Reptile & Amphibian Forums

how long are iguanas when they are born and also when do i need to start trimming my iguanas nails it is a girl and her name is Yoshi and do i use human nail trimmiers or dog trimmers she is abut 13 1/2 to 14 inches long and she is really nice any help is greatly appreciated thanks

Hello;
Igs are about 6 inches long when hatched. If you want to approximate the age of your ig, there is a chart on Melissa Kaplan's website: WWW.ANASPID.ORG.
When you trim you igs nails depends on you. When Iggi was a year old, we had Iggi's nails trimmed by a "reptile expert" vet, and he cut into the blood vessel in the nail. We never trimmed her nails since then. She is now 3 years old, and over 6 pounds, so sometimes we get scratches when she is on us, but we know she doesn't mean to scratch. If you decide to trim her nails, their are special clippers for reptile nails, and even a hot wire device, that melts the tips to blunt them.
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Lamar, Debbie, Nathaniel and Iggi :>~

This Web sit has good graphics of how to trim iguana nails:
http://www.anapsid.org/adambritton.html#claw

Note that it's just the very tip that gets trimmed.