Can someone give info on antisocial iguana?

Question

Have had baby ig for about 4 days--he barely lets us pick him up and won't take food or even stick out his tongue--he will eat but it's been very little--and his head turned black! How long does it take for igs to adjust? Have also left him alone and not pressured him to visit with us.

Answer 1

You have a baby ig....now do a visual. You're a tiny iguana at the bottom of the food chain and something comes in and tries to swoop in and capture you to eat you. This is a baby igs instinct. It can take many months to socialize an iguana properly. Some take as much as a year.

Take a step back and let it chill for about two weeks...no holding. Let it get used to a routine of being fed and watered. Cage cleaning is fine, too. Let it get used to all the voices in the house and the different sounds that it left behind. After the two week period you can try picking up this baby that's had a chance to get used to normal everyday stuff. When you go into catch him...do it from the front and go in very slowly and stay low gently scooping him up with under his chest. The slower you go, the better your baby will accept your hand. Offering treats sure won't hurt...:-D.

Hold it every day for about 20 minutes at the least. The longer the better. Eventually your ig will come to trust you...but it is a very long process.

The screw in type of ZooMed bulb is not enough. These bulbs are pretty much crap. Lettuce PERIOD is better left out completely. There are much better foods out there. A 50 gallon should be the minimum size for a baby under a year. After that you will custom build one. Here's a brief care sheet I made up for copy and pasting for new iguana owners. It's nowhere complete, but it does give basic iguana care.

GROWTH: Keeping track of your igs growth will help you keep a
handle on his health using both svl AND stl...even if the ig doesn't have all of it's tail. A iguana that is beginning to have health issues will slow down in growth. They won't stop, but they will not shed and grow as they would if they were healthy.

SVL = snout vent length = nose to poop chute
STL = snout tail length = tip to tip
For easy measuring, use a string. Starting from the nose...go to the vent and tie a knot, then tie another one at the tip of the tail. Then you can use the measuring tape to get the length from the knotted string.

TEMPS: Use a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer w/hygrometer for the best accuracy. You can get these for about $15 - $20 at Wal-Mart. Once you get the thermometer your goal is meeting the required temperature gradients in three different spots:
Basking: 92-96
Ambient: 80-85
Cool end/night time: 75 for babies under a year, 70 for adults.

Without the correct temps, especially the high basking temps...all that good food going in will not get digested properly and organ functions will be trying to run on less than ideal capacity. Nutrients are lost and illness sets in.

UVB: Not all UVB lights are created equal. Some decay very quickly. You need no less than two 4' flourescent UVB tubes. Short version - UVB helps the ig to process the calcium in their diet. Without the UVB...the calcium does not get absorbed and the result is Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD) and renal failure. The brands to go with:
Reptisun 5.0 or 10.0
Iguana Light 5.0
Exoterra 8.0
Arcadia 5.0 (UK)
...or:
Mega Ray EB (external ballast)
http://www.reptileuv.com

Many of these can be purchased at http://www.reptiledirect.com for a more reasonable price than the pet stores. Once you provide these lights for your ig...set them in the 6" - 8" range (12" - 18" for the Mega Ray). Any farther and the UVB drops of so much that they don't do any good.

SUBSTRATE: Moss, bark, sand and the likes may look nice...but it's horribly bad. This stuff is deadly and has killed many reptiles...not just iguanas. It causes impaction which often requires surgery to remove if found in time. It sure looks nice, but with an iguana's sticky tongue and the way they flick-lick everything...it's very easy for it to get caught. It also harbors bacterias and fungi. Just go to cage carpet or replace it all with newspaper, butcher paper, old towels, linoleum, etc.

DIET: Go to: http://www.iguanaden.org and follow the diet guide there. The core diet is collard greens, turnip greens and mustard greens. If you can find arugula and dandelion greens add them, too...:) The other items in the guide you should rotate for variety.

CAGE SIZE: A 50 gal. is the minimum required size for a baby iguana under a year old and still be able to reach the proper temperature gradients. Once your ig turns about a year old and is close to 2' long or more...you'll need to think about building a cage. For a full-grown ig you'll need one 6'T x 6'W x 3'D.

You can use a large cardboard box for a hide, fake plants to make a kind of curtain, a towel hung over one end of the aquarium, etc.

HUMIDITY: Using a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer w/hygrometer will help you keep on top of this. This aids in shedding and some hydration. If you can reach 50% you are doing better than a lot can achieve. Between 60% - 80% is ideal with periods of complete dryness to keep the chance of molds and fungi growing...even on your ig. Daily misting and periodic baths will also help.

You can also add a warm air, or cold air vaporizor to the cage for added humidity. Just cover the warm air since the steam comes out so hot. There's also an automatic drip system that some use:
http://www.trix.com/binx/mister/

Answer 2

I incredibly endorse doing as a lot study as feasible, and in addition establishing out with both a bearded dragon or gecko first. Iguanas do get very gigantic which means that they want a cage that is no less than 6ftx6ftx4ft. You have to have room for this. The cage demands to variety in temperature. Around 95degrees for basking, day time temp within the eighty's and night time time temp among seventy five-eighty. This calls for a couple of thermometers for the period of the cage. They desire a warmth lamp, a UVB and UVA mild and quite will have to get solar mild. The humidity will have to be round sixty five-seventy five%. Depending on in which you are living, you're going to usually have to get a humidifier. They devour plenty of vegetables, however you have to pay awareness to their calcium consumption. And you have to study what forms of greens and fruit they may be able to and can not devour. You have to shower them AT LEAST a million to two instances per week. And you do have to aid them shed. They want annually vet visits, which is able to get steeply-priced. And as acknowledged above their tooth are very sharp, and while the whip it hurts. They have very lengthy sharp claws (that have to be trimmed). They can are living to be approximately 15 years ancient, relying on how good they're cared for. There's a ton of alternative matters except this, this simply occurs to be the primary matters to pop in my head. I'm definite others will fill in what I've forgotten. Please PLEASE don't forget getting an extra reptile, or when you move with an iguana don't forget adoption as an alternative of shopping.

Answer 3

This is the thing. In order to socialize your iguana, you will have to handle him (with your hands) constantly. Let him hang out with you whenever you can. Even though he will constantly bite and slap you around, that's the only way they ever get socialized. A baby Iguana is not like a puppy, who will naturally think everybody is it's friend. Baby iguanas are pretty certain that everyone they come into contact with is going to eat them. So, they have to learn to trust you. It's not automatic. You're going to get a lot of little bites and welps out of the deal. And then, when he's older and goes into heat, he's going to try to bite your throat so that he can make you his love slave. (By the way, in captivity, heat can last for up to four or five months!) Good luck. It's not as cool, but a cat would have been a lot easier.

PS- YOu may notice him turning colors according to his mood. Black is pissed. Orange is horny. Grey is just cold and uncomfortable. (Never let him get cold. If he doesn't die, he'll try to kill you!)

Answer 4

do you have a heat lamp? get one and keep the tank warm

zoomed light bulbs work good, you can just pop um into an office lamp or desk lamp and they give all of the uv rays n stuff.

keep petting him until he lets you pick him up. also, is the tank big enough? try an upgrade. at least 20 gallons is needed for a baby, and you will need to go much bigger when he is an adult. they get lik six feet long!

once he is adjusted to his tank he should get better. try offering fruit too, they love stuff like strawberries. (lettuce can't be his only diet, he will die eating only lettuce. just a little tidbit of info, cos no one ever tells you that!) make sure the food is VERY tiny too, a cheese grater works good for grinding up the food.

Ig's enjoy bathing in a tub filled with warm warm water. try this, maybe he'll like it. BUT supervise incase he is too tiny to swim still. this always relaxes my ig.

good luck!

Answer 5

You might want to take him to the vet. If he is not sick try giving him a variety of foods and bedding. Also does he have a buddy in the cage? If he does maybe they are fighting. If he doesnt maybe he wants one. Make sure he has the right climate too. Hope this works out!

Answer 6

maybe he just needs more time to adjust to his new environment.

Answer 7

i dont know