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He's never really bitten me in the 2 years I've had him. Oh, he's in mating season all the way! I've never seen him this way. He's not really violent, just "lookin' for love in all the wrong places"!

He rolled around with a green sock for about 20 minutes, falling from one level of his cage to another. NEVER seen him do that! A few hours later, he came out to walk around the apartment, and sat on my knee while I was watching TV. He was gnawing at my sleeve, so I took it away from him and petted his neck for a second. Then I got distracted by something on TV, and rested my hand in front of his face.

WELL, he latched right on to my thumb. What a stinker. Luckily, I didn't pull away, just yelled. I turned him upside down, and he actually opened his mouth a bit to reposition and get a BETTER GRIP on my finger! I squeezed his head on either side of his jaw, and removed my thumb from his teeth. Grrrr... Yeah, yeah, I know it's my fault. Just glad it's not worse! I'll post battle wound pictures another time.

Geez! Ouch!

I don't have any crazy breeding season stories about Irwin yet....I'm sure I'll get some eventually.....hopefully it won't include the word, OUCH!
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~Heather~
3 German Shepherd Dogs (Tasha, Austin, & Kaiya)
1 Iguana (Irwin)
4 Firebelly Toads (Kirby, Gus, Pico, & Tiki)
3 Red-Eared Slider Hatchlings (Otis, Jasper, & Jade)
1 Southern Painted Hatchling (Milo)
Check out my website with most of my pets!

I'm not laughing AT you I am laughing WITH you! LOL

I can laugh because the same thing happened to my husband and I but it was him that got bit and not me. (Mwhahahaha!) Freddie was perched on my shoulder and Jake moved in to give me a hug when all of a sudden..... Freddie bit his face!!! Not too bad but he managed to get ahold of his cheek and neck and Jake had a pretty big welt and a little blood from that one. I think someone has a crush on me. *snickers*

He is so getting fixed next year! No 'guana is gonna tell me whether I can or cannot get lovin' from my man!

Besides from thinking I am his "girl" he apparently thinks I make a great tree as well. And yes, I know I look like a dork.

Well, a couple of things... First, from what I have heard, getting him "fixed" is no guarantee that breeding season aggression will go away. Second, start to watch and learn Freddie's behaviors and learn something from this incident. Male Iguanas in breeding season can be very unpredictable (but do give some warning signs - watch his eyes)) and downright dangerous. Freddy doesn't appear to be that big, so fortunately this bite only resulted in a welt and a little blood. A full grown adult can easily bite THROUGH a cheek or require many more stitches than anyone wants in their face! I'm not trying to be morbid here, but caution is a good thing, and may avoid much suffering down the road...

Along those same lines... I would also recommend weaning your iguana off of climbing on your head as soon as possible. Yeah, it's cute now, but he is going to get bigger, and believe me, you don't want a 8, 10 or 15 lb. iguana thinking that its a good idea to be up there. They don't have much (any) respect for your face, and can do quite a bit of damage to a lip, eye or ear very quickly. I've gotten my lip cut from the inside by a toe on my iguana's rear leg from him climbing up my chest and around my shoulders, behind my head! During breeding season, my iguana is allowed nowhere near my face. His first season, he bit the back of my head, and now I know better. He can be very aggressive during this time, so when I handle him, his face is always pointed away from me! Hopefully you iguana won't give you such problems, but be aware that they can exist.

>>I can laugh because the same thing happened to my husband and I but it was him that got bit and not me. (Mwhahahaha!) Freddie was perched on my shoulder and Jake moved in to give me a hug when all of a sudden..... Freddie bit his face!!! Not too bad but he managed to get ahold of his cheek and neck and Jake had a pretty big welt and a little blood from that one. I think someone has a crush on me. *snickers*
>>
>>He is so getting fixed next year! No 'guana is gonna tell me whether I can or cannot get lovin' from my man!

We've only had Forest since last Valentine's Day but went through this with him twice now. Last spring & he's "SUCH a nice guy" right now too. Grrrrrr.

He was outfront with Mike & I last time he he knows where the doors are so he started for the garage where Mike was standing. Mike was wearing our typical FL flipflops & Forest walked up to Mike & CHOMP! He had Mikes entire big toe in his mouth. In one smooth move. I was SHOCKED as he likes me but that lizard LOVES Mike & my son.

Forest is big & Mike's toe bled like crazy. I had to laugh! Mind you, we just weren't paying attention. He was just wandering like he always does, acting normal.

I always remember this now so Forest's face gets nowhere close when he's in breeding season. The turd also went after my Uncle once & got his sock. NORMALLY Forest is the most lovable ig you could ever meet but dang, twice a year, demon city for the men in my life!

I know that the whole Iguana Spay/neuter is a huge controversy and many people are strongly for or against.....

My fault for opening the can of worms I guess.

For those interested, please use this link: http://www.ksreptiles.com/op_iguana_spay.asp

I work for Kindred Spirits Reptile Sanctuary and we spay/neuter ALL iguanas that come into our care. I understand that many people oppose this, but I ask where is their APPLIED knowledge? Most of what they know about Iguana spaing and neutering is from a book, a website, a friend. We routenely provide this for our iguanas and have had NO adverse effects. Our iguanas free roam in a large room (800sf) and have to be able to get along with no fighting. Our males are not territorial and ther is very little fighting, if any. If we do have one that is more aggressive than others depspite the surgery, they will be in an enclosure to reduce injury. We have never lost an iguana from this surgery and they all recover nicely. We are able to SEE an actual difference in behavior before and after surgery. I would like to see how many of you out there that oppose the surgery to be able to give me evidence (of their own, not read) that proves that this surgery is wrong.

Also, about him being on my head... I know what he will become. As far as having a 6 foot Ig trying to climb on my head, that will not be happening. People posing for cute pics with their Ig is all it was, please do not try to read into it any further. I am sorry to see that people are way to critical of others care techniques, knowledge, and whatnot and are quick give their "advice." We are not all experts here, and neither am I.

I'm sorry if you took that I was being critical of your decision. I wasn't. I don't know anything about it one way or another.
Forest isn't fixed only because he's only a demon about 2 months out of the year...during those two months I threaten him daily about what a nice belt he'd make.
What I was agreeing to is to watch them closely (that teeth end more specifically) when close to your face during breeding. Or any other body part.
As to what others meant...their deal.
Some are hyper critical, some aren't. Just like OFF this forum. It comes with posting on a public forum...take what you need, leave the rest.
BTW....the pictures are cute!!!!!!!!!!! Even the head one. LOL

Terri

Terri-

Thank you I appreciate the explanation. Since it is such a touchy subject I guess it is easy for me or other people to jump to conclusions, myself included.

I just think that spaying and neutering is something that has worked for us, but I am in no way saying that everyone should do it. I made one tiny comment and I have already received an email about it and a couple comments. Huh.

I understand about the teeth issue.... ouch! So far I have been luck. *knocks on wood* LOL

And I love seeing pics of Forest as well..... we should talk more because I understand you just got a Crested Gecko.

I did just get a Crested Gecko from Keith Hillson over on the kingsnake forum. As of yet, I'm afraid to introduce Forest & Spiderman (my son's name for Mr. Sticky Feet).

More afraid that Forest would decide to taste him. LOL. The big boy is a grouch right now.

Oh, the joys of lizardhood..........

I was not trying to bring up a controversy over the spay/neuter thing (personally I don't see what the problem is if it can be done without hurting the iguana). My point was simply that it does not always solve the aggression issue, and you brought it up as if that was the answer to your husband being bitten... As far as the rest of it goes, I'm just offering some advice, in this case hoping to avert some serious injuries down the road. What you do with that is up to you. I'm certainly not preaching. There are no absolute answers to any of this. I happen to have a sweet male iguana that turns into a monster during breeding season, and I have learned how to deal with that. The behavior you described sounds like what Dexter started doing a couple of years ago.

I'm sorry you found this kind of response "critical". We are not talking iguana care here, you brought up two situations that could result in the need for life altering plastic surgery to correct. This is a discussion forum, and hopefully even if you don't think what I'm saying makes any sense, someone else will...

>>I know that the whole Iguana Spay/neuter is a huge controversy and many people are strongly for or against.....
>>
>>My fault for opening the can of worms I guess.
>>
>>For those interested, please use this link: http://www.ksreptiles.com/op_iguana_spay.asp
>>
>>I work for Kindred Spirits Reptile Sanctuary and we spay/neuter ALL iguanas that come into our care. I understand that many people oppose this, but I ask where is their APPLIED knowledge? Most of what they know about Iguana spaing and neutering is from a book, a website, a friend. We routenely provide this for our iguanas and have had NO adverse effects. Our iguanas free roam in a large room (800sf) and have to be able to get along with no fighting. Our males are not territorial and ther is very little fighting, if any. If we do have one that is more aggressive than others depspite the surgery, they will be in an enclosure to reduce injury. We have never lost an iguana from this surgery and they all recover nicely. We are able to SEE an actual difference in behavior before and after surgery. I would like to see how many of you out there that oppose the surgery to be able to give me evidence (of their own, not read) that proves that this surgery is wrong.
>>
>>Also, about him being on my head... I know what he will become. As far as having a 6 foot Ig trying to climb on my head, that will not be happening. People posing for cute pics with their Ig is all it was, please do not try to read into it any further. I am sorry to see that people are way to critical of others care techniques, knowledge, and whatnot and are quick give their "advice." We are not all experts here, and neither am I.
>>

I do apologize that I missed your point. Maybe I am over-sensitive about the whole topic because of the years of criticizim I have recieved. I do understand that this is a discussion forum and I apologize if I misunderstood you. A lot of people that I talk to in my line of work claim to be "experts", will lecture me on everything under the sun, and I guess I get a little defensive.

Well i'm going to the contraversal issue and going to ask you something about it because I like the idea... how old or how big do they have to be to have them spayed. Mines young now and know where near the age to do that but later on down the road i might want to have that done, sense my lil seymor is going off to college with me i don't want him to attack my roomate or be very aggressive. (He already has his mean moments and he is still a baby) If that really helps and wont hurt him i'm all for it.
Let me know any info you have about it please I would love to learn more. I'm a first time owner and starving for knowledge.
Thanks

Well we usually try to fix them before their first breeding season because the whole idea is that the sooner they are fixed, the less aggressive they will be. Unfourtunatly by the time they come to the sanctuary they are much older! We usually say at a year is a good time to fix them, but be careful when searching out a vet. None of our Igs have had problems with the surgery, but we also have a very good vet who we trust. Iguana's tend to do ok under anesthesia, but for some reason Water Dragons do not. Make sure that your vet has performed the surgery before and has had good results. It is not cheap either... usually about $400. The way I look at it though.... if an Iguana is going to be considered a "pet" and live in someone's home, you need to feel safe and comfortable EVERY day, not keeping your distance a few months out of the year. Some people prefer to tolerate it, it all comes down to preference I guess.

I really would like to get that done later on, I heard there is a good vet in Fayetteville NC. My friend takes her IG to him. But I still want to check him out befor i made the decision. I'm located In north carolina so if you know of any good vets i need one now to. The last vet i took him to i didn't really care for. But ne way I go to college next year and i really want to take him with me (he can learn graphic design with me lol) but i don't want him to attack my roomy or some one that vistits them, That might get me into some trouble.