Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We think our Cuban, Chaos is depressed, he has not left his cage or eaten since saturday , we are starting to get a little worried,
the Iguanas have had a very stressfulw eekend and im sure this has contributed to it, First of all friday we were forced to evacuate our home and sought shelter in a hotel room, Our 3 green iguanas stayed at a friends house overnight, Chaos, the 2 cats and kids went to the hotel with us, chaos was very very well behaved, he explored and hung out and seemed to enjoy the excitement as much as we did,
when we got home saturday aroundnoon chaos was his usual self, roaming around, checking things out just being him, we had left to go shopping and came back several hours leaving beihind inthe house very healthy animals, when we came home chaos was inthe kitchen, and came towards the door, as we came in the house more he turned around and took off over by his cage, stopped and stared,my boys noticed our older very healthy cat laying funny on the floor by the iguana cage and made a comment like, boy mom sox must be really mad at you, look at him, so i went and looked, and noticed he was laying funny and looking funny, so we checked and sure enough our beloved sox has passed away , chaos and the other 2 iggys were all watcing and looking at him, im assuming they had sensed death, our little kitten never left sox's side, hes beside himself with grief and now spends his days looking all over for his friend sox,

my question is , is it possible for an iguana to feel the sadness int he house? because since sox the cat passed chaos has not moved from his cage, he even looks sad, he looks up at me when i come over to his cage but otherwise wont move, and he wont eat , if he is depressed why over the cat? its not like they were great buddies or anything? im sure when chaos looked at him he saw a nice juicy steak not a furry cat, lol, he did try totaste him once in a while,

anyone else ever have this happen?

Thank you
Angel
(Brians Wife)

Dear Angel, Brian & family~

I'm so sorry for the loss of your beloved friend! (sad head-bobs from Forest too)

I don't have any answers for you as we only have Forest & the snakes but I guess it wouldn't be a stretch to say that the "family unit" has changed & Chaos is stressed.

Again, my well wishes are with you all & I'm sorry for your loss.

Terri

I am very sorry for your loss as well.
It is very hard on everyone in the house when a family member is lost.Including iggies. Iguanas are extremel habitual creatures who are also very aware of their surroundings. When a member of their 'group' is lost, it affects them as would anything else. Remember that even we as humans are part of their group, and igs do become alittle strange if we go on vacation, or even change our shcedules around. Believe me, Sunshine got REally weird after i went back to work after being unemployed for 6 months. And despite what many 'experts' say, any ig parent will tell you that these green beasts have intelligence and emotions just like any other creature we come to love. He is most likely greiving, just as you all are. I wish of you the best, and your friend Sox a happy crossing over the RAinbow Bridge.
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"i wasn't born with enough middle fingers"

1.0 ball python- Azazel
1.0 columbian boa- Brooklyn
1.0 red blood python-Hiss
1.0 peach phase thayeri-Sancho
0.1 creamsicle corn- Pandora
0.1 partial stripe ghost corn- Raven
1.1 hognose- Pricilla and Odd
0.1 russian tortoise- Manja
0.1.1 leos- Boji and Kodama
0.1 beardie- Indie
1.0 BTS- Griffon
0.1 Iggy- Sunny
0.0.2 Red american toadlets with 0.0.7 legs total (er, i have one w/3....)
0.0.1 gray tree frog toadlet
0.0.6 land snails
0.0.2 millipedes of unknown species from TN
0.0.1 spotted slug
5.3 bettas
0.1 pacific parrolet- Mishka
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon
2.3 ratties Rizzo, Bounce, Bree, Blitzkreig, and Zelda

Last year i was obliged to adopt out one of my igs, an alpha male that suddenly became so aggressive that started attacking me and my kids.He was the oldest of my igs and my other igs were pretty accustomed to have him as their leader.After he was gone my igs started to boycott me!Any of them wanted to " talk" with me and they turned their heads when i entered their cages and climbed the upper platform to be as far away as possible from me!Igs are very susceptible and pretty inteligent!Im sure they felt the death of your cat.By the way do you know why your cat died?

We have absolutly no clue how our cat died, we suspect he ate a plant he should not have, that plant also is no longer with us, it went out with the garbage the next day , but i can say he was a very helthy cat with no problems at all, granted he was 6 years old but he was healthy and active, we suspected maybe something from the hotel we stayed at but none of the other animals got sick, we had to evacuate because of the hurricane , he did throw up before he passed and there were leaves in it, so thats what leaves us to assume it was the plant, id love to have a necropsy done on him but unfortunatly our budget does not allow it,

the last couple days i have been running around scrubbing my house top to bottom, rearranging furniture ( sam and ella are mad i moved thier cage, they keep escaping and hanging out in the spot the cage used to be, im gonna have to move it back) and theres been a high level of energy in the house, we have out of town company coming and Chaos has been folowing me like a puppy dog from room to room, checking me and everything out, ive noticed that his emotions mirror mine, if im happy and excited so is he, if im having a down day so is he, and since ive been so busy so has he , hes even eaten and come out of his cage,

Any chance Chaos got into the same plant? That would explain the odd behavior, I think.

im very sorry to hear of the loss of your kitty. my oldest igs best friend is my aunts cat. they are always together when he is out. and when he is in the inclosure the cat sits by him most of the day. they love to cuddle. im sure your ig was friends with your cat. even if you did not realize it and is just as sad about the loss as the rest of you. i hope he and all of you feel better. good luck.
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brandy