Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

The Iguana

Instead of telling you everything I know about iguanas in general, I'll tell you a little about my iguana. If you have an iguana or are considering one, check out Melissa Kaplan's page. I wish I'd had access to this information when I got my boy.

His first baby picture.

In his prime.

The (started out to be) short version of the iguana story in the extended entry:

I bought Ig when I was living down south. The pet store where I got him had only one book on iguana care; most of what was in the book was superficial or downright wrong. Several months after I moved back here Ig stopped climbing, so I found an exotics vet who diagnosed him with some fairly severe vitamin deficiencies. He had a vitamin D infusion and I changed his diet, including dog food in addition to his vegetables, and he quickly regained his strength and growth.

Over the years we had a few bouts of illnesses, usually related to his diet. We tinkered with it based on new information that seemed to be coming out (I bought every iguana-related book I ever found, as well as every reptile magazine. This was pre-internet, but I did join a Prodigy iguana board when we got our first modem). Ig grew to be about 18 inches snout-vent length, plus a few more feet of powerful tail.

Ig had his own room, since he quickly outgrew the ten-gallon tank he came with (completely inadequate) as well as a 100-gallon tank. It was heated with infrared lamps and lit with full-spectrum vitalights, and since I am usually cold I loved hanging out in Ig's warm room. (I also completely expected to find a DEA agent at my door looking for a pot farm, since I'm sure my house glowed like a Christmas tree on surveillance photographs.) Ig himself was a bit catlike in personality...he showed affection, but on his terms, not yours. He did seem to appreciate a good back scratch, though, since he had trouble pulling the dried skin off his spikes by himself.

Ig's favorite foods were cheese and eggs, neither of which were optimal, and pumpkin pie, which he got only seasonally. Man, he'd tear up pumpkin pie...

Some male iguanas can be quite aggressive, but I never had any behavior problems with Ig. I could get him to do some posturing...someone gave me a not-particularly realistic stuffed toy iguana, and I'd bob it toward Ig. Ig would drop his dewlap and whip his tail and the toy would "run away," giving Ig what I assumed was a feeling of great superiority.

He'd also drop his dewlap and bob his head at his reflection in the mirror, though, so I'm not sure he was the smartest lizard in the jungle.

When Ig was about eight years old he had a sharp appetite decrease and became very lethargic very quickly. I took him to the vet thinking it was another vitamin problem, but this time it wasn't. His kidneys were failing, and died at the vet's office one day while I was at work.

I felt horribly guilty. The high protein in his diet had certainly contributed, as had the low humidity in his room. Even running a vaporizer and misting him wasn't sufficient. The poor guy had had only about half a life, since their natural lifespan is more like 15 to 20 years.

My ex-husband, "dad" for most of Ig's life, tried to console me by saying that Ig was probably the only iguana from that batch in the pet store that had lasted even eight years. The sad thing is, he's probably right. We were willing to spend many hundreds of dollars on his vet care, which many people won't do for a $12 lizard. And Ex, who eats a less-than-optimal diet himself, says he'd trade a few years of life for lots of eggs, cheese, and pie. I only hope Ig did enjoy his life with me, and that his sufferering at the end was minimal.

Posted by Nic at May 15, 2004 07:46 AM