Baby pictures

Atvar and Muad'dib are the two on the left. On the right is a childhood friend.

Atvar is now about a foot long and a beautiful sky blue with dark blue, slate gray, orange, brown and white markings. Muad'dib, aka "Little Guy," isn't nearly as big. But then, he does things other than eat. It should be said that Ornates like Atvar generally are "couch potatoes" who love to eat and sleep. Rainbow Bentis like Little Guy have been described as similar in personality to semi-tame chipmunks.

The photo- and uros for sale, too- can be found at Dr. Doug Dix's site.

Doug is an excellent source of uro information. So are the Kingsnake Uromastyx Forum, and the Yahoo uro group I help moderate.

BTW...never believe anything a pet store tells you about uros. And never buy one from Petco, which knows nothing about the care or feeding of genus uromastyx- and apparently doesn't care.

Consider a uromastyx if you're in the market for a reptile pet. Past the initial cost of the setup- these desert creatures need very specific conditions to live- they are not at all difficult or expensive to care for. They're herbivores who thrive on a diet of specific, readily-available greens- and they're natural clowns.