I think...

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Posted by Flavia Guimaraes on March 10, 2003 at 04:09:14:

In Reply to: Canadian Iguana? posted by blacklightning42 on March 09, 2003 at 15:52:49:

...you are a good ig owner and your ig trusts you, what is great!Congratulations!!!
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:I think I have a weird iguana. A very weird one. And the clueless kid who brought home this weird iguana is still trying in vain to figure out whats going on in the weird iguana's scaled greed head.

:First, I should wave a big hello (try to imagine me jumping up and down yelling 'hi!' in front of the keyboard) to everyone here, human or otherwise, and thank you for all of the help and advice you offered His Majesty and I - it's really helped! Though I have had opprotunity to ger back here a few times to read the posts, this is the first opprotunity I've had to compose something myself ^_~ And, well, he seems much better now! Eating and climbing!

:What new events have transpired since I was last here? Well, I realized, for one, that 'she' is actaully a 'he' (heaven help us!) and I've named him 'Sparrow'... long story. I've also, to my intense displeasure, discovered that he is, in adition to all the other problems the poor little guy was having, completely infested with worms - so there's an excursion to the vet in the very near future to see to that!

:Now, I may well be the only one to think this, but does it seem normal for an iguana to, after only about ten days with me, decide to stop biting completely? (famous last words, I know - he'll probably make a point of chomping down on me now just to prove me wrong) I suspect that this might just be because he and I have finally been able to establing just WHO is in charge: Him.

:I've taken now to giving him daily baths, for a bit of exercise, and discovered two more things about him. First, he actaully does like the idea of pooping in the tub! Secondly, as much as he likes pooping in the tub, I think it's more of a statement than anything else; this iguana never displays affection OR climbing ability nearly so well as when he sees the water in the bath tub! He'll stop squirming to get away and to the ground (therefore taking me by surprise the first few times he tried it) spin around, claw his way right up my arm, and sit on my shoulder, glaring at me. Needless to say, he's not a huge fan of that first few steps into the water. (it's not too deep - he couldn't submerge his entire head if he wanted to at the shalow end of the tub, and at the deeper end he can still keep all four scaley feet firmly on the ground while not getting the top of his back wet, unless he wanted to. The water is usually 85 degrees, give or take a few)

:The most interesting thing I've noticed about him so far, though, is the way he eats. He wont eat any of the food that's in his bowl. Nor will he eat any food that is not in his bowl. In fact, the only time he'll eat anything - I find this hard to believe, even when it's happeing - is when I'm handing it to him directly. He seems to adore collard greens and cantaloup, is a bit pickier about other things, but will occasionally sample some of it (his reaction to parsley was helarious! ...he didn't swallow it - and I'll leave it at that) but I'm not going to be too pushy about a 'balanced' diet until I can just rely on SOMETHING going into him, since he'd refused to eat for over a week when I got him (He's getting vitamins with these, however, and will hopefully agree to eat other things in greater quantity soon). I just can't believe quite yet that this wild, ill-tempered (well, he isn't any more) dinosaur would insist on eating out of my fingers!

:But I have to ask - is this a good thing? should I stop him from doing this?

:On the 'Canadian' topic - it's not just because we're in Canada; It's the lizard who seems to enjoy playing Hockey with his food, rather than eating it. In all honesty, if I put something in his cage that he doesn't like, I can count EVERY SINGLE PIECE of the veggies (whatever they are at the time) and when I go back into the room later, not one of them is in the food dish. But similarly, not one of them is eaten. They're in the water dish, under a blanket, on a blanket, dropped under the UV lamp, drop at the extream AWAY from the UV lamp, and just generally scattered to ever corner of the cage that he can find. I think this may be a comment on just exactly what he thinks of the so-called 'poison' that I'm trying to feed him.

:Just figured that I'd share this with everyone, and ask "Is this NORMAL behavior?!" and all other things like this ^_^

:And, happily enough, aside from this rather odd set of manners and the worm problem (which will be remidied ASAP - but I have to make an appointment with a vet whose office is about 2 hours away), he seems to be turning into a rather happy iguana. Although he's obviously still got a LONG way to go, his colors are good, he's eating, he's pooping, and he's begun to shed, so the cuts & scrapes are beginning to look much better now!

:Thanks again to everyone who helped - Sparrow's doing really well!

:--- Whitney & a not-quite-so-sick-anymore Sparrow

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