Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It seems like nobody I know has even heard of them. Whenever I tell people about him they always ask if he's like an iguana.

-s

Since the majority of these animals are Wild Caught and most pet stores like to sell them with a 20-gallon tank, a UTH and 100w basking light most people have poor success with them. After so many people try them and find that they die a short time after they are purchased they get labeled as "fragile" and "difficult to keep".

Many of us on this forum have found these to be very easy animals when given the proper care and medical attention, but for the last 40 or so years there has only been skeletal information on their needs and virtually no information on breeding.

They are imported in huge numbers and if you check with most of the current importers you will probably find that they all carry MHDs at least occasionally. If you talk to most ex-importers you will find that most of them got out of it because of the poor condition most of their animals arrived in. One told me that they quit importing MHDs because none of them survived due to their arriving terribly dehydrated.

Because of these problems these have been considered difficult to establish and not well suited to captive care. Just 3 years ago Reptiles Mag had a reply in the Ask the Breeder column that stated in a nutshell that these were not well suited to captive care and that breeding was not even worth trying.

The fact is that they are not that difficult to establish if given proper environment and proper medical attention. Once established breeding is instinctive and almost impossible to prevent unless you keep adult males separated from the females.

So, I would say that the reason you don’t see many is that the old herpers have all but given up on them and the new herpers haven’t heard of them yet. They seem to be available mostly at PetCo and PetsMart although some other shops will also carry them. The associates at these pet stores don’t know anything about them and rely on the information given to them by the importer and often that is incorrect information.

You don’t see them at many of the reptile shows because most only admit captive bred animals and the majority of these are Wild Caught. If you go to some of the large swaps and non-captive bred shows you may find them but I doubt that most importers would take them to a show unless they were very fresh so that they wouldn’t look ill.

I know I got a bit redundant here but I am just trying to explain why they aren’t that common. Most keepers after losing one or two just don’t want to risk it again unless they can find a captive animal. There are so few captives born that this really narrows down the possibility of finding one. I must have had close to 150 babies hatch out last year and I sold out of all of them and probably had and sold just as many the year before.

I have been trying to talk others into setting up a breeding program but it is a slow process trying to get an animal accepted and established in the pet trade. Many breeders don’t want to mess with an animal that won’t make a profit for them and with the WC selling at anywhere from $5-19 apiece wholesale it is really hard to compete. You have to really have your heart in it to be willing to put forth so much time and energy to breed these and not be able to cover your expenses. A few of us however do have our hearts in it and have a strong dedication to this species.

If you ever feel like checking these guys out you will have a great support group on this forum.

Oh, and lots of folk just use the iguana as a standard of comparison even though it may not be the best pet for everyone. It is the one most of us have seen. They do somewhat resemble a young iggy and also bear a good resemblance to water dragons who they are at least related to.

Marcia

It doesn't seem like there's much of a market for the right kind of enclosure either. But maybe I just didn't know where too look. I liked making my own anyway.
-s

There are places where you can order custom cages but all of them I have found seem to be too pricey for me. Most have either made their own or built a top to place on a large tank to give it the needed height.

Joe posted plans for the one he made several posts down. It turned out really nice.

Marcia