Somali Uromastyx (U. mcfadyeni )
Somali Uromastyx are a new species in herpetoculture, imported into North America for the first time in mid 2001. Unlike importations of most other Uromastyx species, importations of Somali's have all been very small and sporadic in nature. Thus they are still very rare and command prices from $200 to $400 each. It's one of the dwarf species closely related to the Ornate Uromastyx and superficially similar in looks. They appear to max out at around 10", 185 grams or so. The ground color is tan to blue gray in juveniles and females, to rich sky blue in mature males. Both sexes carry dense, almost rectangular blue spotting, in contrast to the Ornate in which rich blues are generally restricted to the males. By further contrast, only the male Somali's carry the yellow spotting, which occurs in both sexes of Ornates. Both sexes have femoral pores but the pores are extremely minute in females. This trait is the best one to use in sexing juvenile specimens.
The personality is almost as if someone crossed an Ornate with a Sudanese Uromastyx. They are generally more flighty than an Ornate but not so hyper or skittish as Sudanese tend to be. Hardiness as captive breds hasn't been assessed yet, but as wild collecteds they must be deemed very difficult. As fresh imports they can be hard to switch over to a normal domestic diet, so unless you're patient and have a well planted garden (or weedy yard), the prognosis is poor. If you find yourself in possession of an unacclimated specimen, sometimes using crickets (with the hind legs and a few fore legs removed) placed in a very shallow dish of torn up greens and peas can get them to begin feeding. Placing dandelion, Mallow, and Hibiscus blooms in the dish also works well to stimulate feeding. Be careful about using just insects. It's a poor diet that they will sooner or later abandon (or will cause illness), leaving it harder to switch them over to greens.
We have not worked with this species enough to make comments as to their temperament towards cage mates, long term hardiness etc. Considering their relationship to Ornates and Sudanese, we expect them to fall somewhere between the two. We'll add data as it becomes available. For now, we do NOT consider this a species which should be sold as a pet for several reasons. First and foremost, they are simply too rare both in the wild and in herpetoculture to justify removing animals from the breeding population. Secondly, wild collected Somalis generally do extremely poorly in captivity and until captively produced, are really not likely to survive for all but the specialist. We do not buy wild collected Somali's for resale and will only consider releasing some to those well experienced with Uromastyx and who intend to use them for breeding purposes. Barring a significant change in their availability, we don't expect to have many available until we can captively produce some, so please e-mail or call us (360 435-2679) if you're looking for Somali's. We keep a "Wanted" list and fill it as specimens become available.
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| Three Variously Patterned Adult Males |
Email:
douglasdix@deerfernfarms.com
Copyright © 1992-2005 by Douglas Dix. All rights reserved for all photos and text
