Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, after no one wanted this gal, we decided to keep her. I'm an experienced snake keeper (boas & pythons) and have had a couple of chams and monitors but never an ig. The vet visit went well. He said she's very skinny but since she's eating for us it's a good sign. He also said she has good color. Most of her claws are missing and completely healed over. She has a bad nose rub which has already started to heal. He gave us some oral meds for parasites just in case. I'm in the process of building her a cage. It's 6' tall X 4' wide X 2' deep. She's about 2 1/2' so I think this will be adequate for her - at least for a little while. It's going to have plastic mesh unless I can find plastic coated wire mesh. Lowe's has it but it's 2" X 3" which is too large. Now for the questions:

1) Without claws, how should I setup climbing perches?
2) Do igs stink? She smells like she might but I'm not sure. Could be the dog.
3) What's a good iguana book and online resource?

TIA!
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Jay A. Martin

Oh, the poor thing!

1. I would try to make the enclosure with ramps, but not really climbing perches. If she has no claws, it might be difficult to pull herself up onto things.

2. I don't think iguanas smell, unless they have a bacterial infection or something. But you took her to the vet, and I'm sure he would've picked that up.

3. Iguanas for dummies by Mellissa Kaplan is a pretty good book, very informative. And online, I would go to http://www.greenigsociety.org/home.html. It's a page dedicated to the care and education of iguanas. Very excellent site. They can also provide you with assistance by answering any of your questions. Might want to email them about the no-claws thing.

Good luck!
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~*Chibi*~
Sir Iggy ( 1.0.0 El Salvador Blue Iguana), Ryo-ohki, Orion, Bud, & Finnegan (3.1.0 crazy kitties), Rosebud (0.1.0 cockerspaniel), and Kayko (0.0.1 leopard gecko)