Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am working on taming my igg and it seems to be a very slow process. He's still quite young, Ive only had him for a few months. Housing is right, temps are right (basking area 98F, ambient 86-90F, and a cool zone of about 80-82F). He has specific UVA, and UVB bulbs, and I keep up on misting as much as I can. A mistking system and a megaray are in the near future. Diet is correct as well (I believe), he gets a staple green (tends to rotate each week) and two staple veggies which are mixed in porportion to maintain a 2:1 Ca ratio. These are belended in the food processor to make them easy to eat and store. He also has live collards in his cage to snack on.

Now, onto my question

I try to handle Mag every day, even though he dosen't seem to be to fond of the idea. Sometimes he will let me pick him up and sometimes he tries to run away. If hes really excited I'll leave him alone, I don't want to chase him around in his cage (he has lots of room to run away) Once I have him he usually calms down and will just chill out. He only tries to whip or bite if hes in one of his moods, but he usually calms down nicely. I am able to change food/water and do cage maintance with him in the cage and he dosen't seem to mind me being in there, but be is still a bit skiddish at time.

I'd really like to be able to bring him out with out having to 'hold' him and not worry about him jumping down and running off. Do they tend to calm down and stay put as they get older?s

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Force handling might not be a good idea. Right now they might seem easy to restrain but a larger animal will not tolerate that too well. I would recommend you just leave it alone and let it come to you eventually. Gain its trust and hopefully it will be the good captive you want. You can try the no force handling method and let it learn that you're the food giver, in time maybe you can lure the animal to you with food and interaction will be less stressful.

Iggy's will go through the motions of life. Active/spunky baby, terrible twos into everything,defient teens,subadults figuring themselves out and then couch potatoes who are usually used to our presence. Male and female iggs will also be more agressive during breeding season. Give em time, eventually it will come around.

My Male Green Iguana did start to calm down a lot when I moved him out of a 50Gal. Tank to a big 4'L x 6'H x 3'D cage and now I can handle him to a point and he hasen't bit me sence. So good luck and just try to pet him and show him you feeds him.

Also what might help is to treat his main food source witch should be collard greens as a treat and if he is mean to you and don't want to be touched, just don't feed him for a couple of days. Just so you don't think that I am neglecting my Iguana I do keep pellets in his cage at all times just so he don't starve but the main food source treat and in the other post I put up for this your Iguana should calm down a lot more and you will start to notice it soon.

Humm..that may work. He's actually stared to become more aggressive when I pick him up. What Ive been doing is when he tries to bite is just feed him some collards. After a few minutes of that he seems to calm down.