Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Everyone!

Since I got Myka just over a year ago, she has been pooping in the mid afternoon (between 3:30 and 4:00). I'd really like for her to go in the morning before I go to school (between 7:30 and 8:00). I've tried this, and she just falls asleep in the bathtub.

Myka's lights come on in the morning at 6AM, and her nighttime temperature is between 75ºF and 80ºF depending on how cool the house gets. Should she be warm enough to go to the bathroom by 7:30AM?

If not, is there someway I can change it so that she will be? Or should I just stick to the afternoon schedule? Or should this be a test of my "tough love"? Only put her in the bathroom in the morning until she starts going? I really don't want to have to force her...I want it to be a smooth transition for her.

Right now, that afternoon schedule can stick, but I'm worried about once I get into university and MY daily schedule may not coincide with hers.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Please, help us out here!

Wendy

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"It's not a matter of IF...but WHEN" ~Bill Haast~

"Joy unspeakable...to be holding death in your hands..."

I read somewhere once that iguanas -both captive & in the wild- like to eat & poop later in the day as opposed to earlier. My ig is a free roamer & never poops before 1pm. I feed him at 10-11am & he never will eat before that. Then around 4-5pm, he will want another small serving of food & he will poop again right after that before retreating to my bedroom to find somewhere to hide & fall alseep... he likes my closet & underneath my pillows! He will stay at the spot in the morning until I pick him up & take him to his heat pad/UV lamp on the couch. I am guessing it takes him 10 mins to warm up, I can tell that when he sprawls out on the heat pad & puts his arms back that he is warm & comfortable.
~danielle

I am curious about something. I too have a free roamer altho when I am not around, she mainly likes to stay in the sunporch where all her basking area is and things. My question is, when you go to sleep and she just kinda does her own thing, how on earth do you find her? My heavens..I'd be here all day trying to find mine ! LOL Will they go back to their basking area on their own if they are cooled off from the night sleep? or do you have to always put her there yourself? I do it just to make sure mine will eat and get warm and get some uvb rays. Wondering if mine would on her own or not?

Thanks!
Oh..and to the question above, mine is up and moving at 7 when I get up. Not sure how much earlier she wakes tho. she's pretty dern perky tho at 7!
Renee

Well I live in a 720 sq ft one bedroom apartment so I don't have that many places he can get into where I couldn't find him. I am a college student (for 9 more months at least) & I don't even have a kitchen table right now!

Porfi is always alseep before me, I work a late job so sometimes I don't get home until 1-3am & I find him under my pillows or my blankets on the floor or up in my closet. Sometimes I sleep in till noon or later (hey, I take later classes too just to avoid waking up early) & he hasn't moved yet so I am thinking he is just waiting for me to pick him up & move him on his heatpad or one of his basking spots, which I have done every morning since he formed the habit of retreating to my room around 6om & finding somewhere to sleep in there. I don't think he would move until the sun comes thru my bedroom window at around 3pm.

~danielle

That definately makes a huge difference when you don't have quite so much room to search! My house is way too big with SOOO much for her to get into! LOL Kids rooms with closets full of stuff, spare room with stuff stored in it, family room, living room, dining, sunporch (her area), laundry, bathrooms, EEKS No wonder she's so pooped out when she's done lol

Renee

I leave for work 5 days a week at 7:45 and get back after six, and I have Bud on a twice-a-day bath schedule. His lights go on a little before six am, and I try to bathe him as late as possible- 7:30, usually. They go off around 7:30 pm, and he gets a pm bath right around then. Sometimes it's only one poop a day, and he does become totally un-trained:

1) When he's mad at me. Latest example, I got a new roommate. While Bud likes her well enough, he still went off his schedule, and pooped on the COUCH three times in ONE WEEK. (roommate said: "Wasn't aware THIS would be occurring..."

2) When I go away for more than a day. Although, if I take him with me, there is no change at all. Kind of makes me happy that my being there is more important than which bathtub it is... although I'm sure it's only just slightly more important. When he becomes un-trained, it takes me TWO or THREE WEEKS to get him back on!

When he's un-trained, he mostly goes in his cage, although other favorite places are the carpet in front of the bathroom (at least he tries to get there) and of course, on the couch BEHIND the throw pillows, so the humans only find it when they are relaxing after a long day of toiling for lizard funds. (Wow, I found the remote, AND something else!!!)

Today I put a rubbermaid dishpan of warm water on the bottom floor of his enclosure, just in case, with a heating pad underneath. I am not too fond of this arrangement, as it involves a tub of water on top of an electrical appliance, but my apartment inspection is today, and I am desperately hoping there will be no carpet accidents. After today, I plan to hang a heat lamp above the pan, although I do not know that this is any better. I don't want him to freeze and become immobilized in the water, but I don't want to fry him, either.

The last time I needed to show the apartment, I came home to find these odd, very evenly-spaced little marks going across my white carpet. "That's weird," I thought, "maybe it's my sneaker tread? No, too close together. Hey, it goes all the way to the bathroom, back around the room, and.... up to Bud's cage. And it leads back, across the entire length of the couch, to A GIANT POOP on the arm of the couch. " He had gone on the couch, stepped in it with one little back foot, and made a trail, a la Jeffy in Family Circus, outlining his travels during the day.

Thanks. Thanks a lot, Bud. Already hard enough to find a roommate who doesn't think we're weird. Used a whole can of carpet cleaner that day.

In short, have patience, be consistant with putting him in at about the same time and not caving in the afternoon, consider two baths a day one am one night, and if all else fails, maybe the rubbermaid thing will work. Oh, and always check behind the couch pillows before you sit down.