Seeing all the leoparded geckos, pythons, etc, that come in such varieties and "designs", one must wonder how the quintessential reptilian pet has never seen captive breeding that produced color morphs.
Color morphs happen through selective breeding, and genetics. Goldfish come not just in golden red. Even captive bred foxes for the fur trade change physical and color characteristics after a certain amount of generations.
Yet the iguana, despite its (in)famous popularity, is still the same ol' green unlucky fella waiting to be bought or adopted. The red iguana and albinos may be signs of things to come, but it is amazing how these animals just don't seem to be able to have a breeding program like other lizards have.
Why not?
Monitors and tegus are just as big, and just as expensive. Yet we have high-yellow salvators, and blue tegus. Red bearded dragons, red ackies, leucistic gators, yet the poor iguana remains the green ol' iguana.
WHy hasn't anyone, years ago, back in the 90's, ever made a quality breeding program so that costumers could have a healthy, non-imported animal?
Another strange thing about iguanas is the reluctancy of owners to have them mate and reproduce. Perfectly explainable, since there are too many iguanas, and so few homes to take them in.
Yet there seem to be enough homes for nile monitors, gigantic constrictors, venomous snakes, tegus, etc. These and more species have a healthy industry, while the poor iggy is still an imported sick animal. Why haven't St. Pierre, Python Pete, Agama, and so many others ever jumpstarted a breeding program for better quality iguanas?
Back to the future. Is it possible that some day we will see designer iguanas? High-blues or high-reds? Leucistics?
The future for the iguana seems bleak at times. So many more affordable, and easier to keep candidates, and so many iguanas in deplorable conditions from neglect, that no-one wants to dare try to save for money, space, and time reasons. How far can iguana husbandry go? How far can it go at this point?
-IJ
