Europeans being better?? Nope..don't think so!

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Posted by Bosse on July 01, 1999 at 14:22:53:

Some post earlier where saying that it was only the U.S importers that where the problem and that we didn't have the same problems in Europe. Believe me we do! OK i can not be sure HOW bad it is over there, but we have problems with imported Igs as well.
1) The price have gone down drasticly since we joined the E.U ( not according to you, though ), from about 200 dollars down to 50 dollars, which have opened up the market for many buyers who couldn't afford them before.

2) It's not so easy for the buyers to know what to expect, when a lot of the people selling them don't know, or even care, what they sell, as long as they get to sell them. A lot of people contact us to get more info on the igs. When I ask them what they have been told, this is one ( not too rare ) answer: " they get no more than 4 feet long ( not entirely wrong, since up to 90 %of them don't get older than 5 years old ), they eat sallad ( fortunatly the recommendation to give them animal protein, especially during the first couple of years, has disappeared more or less ), there are NO handling risks ( h***, there are sooo many people that have been mutilated by Iguanas, both by claws, teeth and tails ) and there are no problem with space, since you can keep them loose in the appartment or house ( imagine that...in a country where our homes during the winter have about 20- 35 % rel humidity , and only sometimes is higher than 50-60 % and temp is way too low. OK for a while but NOT in the long run. ) The regulations set by the Swedish Board of Agriculture says that a treeliving lizard over 5 feet MUST have a cage with the size 4 sq meters ( about 50 sq feet ) and at least 1.8 meters high ( about 6 feet ). That's a big cage and the possibilities to give that cage the right conditions are not easy ( almost impossible to give the right humidity TOGETHER with good ventilation, at least with a normal budget. )

3) In Sweden we have onle a handful veterinarians that know tropical animals, birds and reptiles.It's getting better, since they start to see the market for it and a lot of vets realy do wanna learn. Since last year we have a small conference dealing with the care and handling of different pets ( i.e. reptiles, parrots,and other not so common pets ) and I do a speach on reptiles on that, and especially I concentrate on the Iguanas since i consider them to be probably one of the toughest pets to keep. And I know that the clinics are starting to get more an d more Iguanas in that are soo bad in condition due to maltreatment. I see some too since there are a lot of people that wanna give their ig to us, but we can't take them in.

I'm not gonna make this post too long, so I stop now. There are more problems, so don't think for one moment that the problems are only in the U.S. I would believe it is common all over.

Bosse

Follow Ups:

Seek...........and you shall find ........ sometimes we need to look deeper to see the truth. Harry's Dad 7/01/99 (3)
- gee thanks, Confucioius......lol.............N/P Skinny 7/02/99 (0)
- Let's just say that at $600 each in my town..... Iguanamomma 7/01/99 (1)
  - Re: Let's just say that at $600 each in my town..... Harry's Dad 7/01/99 (0)

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: Some post earlier where saying that it was only the U.S importers that where the problem and that we didn't have the same problems in Europe. Believe me we do! OK i can not be sure HOW bad it is over there, but we have problems with imported Igs as well. : 1) The price have gone down drasticly since we joined the E.U ( not according to you, though ), from about 200 dollars down to 50 dollars, which have opened up the market for many buyers who couldn't afford them before. : 2) It's not so easy for the buyers to know what to expect, when a lot of the people selling them don't know, or even care, what they sell, as long as they get to sell them. A lot of people contact us to get more info on the igs. When I ask them what they have been told, this is one ( not too rare ) answer: " they get no more than 4 feet long ( not entirely wrong, since up to 90 %of them don't get older than 5 years old ), they eat sallad ( fortunatly the recommendation to give them animal protein, especially during the first couple of years, has disappeared more or less ), there are NO handling risks ( h***, there are sooo many people that have been mutilated by Iguanas, both by claws, teeth and tails ) and there are no problem with space, since you can keep them loose in the appartment or house ( imagine that...in a country where our homes during the winter have about 20- 35 % rel humidity , and only sometimes is higher than 50-60 % and temp is way too low. OK for a while but NOT in the long run. ) The regulations set by the Swedish Board of Agriculture says that a treeliving lizard over 5 feet MUST have a cage with the size 4 sq meters ( about 50 sq feet ) and at least 1.8 meters high ( about 6 feet ). That's a big cage and the possibilities to give that cage the right conditions are not easy ( almost impossible to give the right humidity TOGETHER with good ventilation, at least with a normal budget. ) : 3) In Sweden we have onle a handful veterinarians that know tropical animals, birds and reptiles.It's getting better, since they start to see the market for it and a lot of vets realy do wanna learn. Since last year we have a small conference dealing with the care and handling of different pets ( i.e. reptiles, parrots,and other not so common pets ) and I do a speach on reptiles on that, and especially I concentrate on the Iguanas since i consider them to be probably one of the toughest pets to keep. And I know that the clinics are starting to get more an d more Iguanas in that are soo bad in condition due to maltreatment. I see some too since there are a lot of people that wanna give their ig to us, but we can't take them in. : I'm not gonna make this post too long, so I stop now. There are more problems, so don't think for one moment that the problems are only in the U.S. I would believe it is common all over. : Bosse

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