Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I usually hang out in the monitor forums, but my wife and I are thinking of adopting a female, 36 inch, green iggy. I have been doing a ton of research before I do anything definite. I know that a full grown iguana can reach 6 feet or more. My question is: Can female South American green iguanas reach 6 feet or more when full grown, or is it just the males that attain that size? What size are the adult females that anyone on this forum have?

Thanks in advance for your information.
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I want to die just like my uncle, asleep at the wheel, not yelling and screaming like the passengers in his car!

Ed

Personally, I've never had a 6 foot female come into the rescue. The longest female was a couple of inches past 5 feet. We've seen several males over 6 feet. The 8-10 inches difference really shouldn't be much of an issue... it's like the difference between a 5 or an almost 6 foot albig...they both are gonna need a huge enclosure, lots of dirt, plenty of heat and food. Best of luck with your new Iguana. You're going to think that keeping your monitors is a walk in the park once you've cared for a GGI for a while!

Agree with Jiffy on it.

Monitors are oten not as "personable" as iguanas get. I used to visit the Monitor forum, and when people posted pics there, it was pretty depressing. Ply-wood, ugly enclosures, narrow, low, claustrophobic... and what's with the fascination of copulation? Every week there were pics of a pair copulating. LOL

But I disagree with Jiffy on the ease of care. Monitors are not easy to care for in the feeding department: gut-feeding bugs, frozen mice... damn!
Iguanas will enjoy a nice salad mix.

Enclosure wise ideally you should go BIG once the iguanas is 3 feet and over. 7-8 feet long, just as tall, and at least 4 feet deep, if not 5.

Good luck!

-IJ

Joe, you've got to be joking! I spend almost 2 hours every night preparing salad foods for the Iguanas. I also spend time washing and disinfecting food bowls. It takes me another 2 hours to get them all fed each day.

I currently have 8 monitors here and 7 Tegus. To feed them I go to the freezer, remove a couple of packages of frozen rodents, leave them out to thaw and warm up, and then feed them out using forceps. The actual feeding process takes about 30 minutes, 3 times a week.

Many monitor keepers are aware of their animal's needs and cater to those rather than what the owner would like. That explains why alot of monitor enclosures are ugly...they are designed for the monitor's comfort. I know my monitor's enclosures are nothing to look at but they are useful to the monitor.

Have a great day!

Thanks for all the help guys. I will let you know if I get the female iggy. Of course I will be asking more questions.

Oh... and some monitor enclosures look pretty nice. IMO

A 3 foot long Dumeril is in this pic.

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I want to die just like my uncle, asleep at the wheel, not yelling and screaming like the passengers in his car!

Ed

That looks alot like my Black Roughnecks' enclosure except I also have (2) four foot long, 1 foot diameter cork bark hollows for them which they utilize all the time. I've not kept a Dumerils in a long time but I would imagine it's quite similar to the BRN's, which are awesome monitors.

I understand Jiffy, but how depressing for an animal to live in a plywood box with the visual stimuli of a coffin...

That Dumeril enclosure looks awsome in the other rely tho!

I just find it odd how monitor/tegu owners do not the extra mile as much as iguana or other lizards owners in creating a great captive habitat.

Have you seen how people keep their snakes? The poor things are coiled tighly in these tiny enclosures for the rest of their lives. Not much to explore, stretch, and move about. Just sit there coiled, in a box, waiting for a dead rat. Sounds like animal abuse to me.

If someone is to keep exotic animals, they should do it right. You take a wild animal from its natural habitat, it's your responsibility to provide the best captive care for that animal, and that includes providing an enclosure that simulates, and STIMULATES natural behavior as much and as closely as possible.

-IJ

My female is 4 1/2 feet and pretty much full grown. The first three pics at this link are of her. JN
Link