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Posted by JustinM. on September 23, 2002 at 21:13:46:
I work at a KIDZ ZOO in northern Boston where we take in unwanted exotic animals. We either nurse the unwanted animals back to health, add them to our collection at the zoo, adopt them out to excellent homes and/or once they are in good health, we use them for lectures, shows, birthday parties, etc...
Anyways, ratio wise, we have enough iguanas at our zoo and we refuse to take in any right now. We, literally have people call us every day or every other day looking to get "RID OF" their iguanas or an iguana that haphazardly came into their life and they cannot take care of it. We advise people to contact the Rhode Island Iguana Rescue. However, more often than not, as you can imagine, they are chalk full of iguanas too.
So, 2 days ago, I was on my lunch break and a guy called saying his daughter dropped off her iguana of 2 years and "didn't want to deal with him anymore". The iguana did not eat for a whole week, had no heat source, free roamed in the house, frequented under a dark dresser and was fed bagged mixed lettuce. The ig is 1 1/2" long and has a good temperament. I decided to take a look at him and told the guy to bring him down.
He is beautiful! But, obviously not in the best shape. He has all of his dorsal spines, great red/ green striping coloration and a nice overall facial appearance(clear eyes, scalation, mouth appearance)..........on the bad side, both his front 2 thumbs are bent toward his hand(either from breaking his thumbs and improper growth or MBD...not sure?), 2 black absesses half way down his tail that can easily be removed surgically with minimal pain/bleeding, 2-3 "abnormally" grown fingers and 1 broken nail or missing toe nail?.
DAY 1: Sunday's weather was rather hot and sunny so I decided to let the ig bask on my porch(I provided area for shade and basking). I got him to eat a small morsel from a banana. I have given him warm, 1-2 hour baths twice a day and he has had 2 defecations since I've acquired him(of course high in ureaic matter).
DAY 2: I have gotten him to take small morsels of apple and orange. He free roams in my room during the day and basks under a temporary 50 watt spot lamp over his wire cage he cares less for. Obviously he is a free roaming iguana and I want to have him free roam(only when I'm home and can keep an eye on him). I have a nice 4'high by 2' wide "Box-like" cage that I'm setting up for him this week. He will stay in his cage while I'm at school, work or anytime he is unsupervised.
I'm going to add rope attatched to rings, large, thick branches and a REPTI-SUN 5.0 flourescent fixture w/ a 100 watt ZOO MED incandescent spot bulb. The substrate for his cage is black, styled peel tile for easy cleaning.
What I really need is acclimation advice. I'm looking for ways/methods to gradually get him to eat dark greens/leaves. As expected he is replenishing lost vitamins and friut is appetizing to start off with. However, I'm afraid after gaining full appetite he may become picky and only want to eat friut. Secondly, besides proper lighting, what else can I do for proper mineral/calcium supplementation? He is in bad shape, but not the worst I've seen and is very beautiful and looks like he has strong genes for a hardy survival.
On my last note, I'm bringing him in to the zoo on Sat. to let our vet look at him. We will probably remove the absess and depending on what the vet suggests.....I would like to see if we can rebrake/or splint his "unatural" growing fingers.........Just to calm you guys down, I'm not going to break anything or do anything that isn't deemed necessary or vital for his present and future health. I want to bring him to peak health like all of my animals and let him live a happy life with me. I keep some of the rarer herps like an orchid mantid, a giant U. fimbriatus Leaf-tail gecko and an asian vine snake. Iguanas never really appealed too me and have more or less, seemed too common and/or unintersting too me. However, once I saw my new ig I knew he was a retile that I would want to dedicate time/energy and care for. It's a nice change since most of my animals look cool but you can't really hold them or go for walks with them. My ig enjoys exploring my room and living a curious life. He's the compromise of a dog and an exotic anmal roled up into 1 animal. In fact, he sleeps in my bed with me! LOL. Any advice/suggestions/comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!:)
