Hi! Just joined up as I'm in search of some assistance... I've parented male iguanas in the past, but for the first time in my life, I have a female iguana. She has been exhibiting some really strange behavior over the past few days and I need your suggestions. I recently moved into a new apartment, having to leave behind my large terrarium. My poor little 3 year old had to live temporarily in a 50 gallon terrarium for a few weeks while I finished work on her new terrarium, an enclosure made with pvc and rubber coated chicken wire standing a little over 4 feet tall, 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep. (She is rather small for her age. Eventually, my boyfriend will be assisting me in making a much more suitable enclosure for her, preferably at least 6 feet tall and deeper/wider.) Since she moved into her home, she has started nose rubbing quite a bit, an activity I have never seen from her before. Over the past few days, her actions have really become bizarre. She will rush at the side of the cage, flying off of her shelf and bashing her nose against the cage, hurting herself. She has been VERY hungry and is eating at least two full bowls of greens each day, but appears skinny in her midsection. When we take her out to let her run around the bedroom for exercise, she gets a scared look in her eyes when we come to her slowly to put her back. We will carry her to the doorway and once she opens her eyes and realizes where she is, she will freak out for awhile and try to scratch you. The past day or so, she has appeared very lethargic, sleeping a lot during the daytime and not moving much from her shelf. Her basking spot is warm enough according to her thermometer and since the cage we have her in is not humidity friendly, we mist her at least 8-10 times daily and have a cat litter box full of water in the bottom of the cage. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what would cause this sudden change in behavior?
It could be stress of a brand new environment, or it could also be a parasite of some sort. She can pick anything up from being out side. How Long is she? What is her exact set up? What king of lighting units do you have? I don't mind detailed answers, so please write.
She's about 4.5' Snout to end of tail, probably about 1.5' snout to vent (I haven't accurately measured recently). She has two bulbs for heat (one daytime, one night) and a UVB tube (Reptisun 5.0), the UVB tube and daytime light turn off at night for her to be able to sleep soundly. Her enclosure is 4' tall, 3' wide and 2' deep. All three lights are at the top of the enclosure, so she has plenty of non-basking room further down her ramp and on the bottom of the cage. (Don't let the single light fool you, we took those pictures directly after finishing the cage, before we finished off the lighting/heat.) There is also a secured basking shelf towards the top of the cage that she spends a good portion of her time relaxing on. She has a cat litter pan full of water that is replaced daily at the bottom next to her food bowl. On the other side of the cage is her Habba Mist mister, which has recently decided to take a nosedive, so we've resorted to misting her often throughout the day. Her diet consists of a mixture of collard greens and mustard greens, typically with some carrot mixed in and once in awhile, a bit of banana (not too much, though, she goes crazy with it!) She hasn't been outside on the ground in quite awhile, since she has outgrown her leash and I need to find a larger one for her to play in. Someone in another forum suggested that due to her age, she might be gravid, so we're looking into making a nesting box for her.
Well her set up looks good. Her diet should have some more protein though(fruits and veggies). Are you giving her any sort of vitamin and mineral supplement? Can you send me some pics of just her (recent if possible). I may be able to give you an answer on sex. Does she have pronounced femoral or preanal pores? If in fact she is gravid it is important that you give her more calcium than normal and supply her with some substrate to dig and lay her eggs. Her behavior may be her just trying to find somewhere to do that. Let me know.
Sounds mostly like stress. Is her new cage smaller than her old one? The nose rubbing can become a problem. You could try covering the sides of the cage on the bottom, that might help keep her from rushing at the sides. Was her old cage chicken wire too? And I just looked at your pics...I doubt "she's"gravid...considering it looks like a male...lol. The little "horn" on the nose is usually a pretty good indicator that it's a male, and at that age, he's getting close to sexual maturity. A couple of years until he's truly an adult. A pic of the femoral pores would help to really determine the sex, but I've never had a female with a horn on their nose before. Of course, this is all considering that the projection I see in the pic is actually on the nose and not a trick of the camera or a loose scale. LOL. Is there a horn-like projection on the nose? So if it is a male, then it could be a change in behavior brought on by stress and his becoming more territorial. Some males can become extremely territorial, others don't show any signs of aggression at all. And then, sometimes you only get behavior changes in breeding seasons. Each ig is different.
i know its not technically about your iggy but it is about starnge behaviour.... recently now summer has arrived in the uk, my iggy when out will dissapear upstairs into the end closet and lie on the linen etc. at first we thought she just fell asleep there. BUT when out again the other day she was in my daughters room on a box. we went out and came back 20 mins later, she was under my sons bed in the dark........ shes never done this before int eh time weve had her.??? most disturbing as im afraid she will get cold and lethargic etc. she only has one heat lamp on all day now 24/7 instead of 2 for 12 hrs then one all night in winter time etc. temps sit around 29/.30c allday and under the lamp is much hotter for when shes had her bath or when shes been out all day and warms up.
you shouldnt have your light on all day that can easily stress an iguana they are sposed to have a period of time in the dark well i think they are sposed to have 14 hours of light so about 10 hours of darkness should be good for her
you can get a night bulb that dosent shine it just heats up so the ig is in darknes and it is still warm
