Welcome back to Animal Wonders.  I'm Jessi and today, I'd like to check in with one of our amazing animals, Argos the Uromastyx.  

(Intro)

Argos lives right up here in this enclosure and we just did a new remodel for him, so I'd like to kind of show off what we did.  So the first thing that I wanted to do was give him new substrate, so I used excavator clay so that I could make kind of a landscape and build some caves into it.  The first big cave is right over on the right back corner and you can see he's dug in the back of it, which is perfect.  I wanted it to be very interactive for him, but it's nice and big so he can get in there, turn around, be really active, and most importantly, it's holding its shape, so while he digs in it, it's not gonna all cave in on him.  

I then added some furniture for him, so these branches and the plants, so he can climb over them and hide under them, and then, I added three more places for him to hide.  This one in the front corner, I kind of have like a peeking window in here so I can see him under there.  He doesn't really like it.  I think he feels too exposed there, and then I have a little cave back here.  I think I made it too small.  He doesn't really use that one either, and then the last hide here, it's shorter than the rest, but it's really deep so he can fit his whole body into it.  Of all the hides, he spends the most time in this one.  I think he feels really comfortable in it and that's probably because it came from his previous enclosure.

The only problem with it is because it's so short, it's hard to see him and it's hard to get him out of it, so when I need to get him out to do a health check or do a presentation with him, it's kind of a struggle.  So let's go do that now.  Alright, buddy.  I see you.  I see your tail.  There you are.  

And this is our handsome Mali Uromastyx, Argos.  He's been with us about nine years now and we don't have an age on him.  He was a fully grown adult when we got him, so I don't know if he's an old guy or middle aged.  Since being at Animal Wonders, he's a really healthy and active guy.  His previous care is unknown, so he may have been improperly cared for.  He is showing some signs of mild bone disease in his toes.

There's nothing we can do about that now.  He is getting a proper lighting spectrum and a nutritious diet, so we just have to watch his comfort level.  I love sharing this amazing lizard with other people because look at this tail.  He uses this tail to defend himself if something comes along, like a hawk.  It'll land next to him to try and grab him and he will literally just explode with energy, flipping around, whacking this tail back and forth and it's really strong and scary.

Sometimes, he'll even move it if I touch it just a little bit.  You can get a glimpse of what he might do with it, but it's way more impressive in the wild.  So besides his tail, the other thing he does to defend himself is he'll literally just run and hide.  He'll dive into a little cave and then he will puff himself up with air so he wedges himself into the little cave and then he'll take his tail again and whack it back and forth in the entrance.  You can see he's a little on guard right now, probably 'cause I touched his tail.  He did puff himself up and look, this is full of air.  

Uromastyx lizards are just really interesting animals but they require very specific care in captivity.  If you're interested in getting a uromastyx as a pet, please make sure you do your research so you provide them a very good home.

Let's go ahead and put Argos back now.  There you go, buddy.  He's probably not gonna eat right now because we're all up in his business, but he does have his breakfast laid out so he can eat.  Uromastyx are herbivores, so they primarily eat plants.  If they do happen to come across a bug, they're not gonna say no to it, but that's not part of their main diet.

Argos is such an interesting lizard and I'm glad that we can provide him with the care he needs.  I love being able to share him with others and I hope you've enjoyed getting to know him a little bit better.

If you'd like to get to know some of our other animals and go on an animal adventure with us every week, be sure to subscribe and I'll see you next week.   Bye.

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