Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I dont know if my iguana is sick, or has a wound from digging all her cage arounde. Please Help, look at the picture and notice her nose, and tell me what you guys think.

Alfredo Matos, alfmatos

What is the cage made of? Is the walls or floor rough? Iguanas love to snout-rub, and they will rub their nose down to the bone. You need to fix the cage, if thats the problem, before the nose becomes a serious problem =o) hope this helped

Sarah

The ground (substrate) was a dirty i picked up at the local pet shop, it's suposed to be tropical soil, dry humus or something, the i added small rocks, and built a pond, you can see it's all twisted and turned. My iguana does that. And the cage is evolving as i go along, im gathering ideas to build a new one.
Hope the picture helps.

A hiding spot might help. Put a piece of cardboard or something in the cage, so he can get under it and feel well-hidden and more secure. That might help stop his escape behavior.

So the nose wound, in your opinion, is from snorting around in the cage ?

Maybe it's a burn? My iguana's snout was once singed by a light hanging too low, and the black scales on top of your ig's head together with his nose injury look similar. But it's probably from rubbing against something in your enclosure. I'd get rid of the gravel and dirt floor- he could possibly eat them, causing a whole different set of problems, which I'm going through with one of my igs right now! Some people use linoleum (I have peel 'n stick tiles in one, and bathmats in the other), or towels, or unprinted newspaper, or astroturf or something called something like tank turf or lizard turf... can't remember. But it's plastic.

Clean the snout wound with water and cover with neosporin or another triple antibiotic ointment. (The dirt on the floor will also get stuck to the wound, possibly infecting it!)

Cute baby, though!