Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello! I have had my iguana ever since she was a baby and now she's 3 and a half years old, 3 feet long, and she became very aggressive so I decided to start taming her last week. Ive been holding her everyday for one week now and giving her tours of my house and feeding her by hand sometimes but today she's acting different...when I picked her up she did her usual attempt to get away from me and then when I started talking to her to calm her down she closed her eyes and everytime she would open them it would be to get move around, trying to escape from my hands. So now she is just laying on my legs with her eyes closed not even moving and I keep thinking she will jump off any minute since Im not used to her being so calm. Is she closing her eyes because she's scared? She's had them closed for a while now...I figure she's sleeping but is this a sign she's beginning to trust me? I would also appreciate some advice on what other things I can do to tame her. Thank you!!

Here's a pic of her, her name is Tigeris...originally Tiger till I found at she was a girl at the age of 2 =)

Here's the pic of her with her eyes closed

Image

Hey,
If you read my posts below you could easily recognize I'm not the most experienced of Iguana owners. However, what I've noticed in only the past few days with my rescue Ig is that when he closes his eyes he is calm. When opened, he gets very skittish and tries to escape. To me it simply appears to be a fear of handling or human interaction.

I have barly handled him at all being i just aquired him and want to give him an oppotunity to acclimate to his new enclosure. Obviously, there is a big difference between our two situations. My situation is i just purchased a weary Ig and am avoiding all human contact and handling for the best of my Ig's sake. Your situation on the other hand is that your Ig was once "tame" and now is what you would consider "not tame."

I really don't know how this happens, I have owned only a small collection of monitors and have never seen mood swings, but, and even though Ig's and monitors are two completely different animals, I have found that when lizards are in distress in general, it is best to leave them be.

I would not even attempt to tame your animal if she is anxious. Tame is a very shaky word for large sized lizards. And forced handling in my experience is not a very good method of calming their anxiety.

If i were you i would let your animal be... from what I've read about Ig's so far is that their mental state is somewhat common to monitors. And i can tell you from experience that forced handling or "taming" is the wrong way to go in that situation.

Earning the trust of your animal, which takes alot of patience, might be more valuable. I would think your Ig is calm when its eyes are closed being it cannot see anything it perceives as a threat, which at this point the perceived threat is you.

I would only interacte as much as necassary... feeding, water change, enclosure cleaning ect. Giver it its space, let it know your the one supplying the water and food your animal needs to survive. Let her observe YOU rather then the other way around in your daily activities and yes... always INVITE rather then PULL her out of her cage if you feel you have to.

Again, my opinion is mostly varanid based, but I happened to be on the forum at the time and thought I'd at least give my point of view. I cannot say as fact, but from what I've read, Iguanas-not as often as monitors-but like monitors, can be or in your case i guess "turn into" observation animals. Ask for Cindy... she gave me real good information in the post below yours about husbandry for my recent aquisition of my new Ig. She seems very knowledgable and can help you more then i can.

The obove stated being only my opinion and not fact.

Peace.

It is the find a happy place thing. I notice this very often in animals when we do public display. They close their eyes, you are not their, they are safe.
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Cindy
PHFaust

Email Cindy

Land of the Outcasts!

Thanks for your responses. Nope, she was never tame, only smaller =) but the other day when I was feeding her she almost escaped from her cage which is under the roof in my backyard since it's always hot in Miami I don't have a problem keeping her at good temperature. She almost escaped and I read online that any iguana can be tamed. I wanted to build a relationship with her since she is getting bigger and I've been only feeding and changing her water for 3 and a half years but I think it's time that she gets more interaction with people. I don't want her to be 6 or 7 feet long and I won't even be able to enter the cage to feed her. I would love to let her loose around my house when she calms down a little more and when she gets even bigger I was planning on having her lose in one iguana-safe room to have more space and time with me and then at night or when I'm gone I would put her back in her cage. Any suggestions on how to get her to be more calm? Plus I love interacting with her and having her spend time with me, I don't want to just leave her in the cage 24/7 like I used to...Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!

Regular interaction will change her temperment. Its always easier the younger they are, so expect bumps along the way.
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Cindy
PHFaust

Email Cindy

Land of the Outcasts!

I think there's a couple of different theories out there (at least I've read a few different ones). Maybe these will help...

There's the anapsid.org (or.com) website by Melissa Kaplan as well as her book Iguanas For Dummies. Personally, I favor her advice the most.

Here's a link:
http://www.greenigsociety.org/taming.htm

Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your iguana!

I took in my step-sister's Iguana when she moved. It had never really been held--she and her son, for whom she had bought the Iguana five years before, were both afraid of it. (You ALL know the story...)

Although it was well cared for and fed the right stuff, it was small and confined to a small cage. It is still mildly terrified of me at times, but as it is housed in a cage in my laundry room, it gets to look at me a lot! It closes its eyes if I startle it, but it loves having its head massaged, and I can now, after many months, massage its whole body right down to its tail-tip! I now practice massaging its legs, and lifting its feet in place. It is beginning to trust me, and looks to see if I have brought any food with me every time I enter the room. It really seems to be more and more curious. Yes, I think this Ig will be very mellow with time. I do recommend the head rub when it closes its eyes as your hand approaches. Little by little! Good luck!

Thank you all for your advice!! I'm excited because I'm redecorating the cage this weekend and I got new gloves so my arms won't get any more scratched up than they are now =) Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

On another forum this same question was asked and a few of the responses were that the reason for them closing their eyes is because they are ignoring you.

This could be because she feels safe when she closes her eyes or because she doesnt want to bed bothered. A lady posted some pics of her iguana closing one of his eyes (eye that was closest to the lady) but the other eye (eye farthest away on the other side of his head) would be open.

I tend to think its more of a feeling safe thing. When she closes her eyes she isnt scared because she cant see any danger.

It takes time for her to get used to you. This is my first iguana but I have had water dragons and other reptiles and Im sure its the same with an iguana as it is with them. Just keep handling her and being around her to show that your not going to harm her and she will get used to you. Soon you will be able to lay on the couch and watch tv together haha....

Like i said, I'm a monitor man, not too much knowledge on iguanas. So advice from anyone else here is good advice... you can't force handle monitors if their truly stubborn, and I have gained their trust easier by letting them observe me without intruding. But again, Igs aren't monitors and i doubt their that stubborn either.(just from what i've noticed so far with my new ig, as well as my ig i owned as a child)

So check out the recommended books-my only advice when your taking steps to calm her down is to find ways when handling to cause as little stress as possible(kind of broad-but if done with close attention this works best for all reptiles--especially big lizards, they seem to remember those stressful situations very well). Pay extremely close attention to her when you take her out of her cage, when you come to her cage ect. Try to avoid any stressing on her IF POSSIBLE. Another thing is when you start handling her, if you really want to calm her, I would try to make handling as consistant as possible.

As long as she continues to eat, turn handling into a scheduled everyday activity if you can. When you handle her, try not to make too much eye contact if that seems to bother her. I just started handling my Ig, and hes young, and he hates me looking at him. This is true with many lizards. When i would come in the room of my nervouse ackie i would pretend he wasnt even there and eventually the curiosity got the best of him.

If you notice this with your ig, even though your holding her, try to make her feel like shes not the center of attention. Mine is getting better pretty quick-now he has his moments where my looking at him will make him nervous and other times where he doesnt seem to mind. Little things like that make a big impact in my opinion... the smaller the stress, the bigger the trust and the faster it comes. So, just check out as much as you can about what things you can avoid while handling her(as little as they may be) that might stress her out. Nothing can tell you more about your lizard then your lizard herself. By the way shes a real beauty, good luck with her.

And if you feel like it, post progress and specifics on how she reacts to the handling. I'm no Ig expert, but not to be vain, i can definitly call myself a very well informed person when it comes to handling reptiles in general. I learned very young with beardies, turtles, chameleons an iguana and a boat load of wild kingsnakes/fox snakes and rat snakes that wanted nothing but to bite my head off when i first caught them, only to become my neck apparel whithin a couple hours of the right handling.

Thats a pretty good idea there about not making her the center of attention!! I posted a new pic because the other one wasnt that good. Im trying to make handling an everyday activity but for the past 3 days I havent been able to even tho Im dying to. By the time I get home these past 3 days she is sleeping like a rock and I dont want to wake her up. But the last time I put her in her cage after handling she gently got off and didnt run away like usual which is progress =) how old is yours?

I'm very glad I decided to make a relationship with her because before it was just food water and that's it, which sucked...

and another pic =) 2nd day of taming

Yeah, I understand that owning any reptile comes with the curiosity of handling them. But husbandry always comes first, and you look like you've taken care of that. There are so many people with big lizards that are mal-nutritioned and stuffed in small enclosures, by the look of your ig's health you seem to have had the patience required to calm her down.

I don't know much about Ig's, I had one when I was very young, she was a really great lizard, everything you'd expect from a pet. But, being that I haven't owned any for so long I couldn't exactly say how old the one I own at present is. He's a little more then a foot with the tail, so not a baby, but still young. But yeah, its always best to try your best not to make her the center of attention... or at least make her THINK that, b/c obviously when trying to calm an animal they ARE the center of attention LOL.

Do your best to make handling consistent, but if you miss a few days here and there its no big deal at all. Just do your best with the time you have, she'll come right along. In my earlier posts you may have noticed that I was pretty cautious about handling reptiles not so keen on being andled. Thats because I own monitors, and had at one point owned a water monitor that was so easily stressed i barely EVER handled her.

But, in my recent experience with this new little guy, Ig's seem to be much more like bearded dragons or well mannered boas and such. And seem to be best handled when they are young rather then old (which is usually the opposite with the big lizards i have owned). Don't worry, she'll come along, but as the poster above stated, head rubs as long as she doesn't scury might be a good idea. And sometimes just simply letting the animal observe you doing daily activities can help in the trust process.

I don't nesicarily beleive reptiles in general can be tamed. They simply build enough trust towards someone to the point where they can be considered docile. Good luck, and keep doing what your doing and always remember when it comes to handling nervous animals no one can really inform you in regards of how to go about it more then your animal itself.
Peace