Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My fiancee has a 3 year old male Green Iguana and it has recently started striking at its own tail while it's in the vivarium. He was recently moved from a smaller vivarium (around 2' deep, 4' wide, 5' high, to a new one, 5' deep, 4' wide, 7' high. But other than that nothing has changed. I was wondering if there is any reason for this behaviour as he's, on occasion getting his tail and drawing blood.

Thanks in advance

Stephen

It could be breeding season get him a stuffed toy green lizard.

I have a question to the reptile guy that posted before me. How come your lizard is two different colors? The top of him brown and the bottom of him green? My lizard is doing generically the same thing, but since I lack a camera, I dont feel as though I have been able to convey exactly what he looks like. However, he looks just like yours does, but a bit more of a faded color on top.
Is this natural? Will their green color come bak? etc.. etc..
Any help from anyone is much appreciated, and thank you many in advance.

he has what is called a red iguana. it is still the same species(iguana iguana)but it is a morph that has been recently produced. the green color will not come back but the red should intensify with age(as i am told.)
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"it takes a small person to beat a defenseless animal, and an even smaller person to eat it."

"it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
1.0.0 bearded dragon
1.1.0 green iguana
0.0.1 columbian tegu
1.1.0 knight anole
0.1.0 green anole
0.1.0 asian longtail grass lizard
1.1.0 golden gecko
1.0.0 ball python
0.0.5 oriental firebellied toad
0.0.1 green treefrog
0.0.1 barking treefrog
0.0.1 cuban masked treefrog
0.0.1 gray treefrog
0.1.0 gulf hammock rat snake
0.1.0 eastern kingsnake
0.1.0 siberian husky
1.1.0 ratties
0.1.0 hedgie

are there only red and green iguanas, or do you also have the potential for black and grey iguanas?

Yeah your ig's color will come back. Mine took 4 months to get his color back but it came back. It's natural just wait and he'll get his color back.

My ig is a green iguana and I just got a red and I know the difference. it was just a phase and his color came back.

thank golly... was stressing me out that he went from being a beautiful green to a faded out blakish grey color in like 3 days... makes me all giddy inside knowing that one day he will be green again :-P
BTW, your iguana is pretty

assuming that iggies get mites? I had a bluetongue that was biting his tail and it turned out to be mites.Its worth checking into...
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Thanks to those that replied. He is a little orange right now, and has been pretty moody, so could be breeding season.

Not sure about mites...he was bathed the other night and we looked thoroughly.

He's got his regular appt at the vets on Friday, so hopefully he'll be able to rule out infections/mites.

Thanks again!