uromastyx bird seed

[hungba]

Hi, I bought hagen brand finch seed for my uromastyx.

There are no sunflower seeds in it but one of the ingredients is orange oil. Is that ok?

[lorrainesmom]

Ive used finch seeds before, and so far haven't seen any issues regarding orange oil in seeds. Most of the time, though, my Mali Uromastyx will ignore most of the bird seed and go for the lentils and split peas that I mix into his seed mixture.

He also is a big fan of timothy hay (like used for guinea pig forage), but most of the time he ignores his greens unless its cooked green pea mixture, and then he picks out the green peas. Because of this salad ignoring habit I keep a water bowl for him.

[hungba]

Timothy hay as in the dry hay you buy in rabbit shops? How do you feed it to them? Just cut them up and put them in?

I just got my pair of uros and they are loving the salad greens. In fact they ignored the small amount of fruit and some soaked mazuri tortoise and just ate the greens.

Should I actually offer the seeds to them? Or is it better if they like the greens to only offer that so they will stay on them?

[hungba]

The finch seed you used has orange oil listed in the ingredients too?

[lorrainesmom]

Yep, just chop it up, (not to much) and put it in a bowl. Its great that your uros are eating their salads, I wish mine would. The seeds and lentils are also good for them. You can offer the seeds in a different bowl, and keep a bowl of seeds in the cage all the time.

The big thing to remember is to sprinkle some calcium dust on their food a few times a week. If they refuse the calcium dusted food, the liquid spray is an alternative. Along with the calcium is the UVB lights and keeping the temps right. You want ambient temps of 85-90 and basking temp of 125-130.