Home    About us    Contact us  Picture Gallery
 Breeding & care information on   Leopard gecko's    Uromastyx    Varanus   T.keyserlingii  

Uromastyx hardwickii	Uromastyx hardwickii hatchlings

Uromastyx
There are eight species distributed across Africa (north) and the Middle East to India.  At present we are dealing in only two namely Uromastyx hardwickii its sub-species Uromastyx hardwickii balouchiana and Uromastyx asmussi.

Uromastyx. acanthinura (commonly known as the Moroccan Uros)

Uromastyx. aegyptius

Uromastyx. asmussi (Strauch, 1863)
Common name: Iranian uromastyx, Range extension: Through out Iran, parts of Afghanistan and some parts of Pakistan.

Uromastyx. benti   (Benti uros) (Anderson, 1894)

Uromastyx. hardwickii   (Gray, 1827).
Common name: Indian Spiny Tail Lizard, Range extention : Pakistan, Afghanistan and parts of India, sub-species include Uramastyx hardwickii balouchiana which is a bright red brick color pertaining to its terrain.

Uromastyx. maliensis  (Jogger, 1998) known as the Mali Uros.

Uromastyx. ocellata (Lichtenstein, 1823) Other subspecies include: U. ocellata macfadyeni(Parker, 1932) from Somalia, & Djibouti and U. ocellata philbyi(Parker, 1938) from Arabia and Jabal.

U. thomasi

Captive husbandry practises for Uromastyx hardwickii & assmusi
The Spiny tail lizards as Uromastyx are often called are desert dwellers and require high temperatures. In its natural terrain the Indian spiny tail lizards abounds in semi-desert regions inhabiting sparse grassland and flat desert with moderately dense clay soil. It is terrestrial and tends to live in colonies. In the wild it is common to see fifty or more in one colony, they dig an easly recognisable burrow with a some what cirrcular entrance. The opening is often plugged with loose earth and dry shrubs while the lizard is inside. Most burrows go down in a steepe gentle slope. Specimens meassure about 18 - 24 inches in length but most are longer. Normally only one adult inhabits one burrow, they are diurnel in nature appearing soon after sun-rise.   In nature they are heavily preyed upon by Hawks, Jackals and wild dogs.

Feeding
They are herbivorous, in the wild the adults consume wild grasses, flowers, leaves and fruits but the young hatchlings readily take in small insects (crickets & worms).  Our breeders are maintained on a varied diet of lettuce leaves and other vegetables matter powdered with vitamins, insects are given to the adults but occasionally say twice weekly, before bieng fed all insects are heavily fed on greens, carrots and other matter.

Water
All of their water requirement is fullfiled through moisture in the vegetable matter, there is no need to offer them water in a dish or otherwise as in the wild they hardly come across open water sources.

Temperature range
Being desert creatures they require high day time temperatures, for this purpose a basking spot is provided at the warm end of the thermal gradient which exceeds 122F, the cool end and ambient temperature of the tank should be near to 88F, at night all heating should be removed and the enclosure be allowed to cool down to the normal sorrounding temperature.

Sex determination
While in some species of Uromastyx it is fairly easy to distinguish between sexes (Ornate and Benti, for example show different colors as adults) it is not so easy in others such as Uromatyx hardwickii.  Simply looking at the animal tells you a lot, the head in males of all species of Uromastyx is larger than the females, is heavily built with larger head bones and are robust while the females may be plump and heavy with soft abdomenal area.  A more closer examination may be carried out of the cloacal area, observing the males the hemipenal bulges would be aparent while in females this area id flat.

This page is periodically updated, kindly re-visit for more detailes

Home    About us    Contact us    Leopard gecko's
    Uromastyx     Varanus     Tkeserlingii    Picture gallery
Back to top