Hello Cyclura Group,
It has been almost two years since I last posted on this forum, ever since my wife and I first got Petros our Hybrid Rock Iguana from David Blair in February of 2003 (graduate school has kept me very busy since then). He is almost three years old (will turn three on October 2nd). He has been a wonderful and loving part of the family for the past 2 1/2 years. He has always been a hearty eater, eating a mix we make each week of a wide variety of organic greens, vegetables, beans, and fruit with the appropriate vitamin and calcium supplements each week. Below are four pictures of Petros, the first is his baby picture that I posted when we first got him, the second is picture from this March, and the last two are from this evening when we came home to find that our wonderful little boy is actually a little girl! Petros had gone through a growth spurt over the winter eating an unbelievable amount every day. He got up to 820 grams and more than two feet long at the beginning of May and then in the last week of May he suddenly slowed down his eating yet remained very active. He stopped pooping and then started leaving jelly like spots of urate that we mistook for semen. We thought he had reached maturity and was masturbating and that's why he stopped eating. But then the last couple days he has been digging around his cage more than usual. And then last night and this morning he was digging quite frantically. I said to my wife that maybe we had better put a nesting box in just in case. I never got a chance to do so however because when we came home we found the paper towel in his cage ripped to shreds and he was pushing it under his cave. He was completely emaciated and when I lifted up his cave I found 4 huge eggs. We took her out of the cage and gave her food which she accepted right away and then I cleaned up her cage. She weighs 584 grams now and the eggs weigh 142 grams which added together puts her back up close to the 738 she weighed back in March. I just wanted to share this experience with you all and ask for any advice as to how to proceed with her post-laying care. Is it usually just one clutch? The only health problem we have ever had with her is that ever since we got her she has on and off left a few spots of red blood when she wipes her cloaca after pooping. She hasn't done so in the last month, the last time she did so was when we thought she was masturbating constantly. We took her in for an endoscopy with an excellent reptile vet last (Dr. Charles Innis who has published articles on endoscopy in reptiles) year and he found nothing to explain why she was leaving blood and her fecal examinations turned up no blood in the stool. He thought she likely was rupturing vessels when pooping and since she has never had any other symptoms of illness we haven’t really worried too much about it. She didn't leave any blood with the eggs. She does have the most firm poop of any reptile I've ever seen. Well...that ought to do it. I'd love to hear any advice or comments you have.
Best,
Matthew
