Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was never interested in iguanas until last sunday when I saw this little brat in the street with a baby iglet tied by the neck and fighting with other 2 little boys for it. They capture her from the wild (I live in a Caribbean Island) I couln't stand to see them torturing the little green thing so twenty dollars after, the iggy was going home with me. After reading anapsid.net, the iguanaden.com an the greenigsociety.org I think I am a good ig mom. I just would like to know aprox how old this baby is, and wich kind of Iggy is. Since is the first one I ever see, I would like the opinions of more experimented iguana lovers.
I called her Phoebe (if she turns out to be a boy, will be Chandler, hehehe) she is 8 cm SVL and 31 cm total.
She is eating very well, two times a day, and big poo every morning when I bath her. I only have her for a week and I am crazy for her!

http://galeon.hispavista.com/sxmtantra/album1089445.html

That is a green iguana ("Iguana iguana", and I would say he/she is only a few months old. Definately less than six months old.

What is unusual about this baby is the white coloring on the dewlap and shoulders- it may fade with age, but I have seen some pictures of adults with that white coloring, and it is just beautiful. I am guessing you are from Puerto Rico? Maybe that is a local coloration.

The following books will help you out a lot: "Iguanas for Dummmies" by Melissa Kaplan, and "The Ultimate Green Iguana Owner's Manual" by James Hatfield. Did you already say you went to Melissa Kaplan's website? I can't remember. In any case, it's the best place on the web for reliable iguana information: http://www.anapsid.org.

Tell us what your setup is like? What are you feeding? What kind of lights do you have? There are lots of helpful and knowledgeable people on here, and if you want to fine tune your husbandry, they'll be a big help.

Good luck! Does he/she have a name yet?

Her name is Phoebe, we live in St Martin, French West Indies, a little east of Puerto Rico. I read MK's site throughtly, also iguanaden.com and greenigsociety.org. I build her a cage and she has plenty of natural sunlight in the morning. She eats twice a day a lot of different things: Endive, bok-choy, watercress, green beans, squash, papaya, melon, banana, blueberries, hibiscus flowers and leaves, and more!. I also got a plant named Surinam Cherry that one of the local zoo workers told me the wild iguanas love to eat. I think I did all my homework!

I hope to see pictures of Phoebe growing up!

If I were a captive green ig, I'd like to be owned by you, down in St Martin.

Roger, from many forums

Hello Roger from many forums. Since you have been so kind to ask all my ig questions and you seem to be very well informed and kind I want to ask you to be Phoebe's godfather!

The bad news is that yesterday I saw the kid again with other three baby iguanas inside his bagpack(one of them extremely small and skinnny!!!) He run straight to me and offer them for sale. I feel awful, he had captured more iguanas to make business. I realized that buying this ones I will only encorauge him to capture more. Instead I ask him what he was feeding them and he said hibiscus (because they grow naturally everywhere). I knew he wouldn't listen to feeding advices, instead I told him about salmonella and wash his hands often. He didn't look frightened enougth to let those babies free. How sad.