Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi a am a proud owner of a brand new iguana(between 3 and 4 feet long)
i should say i am the new one
anyways here is my dilema,
Tank came to her/his brand new home yesterday,
i sort of put her/him in the middle and hours past and she/he was generally in the same spot
so i picked her up and put her/him on the top shelf(basking area)
this morning i find again she hasn't moved again.
HER/his cage is big enough to move around but she/he won't or hasn't yet, not even to eat!
he she has orange spots all over her legs(which i was told breeding season) And she has enough energy to puff up and hiss at me (even tried whipping but she missed, HA!)
how can i make her/him feel safer or more comfortable?
Someone told me that older iguanas don't generally make it without the only owner they were ever used too.
any ideas on age???
going to the vet next friday but if anyone can tell me anything it would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

I can't get into the cage issue with you cause my Forest is a free roamer & I don't know a bunch about the size your cage should be for your ig but....he has only been with you one night?

You'll have to give him/her time to adjust. One night isn't going to endear him/her to you. We've had Forest since Valentine's Day & it took him a long time to get used to things. His previous owners gave Forest his own screen room but Forest rarely went outside. Now, he goes outside for hours a day but he only feels secure when he's on one of his 2 lawn chairs. He knows exactly where the doors are now to get in & out of the house but it took him weeks to figure out.

As for your iggy perishing without his first owner...no. LOL. Give him lots of love & time. Take good care of him & he'll come around. Time, time, time & love.

I'll let the others ask you about his housing, heat, food & such...good luck!

What size is your cage? They need large enclosures at least 1 and a half times their size and twice that tall. Do you have the proper lights for heat and uv/uvb? What are you feeding him/her? What are the cage temps? By what you described with the color and bowing up, and with out seeing a picture I'd guess it was a male. If it is 3-4 feet long you should be able to see it's femoral pores on the inside of it's hind legs. If they are large and very pronounced then it is a male. They might even have a waxy substance coming out of them. If you had pictures it would help. Did the enclosure come with him? Iguanas do not handle change very well. It takes them time to get used to even the tiniest changes. When I first got my first iggy she didn't eat for 2 weeks. I had to force feed her and she finally ate. Every little change I do to their enclosure stresses them out, but eventually they get over it. It will take him sometime to get used to you and his new environment. Good luck with your new friend. If you don't have it you should get a copy of Iguanas for Dummies by Melissa Kaplan. It is a great book with lots of information. Also check out Green Iguana Society on the net for good info.

thanks for your response
my cage is 8'x3'x7'high (i can walk around and do a dance)
i put it together myself because the cage she was in was a quarter of the size
she(i think it is a she)is moving around a bit now
but still hasn't eaten(i was told she eat me out of house and home)(feeding her collard greens dandelions buttercup squash and mango right now)
the temp are right i checked
humidity is a little low( between 69 and 75%)but the humidifer for her is on it's way i can't seem to get any higher on my own
i would love to show pictures but i don't know how
i am fairly new to computers too!!

I was told that 55 was ok for humidity, but that may not be right. I would say that it is fine where it is, but I would see what some more experienced members have to say. I can only get the humidity up to 55 in my enclosure because it is screen.
The size of the enclosure should be ok.
To post pictures through the photo galery here you need to upload the photo. You can register for free and be able to upload some photos. The space is limited so you might want to crop the picture before uploading to save space in your free account. Then when you post a message go below the message where it says select image and pic one. There ya go. That's the easiest way to do it. There are ways to post as many pictures as you want by using the url, but it didn't sound easy to me.

did it work blurry sorry

Pretty iggy. Do you have any more pics?