Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have run a turtle rescue for years, and recently just took in a very skinny 2 year old green iguana. He has put a good amount of weight on, ive been following all your suggestions for a varied diet of mostly dark green veggies.

My question is, when I let him out to explore the room, sometimes he will lick things, the couch, the carpet, and occasional article of clothing or shoe on the floor. Is he tasting the items? why does he do this?

Also, he has some serious agression problems, attempts to bite, tail whip, postures and puffs himself up, any good advice on dealing with this? or is it just going to take time and patience?

Thanks for all your help, thanks to this site I feel a lot more prepared to handle the responsibility of my new friend. I will post pictures of him (king louis) soon!!

Emily

>>My question is, when I let him out to explore the room, sometimes he will lick things, the couch, the carpet, and occasional article of clothing or shoe on the floor. Is he tasting the items? why does he do this?

He is licking to see if it is something tasty to eat. All iguanas do this. It is important to watch them carefully however. The will eat anything. We have seen iguanas with pennies, saftey pins, underpants, even a thigh high stocking. This is one of the BIG reasons I am really against loose substrate for these guys.

>>Also, he has some serious agression problems, attempts to bite, tail whip, postures and puffs himself up, any good advice on dealing with this? or is it just going to take time and patience?

This is something that may take some time. Now that he is getting healthy he is showing some of his more natural behavior. He may also be going into a breeding cycle that may be delayed due to poor initial health. Check out melissa's page, it has some articles on aggression and training.
great iguana site

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Cindy
PHFaust

Email Cindy

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