Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a full grown female(oscar), who is quite docile (as docile as an iguana could be) towards other animals. or, at least, so i thought. i just adopted a juvinile male whom Oscar is ready to kill. i had to get the new lil boy all set up in his own cage b/c she kept harrasing him. is there anyway to get these two to get along? i had them out together today in the living room, and oscar didnt even seem to notice him, but when i put them both back in oscar's room , she got mad at him again. how should i deal with this?

If they are male and a female, don't ever put them together. If they are both male, don't ever put them together. If they are both female, wait until they are the same size and let them hang out away from the cages. If you introduce an iguana into anothers cage they may become territorially (is that a word?) agrressive (sp). Hope that helps a little. -joe

Iguanas--both male and females--are highly territorial. You've just forced another iguana into Oscar's territory: your home. Er, HER home.

Some iguanas get along fine together all or most of the time, regardless of sex. Some never ever ever under any circumstance get along. Some get along fine until one of them goes into breeding season, or until some other social element is introduced into their social circle, an element that may be another iguana, another animal, including another human. Or they may get along just fine until something happens and they don't, something we can't figure out other than to say that, no matter how tame and socialized iguanas become, they are still wild animals with the instincts of wildings.

Please read my Housing Multiple Iguanas and Lizard Tough Guys articles, as well as the one on Change-Related Stress.

The bottom line is that there is no way to predict which iguanas will get along, and which will not. And, of those that do finally get along after the initial period of adjustment, which will always get along, and which won't in the future.

This means, every time you bring a new iguana into the home after your first one, you are making the committment to keeping each of them separate from each other, for the rest of their lives, in enclosures appropriate for their size. If you aren't sure exactly what that means, please check out my Basic Cage Design Problems and Iguana Age and Expected Size articles. That's what tends to keep most people from keeping more than one or two.

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Melissa Kaplan
Anapsid.org

well, Oscar seemed fine when she was hanging out with the new little boy in the living room. so, i took it a step further, and put him in her room and brought her in about 30 mins later. man, she got him...bad. she bit his leg and sliced it to the muscle. i dont know if its b/c he is a male, or b/c he is so much smaller, or b/c she finally has her own room, but i dont think they will ever get along. when she had free roam over the entire house, she got along with another female her size with no trouble. they even slept together and shared their basking spot. i guess that was just b/c no one had anyplace to call "theirs", so there wasnt anything to fight over, except when it was time to eat, which had to take place in two different rooms. ~sigh~ that's so sad that this isnt going to work out the way i had planned.

>>well, Oscar seemed fine when she was hanging out with the new little boy in the living room. so, i took it a step further, and put him in her room and brought her in about 30 mins later. man, she got him...bad. ... i dont know if its b/c he is a male, or b/c he is so much smaller, or b/c she finally has her own room,

It is because the living room was she may have considered relatively neutral territory, but then you put him in HER room. That triggered her attack.

>>when she had free roam over the entire house, she got along with another female her size with no trouble. they even slept together and shared their basking spot.

That may have been because the other female was, right off the bat, subordinate to her, so there was never an issue. Or, they worked it out without you realizing what was going on. Now you've brought a newcomer into the mix, forcing her to act to ensure she's going to maintain her dominant status.

Sleeping together at night isn't necessarily a sign of compatibility. Nighttime sleeping aggregations is the way each individual reduces the chance that he or she will be eaten before dawn. In the wild, there are nocturnal animals who prey on iguanas - by sleeping in groups, it increases individual survival. The same things happen in captivity, with iguanas who sleep together at night scattering as soon as they are warm enough to move out to their usual daytime basking and lounging areas.

That's exactly what happened in my house: The pile of 10-15 bodies at night in the ig room would scatter by 10 AM, leaving only a handful in the ig room, with the rest in the living room, den, and my bedroom. Then there were those who were too stubborn to scatter, insisting on trying to duke it out with those lower or higher in status. Those I had to forcibly segregate, with some being place in the other two bedrooms, where basking and lounging areas had been set up, and one or two compatible igs placed with them for company.

>> ~sigh~ that's so sad that this isnt going to work out the way i had planned.

Which is why it is sooooo important for every keeper of socially dynamic species to recognize that there are never any guarantees of compatibility, and that to bring another individual into the mix means having to deal with the consequences when things don't work out. Unfortunately for the new animals, that too often means that they dumped on a rescue or given to someone who isn't prepared or willing to become prepared to care for them properly.

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Melissa Kaplan
Anapsid.org

>>Unfortunately for the new animals, that too often means that they dumped on a rescue or given to someone who isn't prepared or willing to become prepared to care for them properly.

this is exactly why i intend to keep him and give him what he needs. especially after that nasty gash that oscar gave him, i feel like i should be the one to take care of him and make it up to him. i feel so horrible about his poor lil leg. besides, i'm too attached already! i got him from the petstore that i work at. he had been at my store for about 6-8 months and the owner decided to put him up for adoption b/c he doesnt want the store to carry iggies anymore (which i was very happy for. i'm tired of telling people that want an iggy for a first reptile that it's a really bad idea. "please, dont do what i did!" anyway, i've watched this guy double in size since we got him in. now, its just a matter of making more room in the house for his permanent set-up. grrr. remind me, why do i like these troublesome critters so much?
-melissa-your book has been a lifesaver. i've read bits and pieces of it at work, and i finally got a copy for myself this evening.

>>>> i feel like i should be the one to take care of him and make it up to him. i feel so horrible about his poor lil leg. besides, i'm too attached already!

They do get to you, don't they?

>>anyway, i've watched this guy double in size since we got him in. now, its just a matter of making more room in the house for his permanent set-up. grrr.

Too bad it isn't as easy (not that it is really easy) to expand our homes as it is to build our igs new enclosures...

>>remind me, why do i like these troublesome critters so much?

Uhm, because you're insane like the rest of us here?

>>-melissa-your book has been a lifesaver. i've read bits and pieces of it at work, and i finally got a copy for myself this evening.

Thanks!

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Melissa Kaplan
Anapsid.org