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Posted by blacklightning42 on February 19, 2003 at 21:01:14:
Well, I guess that the best lead-in here would be to say that I’ve gone and done (depending on the individual’s viewpoint) an either extremely good and/or extraordinarily stupid thing. I bought a green iguana.
I should next point out that I really didn’t want to get this iguana, but moral ground that exists only in the back of my mind obligated me to. The iguana, from the local pet shop (and I live in the middle of nowhere) was one of two there, and she(he?)’s in really bad shape. She’s minus the end of her tail, two middle toes on her back left foot, and she has a long cut along the entire of her left body. I’m assuming that this cut comes from either her pushy cagemate, or from falling from one of the perches in the cage she was kept in (at one point while I was in the pet shop, s/he fell because of her lack of toes). I’m on good terms with the staff at the store, and they’re really good about keeping their animals (reptiles in particular, actually) but they ARE running a business, so can’t justify a special set-up for a single iguana. They sold her to me for next to nothing. I’d like to point out here that I can get pictures reasonably quickly of any of her caging if there’s any sort of question, and I’ve tried to describe her, her behavior, and her surroundings, as best I can. Please scroll through any non-essential information that I may have included...
I brought her home Saturday evening (writing this wendesday), and, seeing as how I wasn’t preparing to get another lizard, I made her a set up as follows, and I’d really appreciate any advice that could be given about the enclosure:
She’s in a 25-gallon tank, currently, but I can procure larger accommodations within a week or so if immediately necessary. The tank is set up to be terrestrial, seeing as how she’s fallen before, that I’ve seen, I don’t want her to fall and hurt herself in an arboreal set-up (she’s not happy about this, however, and if her health starts looking up, I’ll change this). She’s got a basking area that hovers just under 100 degrees F, and it varies around the tank down to about 70 degrees – I’ve put three thermometers in the tank to get an idea of this, and am moving them around to make sure that it doesn’t go up to/over 100. There are VERY clean cotton towels (and very well rinsed, NO soap) at the bottom of her cage, so that she doesn’t get sand or any similar substrate into any of her cuts or scratches. The tank has an UTH for night time, and I’m checking on her regularly to be certain that she doesn’t crawl under the bottom layer of towels and go anywhere near it (she hasn’t). She’s got a small water dish, and a fountain that’s made for reptiles in the cooler end of her tank. I'm pretty sure she needs more water than this, but I'm waiting until I'm certain before changind this, to avoid her getting stuck in a deep water dish, or some other such event.
That I can observe, she’s not eaten anything yet. I’ve offered her pears, kiwi, strawberries, blackberries, and a couple of other fruit (nothing not on the recommended list of food from the Iguana article in a semi-recent REPTILES magazine), generally anything sweet that I think might entice her to eat, but if she has, it’s not been a significant amount, because her dish always seems more of less untouched (looks more like s/he stepped in it than sampled it...). I’ve bought a bag of the frozen vegetable that the pet store tells me that s/he’d been eating, and I can give her some of those right away if it sounds like a good idea? I’ve also bought a few jars of appropriate baby food for her/him, but I’d like to keep that as a last resort. I’ve got a large jar of iguana-specific calcium supplement, and a jar of general vitamins (my other reptiles don’t like the taste of the latter, as a general rule, however) but I’m hesitant to make use of these until I know that she’s easting, to begin with. She has left me two nice little steaming presents in the bottom of her tank, however. I’m taking this as a good sign, but she's still terribly thin.
On her cuts, I’ve been putting polysporin in the mornings and at night. I’ve been told by the vet, in previous incidents with injured reptiles, that this is an appropriate thing to use, if this isn’t the case, PLEASE set me straight right away! In addition to the toes already missing, s/he seems to have very little control over a couple of her remaining toes, twisting at the ends, and such, I’m thinking that this could be a calcium deficiency, or a blood-flow problem? As an added note to this, she also bites. Frequently. While I know better than to jerk away when bitten, she tends to grab hold of me and shake her head, and I’m afraid that may end up hurting her teeth, is there anything that I can do that might curb this? (that, and my Father is paranoid, and insists that if she continues to bite me, she be taken back to the pet shop) Interestingly enough, however, she only ever bites when I’m trying NOT to be obtrusive, if I purposefully try to get her to bite me (yes, there is a twisted sort of logic to this), she just looks at me like I’m stupid, I can stick my finger right in from of her nose, or even rub her head gently, and she only glares at me. Maybe I just taste bad. And, silly though it sounds, I would almost rather have her biting me now, if it can’t be avoided all together, because assuming that she gets bigger, I want her to have gotten the message that biting me will NOT make me go away, before these bites wind up requiring trips to the hospital at every occurrence.
As for the lizard herself (himself?) she would have been a bit under 2’ long if she’d had the last half of her tail, I’d estimate her SVL at around 8-10” (she’s not exactly eager to sit around while I fish out a ruler) and her markings are very well defined. If able to look past all the cuts, scrapes, and the missing extremities, she’s an absolutely beautiful animal. She’s extraordinarily smart, as well. I know very well that it sounds completely idiotic, but there’s something really SPECIAL about this lizard, there’s something in her eyes, when she looks at you. The 'lights are on', she’s THINKING. I’ve met a LOT of reptiles, and even looking at a lot of other iguanas (though I’ll state right out that she’s the first that I’ve ever come in contact with, directly), there is just something in her eyes that stands out, like she’s really considering you, when she looks at you, rather than the typical ‘is it going to eat me or not?’ look that reptiles tend to give when sizing up humans around them. I can’t describe it better than to say that this is a very, very smart and aware animal.
As a final note, strange though it sounds, I think she’s doing a bit better than when I brought her home, despite her dislike for every fiber of my being and refusal to eat any great amount, she’s starting to look better; I think. Her colors are brighter, she’s moving around more, standing higher off the ground when she walks, biting with greater enthusiasm every time she sees me (I suspect this may be a losing battle), and generally acting much happier than she’d been in the pet store. Also, I should point out that I’m just a kid in high school, and I’m stuck with this tendency to drag home sick animals – a pair of impacted &dehydrated savannah monitors, a year-old eastern garter snake that a local kid shot with a pellet gun (his friend brought it to me), a wonderful Florida Blue garter who’d been chewed up by crickets that the pet shop (different pet shop!) who were convinced that she’d eat them, etc., etc. and I couldn’t stand to see the iguana in that condition. While I’m expecting that she’ll probably do okay in the long run despite all the trouble she’s having (some of it originating with the fumbling kid trying to take care of her, no doubt *cough*) I’d hate to see her die in the pet shop just because she couldn’t be afforded at least a bit of individual attention, even if I’m not the best or most experienced person to be giving it. I am, however, a big fan of iguanas, and have done a lot of back research just for the heck of it before I ever even THOUGHT of getting one, and am reading up much more on them again now. In contrast to this, I don’t want to try anything dumb that might hurt her more before I know just what to do.
I’d like to thank in advance (thank you again and again and again) anyone who could give me any advice on how to take better care of her, or who could help out in any way whatsoever. Thanks even for reading this post :)
Thanks,
--- A Useless Kid, and a Sick Iguana
