Advice from several years of free roaming...

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Posted by Mark on June 19, 2002 at 18:57:56:

In Reply to: ig proofing a room... posted by shanna on June 19, 2002 at 17:40:17:

There are several approaches to this.

My first iguana free roamed my entire house, and I never had a bit of trouble with him. In fact, he is pushing close to 10 yrs old now, and is going strong in North Carolina (where I sent him, to get out of the harsh North Dakota winter I had been putting him through before I moved to CO). He was a great iguana, who only went from his perch in front of the window in the living room, to the bathroom to poop, and back to his perch. I say he free roamed the whole house, but he seldom EVER left those two rooms, other than to follow me around the house. For him, I ig-proofed nothing, and just let him do his thing. I DO NOT recommend this method.

The second method is what I use now. One room for free roaming iguanas. Linolium on the floor, since iguanas can and will try to eat carpet, and it can cause impactions. The whole room is heated to 80-85 degrees. There are 4 Active UV lights set up for basking stations. All outlets on the walls are covered. NO windows are ever left open without human supervision. I learned this after thinking the screen would be ok for just a little while, only to find one iguana and one asian water monitor on the roof of my garage.

OK, and then there is the middle ground. Anything an iguana could possibly knock over, it will. Anything it can possibly climb, it will. Any space it could possibly fit into, it will. These things need to all be considered. For a short supervised free roaming, you can get away with leaving a lot more stuff out. For longer roams, or permanent, you need to start looking at everything imaginable.

BTW - Chuck, my first ig, LOVED to use picture frames as "jumping blocks". He would jump from his perch to the picture frame, then drop to the floor. Then climb the perch and start all over. And watch the VCR. For some reason, a VCR always looks like a GREAT landing pad. And they like to poop into the back of the TV or the computer monitor.

Mark

: What are some things that should be kept in mind when allowing igs to free roam, even if for short periods of time or even in one room. Spike is not yet to this point and is barely allowed out of my site for more than a split second, but I can tell she likes the freedom and to explore. The iguana eating the tube sock and tutu kind of made me realize that aside from knocking stuff over, they might try to eat things too.

: Also, when they are "smelling things" with their tongue, would it be bad if they smelled something that would be bad for them to injest? For example, what if an ig was smelling a lotion or perfume bottle, could that be something to try to "ig proof"?
: Thanks, Shanna and Spike
:

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: There are several approaches to this. : My first iguana free roamed my entire house, and I never had a bit of trouble with him. In fact, he is pushing close to 10 yrs old now, and is going strong in North Carolina (where I sent him, to get out of the harsh North Dakota winter I had been putting him through before I moved to CO). He was a great iguana, who only went from his perch in front of the window in the living room, to the bathroom to poop, and back to his perch. I say he free roamed the whole house, but he seldom EVER left those two rooms, other than to follow me around the house. For him, I ig-proofed nothing, and just let him do his thing. I DO NOT recommend this method. : The second method is what I use now. One room for free roaming iguanas. Linolium on the floor, since iguanas can and will try to eat carpet, and it can cause impactions. The whole room is heated to 80-85 degrees. There are 4 Active UV lights set up for basking stations. All outlets on the walls are covered. NO windows are ever left open without human supervision. I learned this after thinking the screen would be ok for just a little while, only to find one iguana and one asian water monitor on the roof of my garage. : OK, and then there is the middle ground. Anything an iguana could possibly knock over, it will. Anything it can possibly climb, it will. Any space it could possibly fit into, it will. These things need to all be considered. For a short supervised free roaming, you can get away with leaving a lot more stuff out. For longer roams, or permanent, you need to start looking at everything imaginable. : BTW - Chuck, my first ig, LOVED to use picture frames as "jumping blocks". He would jump from his perch to the picture frame, then drop to the floor. Then climb the perch and start all over. And watch the VCR. For some reason, a VCR always looks like a GREAT landing pad. And they like to poop into the back of the TV or the computer monitor. : Mark : : : What are some things that should be kept in mind when allowing igs to free roam, even if for short periods of time or even in one room. Spike is not yet to this point and is barely allowed out of my site for more than a split second, but I can tell she likes the freedom and to explore. The iguana eating the tube sock and tutu kind of made me realize that aside from knocking stuff over, they might try to eat things too. : : Also, when they are "smelling things" with their tongue, would it be bad if they smelled something that would be bad for them to injest? For example, what if an ig was smelling a lotion or perfume bottle, could that be something to try to "ig proof"? : : Thanks, Shanna and Spike : : <img src="http://losingmylycosa.com/images/0frisky.jpg">

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