Reptile & Amphibian Forums

just curious if anyone had any experiance with mexican spiny tail iguanas? were they a good experiance or a babd one? whats the care of such a ig like? are they nice or mean and etc etc etc. thanx
-Robert

Your gonna read it anyway.

Just kidding.

I love my Spiny-tailed (mexican) Iguana.. Shes got the great personlity of a green ig but IMHO at amore managable smaller size. she is full grown at 30 inches TL.

I have had green igs but it was back in the 70s to 81 (the dark ages for Ig keeping) There wasn't as much knowledge as there is now and looking back I didn't feed them (the green igs) nutritionally as well as I should. I would have had I had the exposure to the knowlege easily available today.

So maybe I might be biased since the green Igs that i have had in the past may have not been as healthy as my spiny -tailed is now but these spineys seem to have more spunk and smarts than the green ones.

I know they have somewhat of a bad rep for being nasty but I got my Ctenosaur similis when she was about
a few weeks old, and just like the green igs if you get them very young and handle them very often with patients and gain their trust at an early age they are just as tame as green that have been raised in this way.

I caught her while vacationing on Gasparilla Island Florida in 1998 from a ferral population I stumlble upon while looking for native herps . I didn't know what it was till I brought her home and researched it on the net.

She is tame as can be and the sweetest nicest reptile have ever had and I have had many varieties over the years..

I view her as a generic, adaptable version of the more specialized green Ig. I keep her and feed her almost as you would a green but slightly dryer and not as arboreal with 2-3 percent of the diet insects.

Thanks for answering my question in the post below. I have just started taken her out side with a leash but when I first showed her the leash I gave her treats in the form of crix and mealworms so she associated it with positive things. In this way she never feared it. I wouldn't want to chance loosing her by putting her out without a leash cause if I lost her I would be devastated.

There is a very knowlegeable guy: Mark M. in the ctenosaur forum who beeds several species of ctenosaurs should anyone be interested in obtaining one.

Here’s a pic of her. Her name is Pie.

Regards,
John Styner

She is watching me feed the other lizards
John Styner

Watching me feed the other lizards
John Styner

Ctenosaura similis
John Styner

very cool! how often do you feed it crickets and meal worms? also how big of an enclosure do you keep her in? she is a beauty! thanx for all the info, good luck with the leash!
-Robert

n/p

John made some excellent points about keeping Spinys as pets. I've had my similis for almost 5 years now. She's not tame and doesn't like to be handled but she does take food from my hands and allows me to pet her occasionally. Even so, she's a very interesting lizard to keep and interact with. She's a freeroamer here and basically rules the roost. We had a 4 foot rescue Nile monitor escape it's enclosure a few weeks ago. I was concerned for CeCe's safety but she proved I had nothing to worry about. Later that day we found her chasing the Nile around on the floor!!
I also recently took in a Florida WC similis. This poor lizard is about a year old and is not acclimating to captivity very well. I'd like nothing more than to return her to Florida to be released but Florida Fish and Wildlife is now shooting wild populations of Green and Spinytail Iguanas. I'll just have to give her plenty of time to get settled.
A Spinytail, if acquired as a young animal, is a good alternative pet to their larger cousins.

This photo is the little rescue Spiny.

well i have a few and to me they are my favorite of any reptiles i have kept. perfect size 3 to 4 feet back in the day they were known as nasty and mean witch is true of w.c adults but true with most w.c reptiles. the two species i have are c.pectanata its a month old hatchling givin to me from mark m it had a turned foot but with in one week it has made a full recovery. the others a 9mo. old pair of c.conspicuosa a island form of c.hemilopha. these guys are really cool. i bought them from k.w.e they have grown from little spineytailed green anoles to over 20in in only 9mos but in my opinion i don't think you can beat a c.b ctenosaura. (at least the ones i keep) they all were tame out of the egg and have no fear of humans my 9mo olds are so tame i clip their nails while they sit in my lap. if you want more info. i'm on the cteno. forum as well as a few others. i've had a few proplems with my camera so this is the only pic i have but there are a few on the cteno. forum or i can e-mail some real good ones that are to large to upload in my gallery. talk to ya chris

one more. chris p.s jane i will try to make next show is it in july?