Re: Taming Lizard

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Posted by John-Paul on August 12, 2002 at 02:03:48:

In Reply to: Taming Lizard posted by kooky on August 09, 2002 at 07:35:51:

Some iguanas take longer to tame then others, but all can eventually become at least managable, although some may not get past that point. In my experience, wearing gloves is not condusive to training an iguana and getting it to trust you. It sees those huge gloves and automaticly assumes you're a predetor. You just need a ton of patience, and you need to let your iguana know when it's doing something you like, and also when it's doing something which you don't. Positive reinforcements help, such as giving him/her thier favorite food when they do as you wish, and when they don't, you need not yell at them, just in a firm voice let them know what they've done is not good. As far as biting, whipping etc, I give my iguana a light tap on the nose, hard enough to let it know that what it did was very bad, and if it continues, the nose beatings will commense, but remember that an iguana's nose is very sensitive, so you need not tap it hard, in fact you need to tap it rather lightly, because you can damage the nerves it uses to smell with if you tap it too hard. Only use this method if they bite or whip you, and NEVER do it harder than a light tap.

The best thing you can do in the training and socialization of your iguana is to spend as much time as humanly possible with him/her, because the more time you spend with your ig, the more sociable they become, which in turn causes them to trust you more, therefore making your life easier and more enjoyable.

My iguana is very tame, and it took me a long time to get him this way. All iguanas are different though, and some may take a bit more work to get the results someone else put little effort into achieving. If you can't spend the required time with your ig, than it will not be an easy task taming it, as it will not view you as a friend, only a visitor, and an annoying one at that. The more time you spend, the more and the better the results will be.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking their iguana is untamable, and they ignore the contributing factors to their iguana's resistance to taming. The biggest factor would be too small an enclosure. People percieve their iguana whipping and hissing when they put their arm in their igs cage as a mean, unruly iguana that won't train, when in all likelyhood the cage is far too small. If you were in a closet and some creature kept invading your tiny space, you too would hiss and do whatever was needed to defend yourself. What i'm trying to convey here is that if your iguana is in a tiny cage, or one that is too small, he will defend it much more vigorously than he would were it adequite in size. Until he/she is in a decent sized cage, he will appear to be unmanageable. There is so much more than this on this particular topic, but my fingers are getting tired, so just read this site and others for the information you seek, as it is there for the taking.

Good Luck,
John-Paul

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