# Uromastyx handling?



## mechanicalriddle (Sep 15, 2015)

Hey so I was talking with a fellow herper the other day (he had a collection of ball pythons) and i mentioned that i was considering putting a mali uromastyx in my new terrarium... but when i mentioned uromastyxes he mentioned that they "should be handled VERY sparingly as too much human contact can cause them to die" which sounded like a load of bull to me but it got me curious... how much should a uromastyx be handled? is it more of a display lizard or something you can have a lot of good interaction with? i'm trying to choose between a mali uro and a bts for the display and can really go either way at this point but i personally prefer keeping agamids. Anyone have any experience with uros who can give me an idea of how much handling they can tolerate?

(im willing to put in as much time as it takes to tame either and i understand that the bts's natural personality makes it a generally friendlier lizard but i can definitely work with a uro and will be purchasing a very young specimen to start with)


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## salanky (Oct 28, 2009)

by getting a cb baby you stand a better chance of it tolerating handling well but in general uros are more an observational pet. iv got 9 uros myself and most of them are quite tolerant of interaction and i can handle them within reason. one of mine is not very tolerant of handling and throws a strop which includes hissing, tail whipping, crocodile rolls and will bite if he gets the chance but we have an agreement where i leave him to his own devices for the most part but he lets me take him out every few months to check him over without trying to kill me straight away. 

what a lot of people do is take uros out of their lovely hot viv and then think they are getting really tame and love cuddling them and sleeping on them when in reality they are getting cold and shutting down. a fully warmed uromastyx skin surface temp averages between 120f and 130f which i have seen and tested myself, their temp drops drastically when they are out for more than 5-10 mins even in what would be a warm room to us. you can interact with them loads in their viv and if you give them loads of things to climb on and dig in they will be on the move most of the day.


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## mechanicalriddle (Sep 15, 2015)

you make a very good point. i'd definitely prefer to have a lizard that i can take out of its viv and interact with, so a bts is probably the better option for that considering it'd be less of a severe temperature drop if i removed it from its viv for a short period of time. thanks for the help!


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## salanky (Oct 28, 2009)

no bother, youre welcome


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