Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i dont know if anyof you will remember the problem that i had with my igg when i got him so ill recap a bit.. when i got him from a shelter. he was in pretty bad shape. he was rescued from a home where his owner moved out and left him for dead. he was in the apratment for about 2 weeks with no food and no UVB! and worst of all the shelter he was brought to was not equipped to handle reptiles but they did a good job they got him back eating right and gave him calcium but they didnt have the funds for a UVB light. so he was without UVB for about 7 months. then the people i got him from rescued him from the shlter and got him under UVB and took care of his vet bills cuz he had MBD. and then i got him. but when i got him he had a problem.. he wasnt allowed to climb at all before i got him. his previous owners never let him climb. so he was weak in the legs. when i first got him he would always fall off of his shelves and when he climbed he would always walk to the left. so i got him under alot of UVB and brought him outside as much as possible and he got better. it wasnt much at first becuase i got him around thanksgiving. but this summer he was out side just about every day for hours.. and he improved greatly. but now over the past few months he started to get worse. so i brought him to the vet and the vet said he didnt think it was anything to severe and he said to see what happens. now im going back to the vet on monday. now the last time i went when he was this bad my vet told me not to let him climb at all so he doesnt hurt him self bad. but my question is, how do i make a nice cage for an igg that cant climb well? i know to keep it extra long and wide but how should i set it up... please help!!!

Mike D

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1.0.0 adopted iguana
0.0.2 Hedgehogs
My Email

YOU DONT OWN YOUR IGUANA, YOUR IGUANA OWNS YOU

HAPPINESS IS LIKE PEEING ON YOURSELF, EVERYONE CAN SEE IT BUT ONLY YOU CAN FEEL THE WARMTH

R.I.P INDIAN LARRY

Hey Mike,

I can't be much help in making a connection as to whether or not he's regressing due to the lack of unfiltered natural UVB rays, but I can suggest a minor safety feature that may help in avoiding a fall resulting in injury.

I don't remember quite what your cage set up is like, but I found that by screwing an inch square piece of wood around all edges of the shelves in my iguana's cage gave her a lot of stability and security. I used to have just plain 18" planks as shelves (in addition to her trees), and she would slip and fall fairly regularly. Not a great height, but not a pleasant experience for either of us.

One day I made a 24"x36" shelf with a ledge screwed around the edges, and she hasn't fallen off since. With something for her claws to hook onto when turning around and such, she is so much more relaxed and secure when she's moving around.

I wouldn't want to let your iguana go without the option to climb (I'd think that climbing would be the only way for him to gain strength..but hey, who knows), so this may be a simple, safe alternative.

I also found that by screwing really thick rope around all other climbing surfaces gave extra security to my iguana, and she can climb around her entire cage without any fear of falling.

Anyway, hope that helped a little! Let us know how things go.

Wendy
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"It's not a matter of IF...but WHEN" ~Bill Haast~

"Joy unspeakable...to be holding death in your hands..."

right now he is in a cage with pvc shelves and they have plastic mesh going up them so he can get a grip...

im going to try that tomorrow and see how it goes..
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1.0.0 adopted iguana
0.0.2 Hedgehogs
My Email

YOU DONT OWN YOUR IGUANA, YOUR IGUANA OWNS YOU

HAPPINESS IS LIKE PEEING ON YOURSELF, EVERYONE CAN SEE IT BUT ONLY YOU CAN FEEL THE WARMTH

R.I.P INDIAN LARRY

my iguana has the same problem. what i did is i built a cage that was as long as one of the walls in my house and extreamly wide. put little shelves but not too high. mine are about a foot so if they do fall off of it they wont get hurt. in the summer when she can get outside alot she gets alot better. but when winter comes i notice that she gets worse. i use repcall with calcium and d3 and uvb lights. good luck
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brandy