiding place but it is important they have it wet and can absorb it through their skin
a mistake you can do here don't create a muggy terrarium having a bad air flow through it and moss inside we spray in the mornings and evenings and they drink the dew but it is important that this drys up fast not to have a 60% moister level all day inside then they will get sick typically some kind of herpes around their mouth looks like furry around their mouth
initially you might think this is the remains of their food but it is a herpes virus, coming form to much moister in the terrarium that doesn't dry out good enough keep it dry, spray two times a day they drink the dew and absorb moister from that and to be complete such a feeding bowl we talk about feeding later i can put in salad and corn
that s the basics of course you can make it nicer, using rocks you can use wood and cork let your fantasy play here are just the important basics now about feeding the uromastyx they are herbivore they eat plants carnivore are eating beef and insects
i would say 80% of them are herbivore and 20% are carnivore some feed them insects every two weeks perhaps that's not enough, just test it out to see how they like it for the herbivore part the uromastyx eat everything with flowers, blossoms and seeds here we have lentils or this mix of flowers
blossoms of hibiscus and marigold by the way, the first reptiles i had in my life where uromastyx i got them from a friend and when i asked what they eat he replied the like daisy flowers, most of the time you can feed that as well also lots of corn, like flax seeds also millet-seed just looked around but could not find any also no employee who could get me any
but these millet-seed are nice food they crack these hard things just put it into such a bowl and they pick them as they like we always have such a bowl inside where we have a mixture of these things and all sorts of corn, as we have it available we have it always available for the animals and have a bowl with a mix of flowers and blossoms
and fresh salad every day this way they also get moister through that during winter we have salad, in summer we have hawkbit, ribwort and so on that s even better than salad and that's the main part of their nutrition about breeding and young animals you need some insects, for young animals three times a week crickets, whims, grasshoppers and cockroaches everything that jumps and has feet
mealworms you should not use better use grasshoppers dust it in, with minerals my tip is herpetal complete and mixed in the ratio 2:1 dust the insects with it also dust in the salad, very important to use minerals as well and abou the water we put a shallow water bowl in there as well
put some water into it sometimes the go into it something they like i never really see them drink from it always have fresh water in there and with that we have it perfect for our uromastyx a very important point is the winter rest almost all of them take their winter rest except the princeps
but most of them need to have a winter rest it takes 2 to 3 month observe them if they do well don't mistake the winter rest with a hibernation its not like a european turtle, having them at 8 to 9 degrees celsius keep in mind they come from the desert where it doesn't cool down to freezing levels you have days with sun, with 20 degrees and more relatively mild
the nights can become cold, down to zero degrees celsius but the animals are hiding in caves that won't cool down that much at night my recommendation would be between 15 and 20 degrees celsius for the winter rest during day time warmer at night a cool living room perhaps a corner in your cool living room and shut down the lights and keep it darrk during that time and don't feed them during winter time, just have fresh water for them
and have the winter rest for 2 to 3 month some people also cover them with a blanket but the animals must be ok and healthy before the go for the winter rest test their code before the winter rest to male sure they don't have parasites and this way you have them over xmas time and the animals really need to have this rest to feel well as usual also about breeding to breed some of the nice little guys they have more than two eggs the uromastyx lay eggs
the get stimulated by the winter rest and they will mate after the winter rest most hedge ones per year, some may do it twice, later in the yer again but breeding isn't easy with the uromastyx most may have bearded dragoons but you rarely find uromastyx breedings is more difficult because of the long time until they become mature that take the first 4 to 6 years already next problem is to find our their gender
you can't detect it on the young animals adult animals you can find out by the colors but not always with all of them if you would liek to breed, you can only have one male but more than one female like with other reptiles as well but its not easy, sometimes not matching up well enough you can have males that bite away anything in their way its really an reptile expert job to breed these animals this one is a uromastyx dispar flavifasciata
they are from the southern sahara from my point of view the best colors when they are grown up they have fantastic red and yellow colors i'm a real fan of them if you like them, get some and try to breed them you will find customers because people are asking for them and you can do it as usual for the end, my recommendation about good literature uromastyx are available as monographs, published by art for art
you can find the exact details of the type you might have really good books and here the bible, written by thomas wilms he really is the top expert for uromastyx in europe a real expert i can really recommend his book get these books when you get these animals, get top information about them that's it for today, stay true and check the uromastyx the first take of the fire brigade episode with the red hand cloves and stefan the fire man, go ahead
the signal for the coffee break today i'm especially greasy ... and my hear cut ... here i have an uromastyx geyri on my hand the german name, i really don't know ... we don't feed during that time and aehm, lets do it again ... i hate to criticize my self but this wasn't good at all let me point out my new shoes i ordered especially for this episode the kids are watching from the outside, distracting us ...
i'm a real fan of bearded dragons get such bearded dragons and try to breed them i'm a really stupid guy to say bearded dragon twice in this long monologue ... super literature about the bearded dragons again bearded dragons ... i belive i just said bearded dragon again, did i ? no but i was really noisy back there, are we don now ? just the end, it was to long ... a quarter past five, what shall we do now ?