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Green Iguanas
Einhander
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So I know a guy who is moving, and as a favor I offered to take care of his giant-ass iguana, essentially permantently.
His cage is two locker frames bolted together with the panels removed and some thick wire mesh is in their place, so he can crawl up and down on the walls if he doesn't want to use the giant branch inside. He's probably a little over 3 feet from nose to the end of his tail. He's probably around two years old.
The mesh looks exactly like this stuff:
So, am I a dumbass for offering to take this incredibly rad but incredibly high maintenence creature?
That's kinda skirting H/A territory, so I'd also like to know if any of you guys have iguanas. So, let's talk about iguanas?
I've been reading about the incredibly high stress levels and poor health generally caused by poor diets that most pet iguanas suffer from, due to a lot of people considering them "throwaway pets", and not understanding the amount of work required to take proper care of them (and not understanding that they will grow tremendously and will need a much larger enclosure than the dinky 20 gallon glass tank they got for $20 at the pet shop). So, is it really a good idea for people to be buying and selling a creature that will more than likely only suffer at the hands of the average pet owner?
If, later on, I found out that I'm not up to the task, what would I do with him? Where do you find a place that will guarantee proper care? Caring for an iguana seems to be really difficult, as a lot of vets are mainly trained in cats, dogs, horses, and livestock, and finding a vet trained in exotic creatures is usually very difficult.
So, yeah, let's talk about iguanas. Is it terrible that people are buying them without the understanding required to provide their pet with a healthy and happy lifestyle or what?
His cage is two locker frames bolted together with the panels removed and some thick wire mesh is in their place, so he can crawl up and down on the walls if he doesn't want to use the giant branch inside. He's probably a little over 3 feet from nose to the end of his tail. He's probably around two years old.
The mesh looks exactly like this stuff:
So, am I a dumbass for offering to take this incredibly rad but incredibly high maintenence creature?
That's kinda skirting H/A territory, so I'd also like to know if any of you guys have iguanas. So, let's talk about iguanas?
I've been reading about the incredibly high stress levels and poor health generally caused by poor diets that most pet iguanas suffer from, due to a lot of people considering them "throwaway pets", and not understanding the amount of work required to take proper care of them (and not understanding that they will grow tremendously and will need a much larger enclosure than the dinky 20 gallon glass tank they got for $20 at the pet shop). So, is it really a good idea for people to be buying and selling a creature that will more than likely only suffer at the hands of the average pet owner?
If, later on, I found out that I'm not up to the task, what would I do with him? Where do you find a place that will guarantee proper care? Caring for an iguana seems to be really difficult, as a lot of vets are mainly trained in cats, dogs, horses, and livestock, and finding a vet trained in exotic creatures is usually very difficult.
So, yeah, let's talk about iguanas. Is it terrible that people are buying them without the understanding required to provide their pet with a healthy and happy lifestyle or what?
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Links to helpful websites on proper care etc would be appreciated.
1) Their tails can shatter glass, including that which they are usually housed in.
2) They can bite, and the bite is not pleasant.
I have a scar from my girlfriend's iguana. They're a bit mean-tempered, more so even than chameleons. If you had a choice, I'd recommend a Chinese water dragon. Sweetest little buggers with only a reptilian brain on earth, and cute to boot.
Edit: Whoops, wrong species.
That aside since you have a male, the most important thing is to give it lots of attention, and always *always* appear/act dominant. For example if you leave the iguana in somone elses care for a week to go on vacation and come back, and they hadn't been interacting with it in the interim, theres a very real chance it may have become violent towards everyone.
If later on you decide you can't handle caring for it, your best bet is probably checking/posting in iguana enthusiast forums or newsgroups. Its very hard to find a good home for a large iguana. Lots of people may want it for the novelty factor, but they won't be willing/know what they're getting into and it'll probably end up going to an animal shelter and being put down if they have no iguana experience.
ewom, if your just looking at getting reptilian pets, have you considered something along the lines of bearded dragons rather than iguanas?
edit: and looking at my post and realizing how negative it came off i'd just like to add, your iguana can be a rewarding and wonderful pet, it just takes a *lot* of effort, attention and reading up on how best to take care of it, which most people can't handle.
This website is your friend:
anapsid.org
Perhaps not TOO small, since you don't want them being able to run away too easily, but you don't want anything bigger than a small cat.
Heck, some of the best pets I ever had were simple blue bellies/fence lizards.
They did pushups.
Upside down while hanging on the screened roof of their cage.
But, being so small, they weren't really that durable, and died of mites which got brought in since they were wild.
If you're going to be handling it, make sure to remember to soap and disinfect when you are done. You'll also want a thick pair of gardeners' gloves, suitable for brambles, because an iguana will dig deep in any surface it can. Diet is tricky, and any diet coming up short is going to show on the iguana-- they will lose color and become saggy and then bony. I don't really remember what a correct diet was, since my father just sort of threw lettuce and similar things at ours.
Honestly, I have no idea what the appeal is. Green iguanas will spend most of their day basking, and then make a hideous racket and will always, always attempt to escape when the opportunity presents itself. They will, in that attempt, lash out and be-- not dangerous, by and large, I guess-- very painful. To say the least.
And, if it did ever fancy to bite you, you would likely be losing whatever its jaw got around.
God, why do people think green iguanas make good pets at all?
If the whole thing goes belly-up, I think the only humane option usually available in the United States is putting it back into the twisted system that put into consumer hands. If you're lucky you might be able to find a herp or herp department at a local zoo that could fence it for you, but either way it's going to come down to handing the guy off with a wad of bills and washing your mutilated hands of the issue as best you can.
Cats and dogs tend to actually want to be around you.
Reptiles will -deal- with you, but if they aren't running away from you, it's because you are cozy and warm.
1: They don't die right away. I hate pets that die fast if properly taken care of.
2: $20 new at 3 of the local pet stores (where some other lizards were 50+USD)
3: Vegetarians: No bugs in the house
Things I did not know:
1: They are aggressive
2: They poop in the sink
I knew they got big, and was prepared to get a big enclosure for them.
Being that they are aggressive, would it be a bad idea to mix them with another lizard? For example my cousin had a gecko and an anole in the same tank for quite awhile, with little problems. Would an iquana just kill the other species you think?
Cats want to be around you?
--
A cat will cheerfully come when you call.
An iguana will poop in your sink specifically in answer to your call.
While they are herbivores, i've heard they have been known to eat smaller lizards when they get hungry enough, that coupled with their inherent agressiveness leads me to believe having other smaller animals around them would not end well. As to point 1. there are various other lizards that live as long as iguanas or longer and are smaller and non-aggressive (the chinese water dragon and bearded dragons shown above for example. as for points 2 and 3...err..at least they won't be taking off your fingers? :P
What kind of cats do you have? My cats take a long time just to come inside when it is raining outside.
Our cats are usually strays or early-caught ferals. The current ones we have include one that showed up at our house one day with a hurt foot and one we found behind a dumpster. I can't actually remember the other current one we have... but only three of the cats out of, like, eleven, have been received from people.
They have all been rather responsive and adoring.
I honestly have no idea how people can have less-than-awesome relationships with their cats.
One of the cats here is a crazy one who lives behind the couch and only comes out at night. She sometimes lets you pet her but only if you don't make much noise. The other two cats are some strays we found. Both refuse to do much of anything that you want them to do. I can open the door when they are right in front of it and are meowing to get out, but they still will take their time in finally going outside.
Cats universally love me, and most other animals as well.
Even our fat cranky cat turns in to a kitten once in awhile and will chase things at random.
They will sometimes ignore our calls, but only for period of time, when they're hoping you're not too serious about it.
We used to have one that would -run- to you from a mile away, meowing all the time.
I was just talking with a guy at my pet shop about the Savannah Monitor they have. Right now it's about 2 feet long and is in a 120 gallon tank, but needs a bigger one. I asked him if you could just let him roam around the house and he said that he wants to take him home and do just that. The last owners weren't very good and he was fiesty at first and bit, but with some time put into him he curls up in your arms like a cat. He takes both arms to hold, but he will lay his head on your shoulder and close his eyes. Now, this is a relative of the goddamn Komodo dragon, and this thing will get 5 feet long, and is much more muscular than an iguana. It also eats small mammals. And now it's a complete baby.
Spend time with, but not too much at first, look for signs of agitation. Try to feed him outside the cage. Make sure he knows that you are his source of food. And make sure he's got a balanced diet and sunlight/UVA-UVB light.
There are some really well-tempered iguanas out there, though, and the trick - or so I'm told - is to get them very, very young, and handle them all the time. If they don't get used to being around people early, they don't make very good pets.
Mine did too, I never figured out why. What did you feed it?
Do they use the litter box, the sink, or just ah... anywhere?
Read that cover to cover once or twice before adopting an Iguana.
hambone, I'm reading through that .pdf right now. Thank you.
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Problem right now is he hasn't shit for three days, so I'm kinda worried he might have an impaction from eating too many crix or something - these things will clear up on their own, I've found, and I'll just come home from work one day and find a massive poo in his cage.
A lot of people see Green Iguanas being like, $20 and think its an easy pet when really its not, for all the reasons people listed above. When I was younger I had one, and one of the dogs nosed it. That tail came around and split the dog's nose open, and this was from a little one, mind you. A friend of mine ended up keeping his until it was fully grown, and it killed his Grandmother's cat when the cat started playing with its tail. He said he was in the dining room when he heard a high pitched yelp only to go into the living room to see his iguana moving away from the cat's cooling corpse.
It ripped its throat out.
Anyway, just personally I'd stay away from monitors, iguanas, and even pythons and boas. A lot of people don't realise these things live for a long time, and aren't a throwaway lizard like an anole or a box turtle you can just release back into the wild when you're bored. Leopard Geckos, Bearded Dragons, and Water Dragons are really the way to go if you're starting to get into herpetology, or king/corn snakes if you like slithery things.
They're typically pretty consistent and trainable in where they poop and where their food is going to be. They shed skin everywhere though. You can't train that out.
Eh, beardies are pretty low hassle and seem to have a personality moreso. They're famous for the "WTF?" look they'll give you, and can usually differentiate between people, running up the glass and "waving" when its someone they recognize.
Also, there's the fact that the beardies around here I've never seen priced for less than $80-$90. I bought mine for a hundred, and that's usually a pretty high hurdle against someone picking one up on a whim for the price of a beer and a pizza, which seems to be the problem with green iguanas.
My Beardie almost never shits unless I put him in water. Then he just lets loose. Apparently if you put them in a dish/tub big enough for them to wade in, they will kinda bathe in it and it helps them pass waste. Also to molt better.
I think you underestimate how interactive reptiles can be. Sure, there are some mean ones, but the ones that have been pointed out as good pets are generally good because they're friendly, only take a moderate amount of maintenence, and are fairly sociable.
I won't defend fish, though. I don't get that.
Granted, reptiles and insects are not social creatures like mammals. However if well trained and cared for they can be very friendly and, as has been mentioned, don't need to be kept in a cage.
Once I start getting OT at the prison, I'm thinking of getting African Cichilids in my living room. They look neat and colorful. To be honest, I almost went balls into starting a Marine Aquarium, until I realised I'd have to sell a human child and possibly a kidney to afford it. I crunched numbers and realised it'd cost me upwards of $600 just to get started, and that's before fish and everything were involved, and its a hugely time intensive task.
Still, there's something to be said for walking into someone's living room and seeing a 200 gallon coral tank lit up at night.
And Shrew, thanks for the Beardie advice, I've heard that before but never thought to try it. I'm not worried he has a serious impaction due to the fact he's not having any odd bulges or he's staying in one spot, but still, he hasn't pooped since like Friday or Saturday, I think, and he's due for a good shit.