Re: club tailed iguana (long)

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Posted by bobl on March 19, 2003 at 17:27:19:

In Reply to: Re: club tailed iguana (long) posted by AR on March 19, 2003 at 15:45:14:

:It sounds like your iguana is not dong well. It is probably wild caught, and heavily parasited(word?). Stress could be causing it to go down hill, and allowing the parasites to get the better of it. Try not to handle it unless you need to, let it acclimate. What kind of set up and temps. do you have it under? That could also be a problem. I don't know what kind you have, but I believe all club tailed iguanas come frome southern Mexico to Central America, so do some research on the wheather down there. Also, all ctenosaurs like a little meat in their diet, so try offering crickets, worms, and other insects to see if you can entice it to eat.

:AR

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:Deb,

You should take the lizard to the vet to be treated for parasites and dehydration. Unless you know dosage rates you can easily kill an already weak animal via O.D. on worm meds.
If you want to try to get it going on your own you should lower the cool end a bit. (80-82) the higher end temp sounds good as does the basking spot. Provide a dark hide box so the lizard can feel safe/secure.
Make sure it is hydrated via soaks, misting, and offer a good size water bowl for drinking and to help with ambient humidity if your lizard is super dehydrated. You might want to offer low sodium/sugar Pedialite with an eye dropper right into its mouth.
If it's not feeding on veggies or bugs offer low sodium/sugar baby food. Try the veggie and fruit variaties and remember, LOW sodium/sugar. The sugar isn't as important to cut out as the sodium. The sodium will dry out your lizard and finish him off! If it won't feed on the baby food on its own you can also force feed it through the eye dropper, but they usually like that stuff once they know it's available, especially the sweet fruit types! It's also very easy for them to digest, especially for a lizard that hasn't eaten in a while. You might have to take a dab and put it on the end of its nose and let it know where the food is. The reason why it's crapping out only the "white part" is beacause it has no food in its belly to crap out so all you are seeing is the urates, or the urine which is white. Anyway,it's always better if you can get them to eat on their own rather than to cause undue stress via force feeding them.
You should contact Jiff. She is big into reptile (iguana) rehab.
She'll help you out.

Good Luck
Bobby

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