Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard

- Uromastyx aegyptia

The Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia) attains a head-torso length of up to 75 cm with a body length of 45 cm., which makes him the greatest representative of the Spiny-tailed lizards. Adult animals reach a weight of 1,5 – 1,6 kg.

There are two subspecies of Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard: Uromastyx aegyptia aegyptia and Uromastyx aegyptia microlepis. In both subspecies the body scales are remarkably small and smooth.. The Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard can change the color of his body. At high temperatures it is light brown to light gray in color and at low temperatures it can turn a dark gray., almost black. The juvenile color consists of 5-6 crossed yellow bands on a gray-brown background color. In the Uromastyx aegyptia microlepis, there are also slightly yellow or green animals.

The Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard is found in North Africa, from Algeria to Egypt, in sinai, Israel, Jordan and on the Arabian Peninsula, which makes it the only species of Spiny-tailed lizards which is common in both the Asian and African continents.

The Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard It is the largest species of Spiny-tailed lizards and therefore require a larger environment. A baby or a young (up to about 3 or 4 years of age), can be housed in a temporary terrarium 120 x 60 x 60 cm.. But, an adult will need a much larger terrarium.

We recommend a terrarium of about 150 x 90 x 60 cm o 180 x 75 x 60 cm.. You will have to make this terrarium to measure because there are no commercial terrariums with these dimensions.

In early times nicknamed as pure herbivores, it soon became clear that the Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia) they also like to eat foods of animal origin. It is not strange that each Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard develop your own preferences over time. They can get excited about all kinds of worms (zophobas, meal worms, caterpillars of tebo), or preferring grasshoppers and crickets and disdaining altogether the mentioned worms.

Of course, the supply of calcium and vitamins should never be neglected with all reptiles. Sprinkle green food daily with cuttlefish powder and animal food twice a week with vitamins.

The reaction to food given with tweezers is particularly noticeable: Disliked insects are repelled with a clear shake of the head and closing of the eyes. It also, feeds on various grains and herbs such as lentils, oats, corn, millet, various seeds, peanuts (use sparingly), dried carrots (available at pet stores), carrot herb or kitchen herbs. It also, of course, there are fresh green food every day: here you can resort to high quality salads (lamb's lettuce or arugula), but also prairie vegetables such as dandelion or chickweed. Instead of the salad, homemade sprouts are also very popular. It also, the little ones seem to be magically attracted to the color yellow, so dandelion flowers seem to be quite the event.

The price of a Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard at the exotic animal market, captive bred, ranges between 200 – 250 euros.´