Hi everyone,
I would sure appreciate some of your advice. Despite having a lot of experience raising iguanas and knowing a lot about their husbandry (caging, food, etc.), I'm finally starting to realize that I don't know nearly as much about their socialization as I thought I did.
I have an 11-year-old female iguana and pretty much raised her from when she was a 6-month-old juvie. For the first 5 years or so of her life, she was a pretty good pet ig despite having a lot of alpha-attitude. I used to be able to take her out, let her roam a bit, even bring her to public places sometimes and she was okay with the traveling and letting people touch her.
Moreover, because I live in a Northern climate, it's really hard setting an iguana up as a free-roamer; you almost have no choice but keep them in a terrarium to be able to maintain the micro-climate they need.
After those first five years, several things made it very difficult to spend a lot of time with her, so she became more of a terrarium iguana than a pet. All the time I spent with her was for feeding and cleaning. She has a huge enclosure with ramp and shelving, so I didn't think too much of it, plus she is an iguana that just never really liked people, she mostly just tolerated me; so I didn't think the lack of social attention was gonna upset her. Also, she seemed to really love her enclosure: she never looked to come out and would always get very upset whenever you had to take her out. Every now and then, I would take her out anyway for social interaction, but being in an appartment, letting her out of her terrarium to roam was just impossible, as there was no way to ig-proof anything.
Anyway, now she has reached a point where she is not only unsociable, she is downright nasty. I can never open her enclosure -- not even to put her food bowl down -- without her immediately posturing, gaping, hissing and threatening to whip. Bringing her anywhere, such as a public place, is absolutely out of the question. We tried bringing her to a local park to get some sun and she doesn't last 10 minutes before she starts doing her nasty-ig routine.
I realize that this is my fault because I went so long without socializing her, and I'm willing to remedy the situation. She seems very healthy but she's very unpleasant to live with now, and I'm sure she's not very happy about the situation, either. She has become very unactive and I really don't think it's a physical illness, because she eats very willingly and her poop is normal. I really think it's because she's getting fed up of being in a terrarium with no stimulation.
Do you think she's just too old at this point? My husband and I are moving into a house in two months and we're really hoping that this will help. We will be able to let her out more and even let her come outside in the yard.
Thanks for your feed-back!
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Julie Williams
www.baskingwonders.com
