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Posted by W.P.A.R. on July 31, 2001 at 22:21:24:
Wow, that subject line is a bit...odd.
< REALLY LONG >!!!
I am the .."proud"..mother of a brand new 3 foot long male iguana. I wasn't aware I was even going to be a mother, this guy just happened to be dumped on my doorstep (literaly, in a tiny cat carrier). (I run an animal rescue rescue..we don't usualy take iguanas) I've had him now for a few weeks, and I think I am doing things pretty well but maybe I can go over them all with you, maybe there are things that I am missing!
We built Ziggy's cage immediatly. When I discovered him on my doorstep I took him upstairs and put him in a spare room with a ceramic heater on him. This held him over for one night and a day while we built him a 10foot tall, 5ft wide, 4feet deep cage. It has 2 ceramic heaters that come on alternatly during the day, a full spectrum reptile/iguana light for the day time, two ledges, two ramps, (untreated wood covered in indoor/outdoor carpet) a litterbox full of water and his food dish. He seems content in his cage, although he doesn't move from the top shelf very often. Temps range from 85-95 degrees during the day time, to about 80 at night. At one time, I noticed that his cage was 100. Since then I only turn on the ceramic heater once a day and one at a time to get his cage going.
His diet is FRESH acorn squash, strawberries, kale (little bits), turnip greens, mustard greens, grapes, watermellon (he looked dehydrated) green beans, string peas, snow peas, bannana, mango.......
I took him to the vet for a full examination. He actually appears healthy. His tail however is missing, it looks like it was chopped in two places. But his stomach is this bright neon green with blue/black stripes (Really cool) and the vet told me that was really healthy because most people just stick them on heat rocks or something and it burns them, leaving their stomach black and charred looking. he only has one burn that we could find, on his "paw" I guess I could say. He also has a nasty rub on his nose, that is raw and may be infected. I have been treating it once a day with antibiotics.
He's a really cool ig. He's this dark orange and green color, and has long dorsal spikes and a really awesome head!!! I know that sounds strange to say, and very childish, but I never got an iguana because I didn't think I would have the time for one (I still don't he's only here temproarily until I can adopt him out) but he is friendly (i go in his cage and pet him all the time and he lets me carry him around and pick him up..and cut his nails) and very good looking. I hope I can adopt him out before I get too atached to him (Too late...)
I'm going to try to post a picture of him in his cage. that may show what I mean.(that's him on the shelf in the right hand corner) I am really looking for any ideas on him...I don't even know his age. The vet said he could be a healthy 2 year old or a growth-stunted 6 year old, there was no real way to tell. I just want some help!! I only want the best for him, and I keep picking info out of books and off the internet but the only thing that I can find that hasn't been contridicted at least a thousand times is never feed them animal protein and make sure they have plenty of UVB/UV lighting made specificly for Iguanas.
My last question: Are harnesses safe to use? He loves to go outside and walk around and bask in the grass but it makes me so nervous that he could just decided to take off and disapear! (the yard is fenced in but he could climb that fence!) In otherwords I walk beside him everywhere he goes, and I don't think he likes it too much! I was thinking maybe if harnesses were safe, putting one on him and putting a long flexi lead on him so he could mosey around the yard and sun without me right at his side (i would be a few feet behind him) so he could have his little iguana-privacy.
Okay...please help if you can, and if you read this far, THANKS!!!!
