I have plenty of experience, everything i have typed is based off my own experiences and my opinions. I find that carpet is the best all round bedding. When i first heard that i thought it was absurd, but i tried it and found you can wash it whenever, you don't have to keep buying new substrate when it gets dirty so its cheaper, and it looks professional. you can also vacume and dust bust it very easily. also its harder for bugs to get in, well some. almost all of my guys have carpet. and my baby iggs are in there own closet.
anywho your iggy is not going to spend much time on the ground anyway, they feel safe up high, and he'll probably spend alot of time soaking in his water and pooping in his water anyway.
what kind of cage do you have him in? is it tall? also I'm not sure how much you know about them yet so just to be safe, you know that they get 6ft of 72 razor sharp teeth backed by strong jaws, HUGE claws with shear weight and muscle, and a tail with sharp scales that can easily cut you open, also to make it all better the average iguana is terrified of a humongous predator like you and me.
They are one of the WORST starter lizard and alot of pros hate them for that. But once you know what your doing they can be one of the most rewarding of the reptiles, they look awesome and are relatively cheap to feed.
but getting started can get very expensive. I'm not saying you got the wrong lizard, I'm saying its going to be a hard start off. i can give you plenty of tips and even teach you how to read your lizard. but he will ALWAYS be able to read you better. your average person doesn't realize how much depth there is to reptiles, and a simple thing like Leaning over your iguana is VERY offensive to him.
I had (from what i know about you, which is nothing) started off like you with an iguana, made the worst mistakes before i got it right, and now I'm hooked, and i hope that you will be as happy with them as many of us are and become hooked too! you might know but just in case here are some of the very basice MUST HAVES
NO HEAT ROCK!! it does not deliver heat to the tail and this causes it to die, i cant even begin to tell you how many burns this has caused reptiles. this doesn't heat them up the right way either. remember maybe when you were a kid and had been playing in the snow. Then you come inside with frozen hands, your mom tells you the worst thing "go put them in hot water"? remember the PAIN that caused you from the shocking temperature. so your iggy has been in his cold water and steps on the heat rock, baaaad. this also goes for baths which i will cover later.
HEAT LAMP
these are cheap, i have a 150watt on one half of the tank (for tanks not my closet) what this does is create a hot spot to bring up temperature, but you also need a spot or half of the other side to cool down. if he does not have heat food ROTS in his stomach. or it will lead to up to around 7yrs of slowly and miserably dyeing. the light bulb costs around 7$, and the fixture around 15$. you should get the smaller black heat lamps because the heat is focused to create more of a hot half and cold half of the tank. also there cheaper
.
UV STRIP
alot of people try and skip this part but alot of lizard species cannot be without it. what this does is make it so they can process vitamins and calcium, without it there bones will slowly get soft and they get diseases, and eventually die after a long process of not being able to poop or feed themselves. OK just for a heads up you need a strip set up for this, i have found that little lamps they tend not to bask under and they aren't powerful enough, this goes for heat and UV combo bulbs. alas we cannot go cheap for this one the proper strip fixture can be 60$ and the actual bulb is around 30 or 60$.
BIG WATER BOWL
they soak and poop in this, every reptile I have worked with needs a body sized water bowl. tropical lizards (iguanas) can get some of there moisture from this. also they poop in the water, its the thing they do
SHALLOW FEED BOWL
i use big lids from things, babies find it uncomfortable to climb halfway stomach bent trying to lick at food from a bowl, and bowls don't hold very much food for adults and ANY age iggy tips it making a mess. lids are just best.
VITAMIN DUST AND RECIPES
You need vitamine dust, the foods we can provide don't have what they need to survive so they will get deficiencies. also the need calcium dust. you just dust it on there food every meal or so. i like the "Reptical" brand, the dust is fine and its very efficient. and then there something called "Iguana Dust" there are different formulas, the best it VMF(vitamine maintenance formula) not VGF(growth formula) has less stuff in it basically.
stuff for food you should watch out for is
don't use iceberg or romaine lettuce, not healthy enough
i heard zucchini squash is poisonous to them
stuff off the top of my head that they can eat is
red and green leaf lettuce
broccoli LEAFS
yellow squash
apples
citrus foods (treat, not diet, to acidy)
carrots
bananas
ect...
they should have 65 or 75% greens, 25% veggies, 20%fruits, i hope that adds up
HEAT MAT
this you don't need because they are arboreal, in fact my green iguanas are the only ones with a heated humidifier for night heat, but i have found as long as your house is not freezing night heat is optional.
MISTING
spraying is optional, i personally don't like it. i find you need to spray them 4 or 5 times a day for it to do anything. Also 90% of reptiles it counts towards "De taming". its not fun to be sprayed in the face by cold water by a scary human. besides they really don't need that extra humidity. but i still use a humidifier, they can breath that in and it FEELS more tropical and homely.
BATHING(TRAINING TIPS)
for me it is a must have. the lizard gets time with you, gets moisture, (sometimes they don't find there water) get a good supply of water, and since they don't groom themselves they can stay nonsmelly and not sick. I'm sure your sick of reading and i am of typing but stick with me man
The tub is one of the best places to tame iggies, they learn a very important lesson here and that is that you the scary human he can benefit from. I keep the lizard in there and the SECOND he gets done pooping i put my hand to his chest and pull up, he will feel like his going to fall over and probably climb onto your hand, thus saving him from an inescapable tub. You can use the "hand your going to fall over thingy" as the main way to pick him up. on the rare occasion like one of my iggys eventually will seek you out for whatever he needs. its cool!! Anywho you can bathe once a week or everyday, whatever suites you.
HARNESSES AND LEASHES
this is the worst mental thing you can do to your iggy, even when there young it breaks spikes, makes bruises, hurts arms, and is stressful to put on, your iggy is 10 times more nervous on the floor and is never going to walk next to your scary feet. he also processes the world at a different pace than you and would not move when you want to, and most lizards prefer to in short bursts anyway. there are other fun things to do handling your lizard and taking him outside or in the car (which mine thoroughly enjoy). if ones loose you even have a good chance of catching him say in your house. your stereotypical iggy is not going to want to find a cold dark place under your dresser and is going to want to bask up high likely in an obvious place. but it is a TOTALLY diffrent story when there stressed and want to find a dark place to die in
VITAMIN SPRAYS AND SUCH
these don't work, i have also found on snakes it dries them out more. iguanas scales are built to repel and keep out water, there is debate whether they can process vitamines through the skin. i haven't tried putting vitamines in the water either so try it if you feel like it. Also "Iguana Bath" i don't think does anything either, but experiment and find out for yourself.
CLAW TRIMMERS
instead of using gloves when he is older you can just clip the tip of his claws off, have a reptile person you trust or cat person, just anybody show you what you can and cannot cut. also books can show you how. anywho if you use regular scissors they tend to split the claw, so get cat claw trimmers, there circular.
MORE IGUANAS
last subject, iguanas don't get lonely, a male and female will fight like 2 males or 2 females. until you have everything down or have a huge room to give to them, DON'T GET 2! they will get along as kids but when they get a little older they can rip eachothers rib cages out and they will! Breeding and bringing in more iguanas into the world is worse than bringing in more cats and dogs into the world. the socail structure of wild iguanas is they ignore other iguanas, bob at other iguanas, and get territorial with other iguanas. They don't clean eachother off, pick off sheds, or any thing else except maybe sleep to gether in a warm spot.
anywho that covers everything i can think of, if you email me with any questions i can give you tips and even teach you how to be his "at home vet" so to say, and how to look for basic problems and fix them, sick shakes, training tips, how to guess the sex, guess age, and whatever else you want to talk about, even if you just want to share a story. there is one book that covers everything and is fun to read
"iguanas for dummies" by Mary kaplen, she has pics, huge list of poisonous plants and fun treats like rose pedals, all kinds of good stuff. try it out!
email me for anything, if questions ill answer them as best i can.
i hopes this helps
krystalmglauser@yahoo.com
new iguana
why
Linear Mode
