Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just lately got an iguana that is VERY aggressive. It is just about a year old, and only about 2 feet STL, but he can still inflict a lot of damage. I have been bit 4 times so far in 2 months, and I'm getting rather bloody and frustrated. What do you do with an iguana like this? He jumps off of me whenever i try to hold him, and he is almost impossible to catch to hold in the first place. I want him to get used to me and act a little less aggressive, but i seem to be taking the wrong approach. What would you suggest? does anyone have an ig that they had the same type of problems with that is better now?
Jake Olsen

i have had an ig that was very agressive at first but after a while he became tame.what i first did was slowly reached my hand into his cage and when he showed his dewlap i would stop completely.I would later on get to petting him in his cage then holding him etc. etc.....
Now i have had my ig for a year and he is free roaming and accepting hand feeding.I adopted him from a family that wasn't caring for him well and that is why he was agressive.

Well we have had two that the slow approach didn't seem to work on. We had to use a towel. When we first opened the door we would toss a towel over them. Then pick them up with the towel still covering their head and front claws. (They could still whip their tail but were usually surprised and didn't as much and being around two feet it wouldn't hurt as much as a bite!) Anyway after picking them up we would keep them wrapped in the towel but loosen it from their head watching our hands so they couldn't grab hold! It seemed to keep them calm being all wrapped up. After a couple weeks we could loosen the towel more and eventually didn't have to use it at all. We have a large male who is really tame but still loves to be wrapped in a towel like a baby and sit in your arms. Just not over the head!

Stephanie

Andy is around a year old. I adopted him in October 2002 from a petstore (yes i know petstores = bad but she sells one ig at a time and they get good care) My vet said in his 20 years of pratice he has never seen an ig as agressive as Andy is and he even talked about putting him down when he reaced adult size. I WOULD NEVER CONSIDER THIS... But we put him in a HUGE cage and when I adopted vernon (he is a she lol) Andy settled down and we can catch him witn no problem. But we still went through 9 months of heck with tryng to catch him and he has vicious little teeth (See picture). Try putting a towel over the ig and hold him gently but firmly against your body so he can hear your heart and your breath and he will soon calm down. Good Luck

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Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish