• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Rhino igs: Cyclura cornuta

S

stolenheron

New member
Joined
Jul 27, 2011
Messages
193
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Hattiesburg, MS
I just got my first Cycluran iguana on a trade yesterday. It is 20 some odd inches long. It is very healthy, very active, and VERY wild. It is one crazy lizard, and that is coming from a guy who works with wild C. similis!

first off. what sex do you think it may be? the femoral pores seem to be fairly tight, like a female, but it is still young. It did live with a confirmed male of the same size with the previous owner without any fighting, they were lay on each others backs. I do not have another specimen to compare to regarding horn size, etc. I only have experience sexing C. similis.

I'm not too worried about taming, that takes time, patience, hand feeding, etc etc etc.

I do have a few dietary questions. It obviously has not had time to settle in yet, so I dont expect it to eat today or anytime soon. However, I was hoping someone could tell me what the rhino's favorite treat foods may be and what you feel a solid diet should consist of.

I generally feed my igs:
-romaine lettuce
-yellow squash
-zuccini
-broccoli
-red grapes
-carrots
-sometimes apples and bananas


should I be going to mustard greens, kale, etc?

here are the pics:
262522_1976720093498_1107960116_31793298_5938530_n.jpg

308254_1976722373555_1107960116_31793303_7789711_n.jpg

308502_1976723533584_1107960116_31793307_989248_n.jpg

316777_1978161289527_1107960116_31794763_3647287_n.jpg

313292_1978161569534_1107960116_31794765_4662207_n.jpg
 
the rhino shed a good amount on her underbelly after a few baths, her femoral pores look even tighter after the shed, I'm more and more sure that it is a she.

I'm also stoked, I saw her eat for the first time today (i knew she had been eating, but it was the first time she was willing to eat with my presence there). She is still extremely wild and aggressive inside of her cage. She goes nuts when you try to handle her for the first few minutes after she is out, but after that she calms down a bit and is only jerky when you go near her head or touch her tail. patience patience patience + time and I should have a very manageable ig :)
 
contgrats to you, i too am a new rhino iguana owner. I have had breeding green iguanas before that were wonderful, even hatched 22 eggs of the cutest little greenies. that was many years ago and now i have Zando a 10 month old rhino iguana.

Food.. no lettuce please, all research shows that it is just filler food, no nutritional value. there is a book; the Green Iguana, Ultimate Care, that is fantastic for the similarities the rhinos share with the green. by James Hatfield, best book i have ever owned on herp care.

Let me know what you have learned about your ig so far. Zando just displayed an unusual habit today and i would like to see if it is in all rhinos. when let to roam out of his cage in a closed room, he rubs against everything, like a cat, feeling the different textures. he also slides on the indoor/outdoor carpet. its fun to watch, he looks like its enjoyable.

Zando appears to be female as well, even thought the shop said male.

Patricia
 
oh so totally forgot... you show a picture with cedar chips... not good... cedar chips can cause respiratory distress. rhinos are sand & rock dwellers and paper towels, carpet, vinyl, can be used, i use the reptil cal sand, it wont hurt if they ingest a bit from time to time and with a sifter, easy clean up.
 
the lettuce is rarely used for food.

the cypress mulch was only in the cage when i first put it in there, after that I put it back to sand. I own ctenosaurs and they have similar life styles and tend to dig alot. I just had the mulch left over from a previous animal.

It is still very crazy in the cage, but it getting better with my presence when I'm working in there. It has a nasty habit of defecating when first picked up, but after about 2 minutes of handling it tames down pretty damn well. It has already been to several classrooms, laboratories, and children's talks while being handled by both myself, adults, and younger children without issues.
 
nice, thank you for the response. do you have any experience with the rubbing behavior i described? I am hoping its normal and not a deficiency of any sort.
 
mine rubs her head alot, but it seems as though it is an irritation based thing. I have also seen her scratch her head like a dog as well. My ctenosaurs never rub up against things, neither did my green iguanas. at least none of them rub things "like a cat" as you described.

i love how good of a feeder she is. she loves prickly pear cactus as a treat and banana as well.

I'd like to mate her with a male when it comes to be that time in a year or more, not looking for the money necessarily, just i know (like all lizards) she is going to have eggs in her that need to come out either way, at least they would be fertile this time around if i do find her a boyfriend.
 
If my Zando turns out to be a boy, she's got a date! Your bio says Alabama, but from your other posts, sounds like you live in Florida
 
soler1 said:
If my Zando turns out to be a boy, she's got a date! Your bio says Alabama, but from your other posts, sounds like you live in Florida
Click to expand...

I'm a herpetology/zoology undergrad at Auburn University, but my home is Fort Myers, FL. So I go back and forth every few months. I'll be back in fort myers for about 4 weeks in mid december to early jan for example.
 
So my rhino iguana and my spinytail iguana are held in a large enclosure with a divider in the middle. they never see each other, have completely separate habitats, etc. However, the top of it is mesh and sometimes the crickets from my ctenosaur sneak into the rhino iguana side of the enclosure. The Rhino ig has never shown any interest in them, it is a herbivore after all..... until today. I powdered my ctenosaur's crickets with some calcium powder for her supplement, so the crickets were all white.... 1 happened to jump into the rhino iguana side and BAM she went after it like a rocket. I dropped 5 or 6 more in there and HOLY CRAP she tore them up.

guess she wanted a little more protein? anyone else have this experience with a Rhino? I know many lizards will experiment with opportunistic feeds when they see it, but I've never seen this happen before with my own rhino.

it is pounding down mustang/kale greens, cactus, berries, bananas, fruits, apples, etc etc constantly. she has a very diverse diet. with a steady supply of greens as the main course (they are still her favorite, she eats her "treats" second generally)
 
Yeah I know :) I used to run a small green iguana rescue in Alaska about 10 years ago. I have always wanted a rhinoceros iguana and now that i am in southern Florida i figured it was time lol I also have 3 snakes, a rescued 3 legged skink, 8 panther chameleons and many wild caught veiled chameleons.
 
Back
Top