Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We have a 5 1/2 foot iguana and would like to let him stay outside once the weather improves. He can get very tempermental with us but has been okay around our indoor bunny (will huff and occasionally snap warnings at him). We have a large 16'X 16'X 8' outdoor enclosure with an attached 10' X 10' coop for our pet chickens. The wire is 2" X 4" smooth galvanized. My husband wants to build overhead ledges and let him stay with them. I'm concerned about doing this for many reasons. Has anyone tried this before?

Hi,
I have never heard of this, and have no experience with housing a large iguana with anything else- however, my gut instinct would say no.
The stress each animal would put on one another would be very detrimental. I imagine the large lizard might find a little chicken tasty, and a rooster would think the iguana as a threat. I think an iguana that size could easily hurt/kill a chicken...and the end of an iguana's tail would look like a tasty worm to a roaming hungry chicken.
Also, chickens peck and try to eat everything, so the iguana's droppings would be tasted- possible parasitic transmission. The chickens droppings would be walked through, belly dragged through, tasted..etc.

I would really try to discourage your husbands plan, and try to get him to make the iguana one of his own.

Good luck.

A chicken can peck at the iguana's face and even scratch it. Iguana can bite off chunks of feathers... Rapunzel hit the bullseye in her reply.

Personally, I wouldn't do it.

You can easily build an 8x8x8 or a 8x8x5 SEPARATE outdoor enclosure (if bigger, even better). But to house two types of animals that should not even co-exist in the first place, it's plain crazy.

-IJ