Although at least one broken spine can be attributed to my misguided attempts to help it shed. It seems to happen especially to the spines he has that are strangely shaped at the top, almost like the spine tapers to an end and then starts up again in a sort of rice-shaped piece at the top. I don't know why they grew like this, maybe due to his past treatment before I adopted him or malnutrition in his early life. But now I do not to take off a spine unless the whole thing slides off easily with very gentle pressure.
Sometimes I also put a lot of Neosporin or triple antibiotic all over his spines when they are starting to shed. I started this after one spine died for what seemed like no reason. It was all ready to shed, and then when it shed, it was brown and mushy underneath and dried up and fell off soon after. I am guessing something infected it, I don't know. (It's now grown back about halfway.) But the Neosporin seems to help lubricate the spines to slide off easily.
In cases where the bottom part of the spine sheds easily but leaves the top behind, I leave the top part there until it is whitish and clearly ready to fall off. I SLATHER it with Neosporin, too. The kind with pain killer in it, just in case it's bothering him. Then it usually pops off to very VERY gentle pressure in about two weeks, even just while petting him. It is a pain in the butt, I feel guilty when a spine breaks at the top. I feel sorry for Bud that he will probably never have those pointy, sleek spines that I see on other people's iguanas! Oh well, maybe it will eventually clear itself up after enough sheds...
Here is a picture where you can sort of see Bud's weird spines.
