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Well we survived a week with our new border and have (close to officially... my wife has not put the offical wifely seal of approval on it yet) decided to keep him instead of finding him a new home. He has been spending more and more time free-ranging in an enclosed area and has been really easy (so far) to take care of and learn with. I do have a couple of questions though.

He (Bud the Iguana) has been climbing onto another one of our cages (its mesh) and laying on top of a light housing - it is the highest point in the room. We have checked the heat and it is slightly warm with no areas for him to insert claw etc to get hurt. The current cage occupant (a mountain horned dragon) shows no interest in the ig at all and does her daily routine without any changes. We put the ig's bowl up there and he lounges, munches on greens, looks out the window, watches tv, and occasionally naps. I am going to be working on something that he can get up to on the wall where he can get the height and not have to interact with other animals, possibly stressing one or both of them out. Any ideas?

I have been waiting to let him loose until he has gone to the bathroom. He is only going once in the morning and thats it (I read where the body temp gets higher and then they go, any truth to that?). Is that pretty much normal or am I pressing my luck taking him out of the cage?

We did have one accident over the weekend that I had a question on. He was perched up on the cage as usual when out of no where he took a running leap and landed in a pile of clothes below the dresser and cage. I felt awful about it. He seems perfectly fine after his tumble. Is this normal for them? I was looking for anything that may hurt him, but a flying leap was not on my list. I am not sure where he got the idea though I think it was either:

a. We had watched some show on dinosaurs being related more to birds than reptiles, I think he may have been testing that theory or trying to see if reptiles could fly... I swear he was flapping his front legs before he fell.

b. The cats talked him into it when they were in the room earlier.

c. He watched the Mountain Horned Dragon swinging through the vines in her cage and wanted to see if he could do it, minus the vines.
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
0-0-1 Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

if you cant keep him from laying on top of the lights, i would cover them with a towel, or move that cage to try to deture him from laying on top of it. he could get thermal burns from sitting on them (same reason heat rocks are no good).
iggs are arborial critters, and built for jumping from limb to limb, or limb to ground. i would however, try to keep him out of extremely high places (about 3 feet would by my limit with my iggies, but that's just me).
have you taken a look at the "iguana for dummies" book yet? i bought one about a year ago, and it has helped me out tremdously with iggy questions.
and, yes, as iguanas' body temp rises, they become more active and their bodies are more effecient at doing things like digesting and pooping. i usually give my iggies a bath about an hour or two after i've turned on their lights in the morning. by this time, they are warm enough to go to the bathroom, and it helps keep their enclosure (the guest bathroom) clean.
have fun.

I knew about the heat rocks but did not realize that he could get a burn from the light housing. I thought it was a relatively low temp heat. My wife called shortly after I posted to let me know that he may have learned more from his attempted flight than we thought. He has since begun climbing up and down the dresser and cage (cage is secured so it is not going to tip over from the weight or activity). He has also started playing "chicken" with our cats (while supervised). They have looked at the other reptiles with little regard chosing to spend their time watching the fishtank.
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
0-0-1 Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids