Posted by Harry's Dad on July 17, 2000 at 19:00:52:
In Reply to: New Iguana Question posted by Aaron on July 17, 2000 at 16:31:01:
Well, you may or may not have gotten lucky, your iguana could be less stressed than your friends.
What I would like to explain to you and hopefully you'll pass it on to your friend, is that letting a iglet roam around a house is kinda asking for trouble (unless your house is completely iglet proof) Iglets and small youngsters, can find the smallest holes and get wedged into making it hard to recover them. Also, if you take your eye off of them for just a few seconds, they can up and disappear, leaving you to tear the house apart looking for them......they can find closets, dresser drawers,behind ovens,behind or IN hotwater tanks, behind entertainment centers, etc..and as small as your iglet is, you can figure it can squeeze into a hole half the size of it's body. I would suggest picking a room and pre-ig proof it. Get down on the floor and crawl around looking at every nook and cranny to make sure your igs safe. Remove all live plants and flowers. Cover electrical outlets with those child safety covers, iguana's can stick their fingers into both plug holes very easily. Remove all breakable objects. Cover any good furniture that you don't want to get stained from "poof". Once you think you have it ig proof, go around ONE more time.....chances are, you'll find something else that needs to either be removed or covered up.
As far as training goes, handling is about the main thing you'll want to focus on right now. Make sure you handle your iglet every day but be very gentle and try not to stress them out. They remember the strangest stuff and could change they're personality in the future. Don't subject them to other animals for a few months at least. Try to take it away from mirrors if possible, iguana's can't understand what a mirror is, the only thing they think, is there's another iguana facing them. This could lead to aggression.
With an iglet, make sure their food bowl is always filled and that the food is bite size, a measurement to use is the distance between it's eyes, anything bigger than that shouldn't be fed to them for the first six months. Get a small wire cage to house your iglet in so that you can take the whole cage outside. Direct sunlight is the best for a healthy iguana. Try to get at least 4 to 6 hours a week outside with your iguana. DO NOT hold your iglet in your hands outside.....they run FAST!!!! Don't chance it.
Keep an eye out for your iglet overheating in the sun, make sure that half the cage is always shaded and every so often spray your iglet down with water from a spray bottle.
Best wishes and Welcome to the forum......keep posting those questions!!!
HD