anyway, big news. Nathan's parents have finally listened and are going to upgrade their iguana cage to a full size one. They used to have the poor thing in a ferret wire cage, which was aweful, but then lazily built something out of wood and class..which was still only like one foot by two feet.. Anyway, Since he's been getting heat and humidity, and they've been feeding him better, he's actually started to grow again and is really outgrowing the cage. His dad was just sure the iguana's growth had been permanently stunted from bad care, which I'm sure it is, he's still really small even though he's like three or four years old.
Well, the iguana has finally started to hit 'iguana puberty' and is starting to show physical signs of being male(the femoral pores, jowls, etc.) and the emotional signs as well(Yeouch! That tail. Hasn't done that since he was younger)
We totally thought it was a girl, seeing as how 'she' was 3 and hadn't shown any signs of developing swollen jowls etc.. I really think the slow development was because of poor care on his parent's part!
They've realized this now, though...
So, his parents have agreed to let Nathan build the cage(woohoo!) and are going to pay for it(again, woohoo!)
We had some trouble finding a good cage plan, and we're both new to cage building so I want nathan to have a pretty good one...
Constructing IguanaWORLD - An Overview anyone with iguana knowledge have opinions on this as the setup?
Very happy this poor guy. It's been a long way coming, and I've been working on convincing them since I joined this website! Slowly, but surely, little by little things have changed. He's gone from a diet of lettuce and fruit to a much healthier diet(I printed out the feeding caresheet from here with the list of good foods, and since his dad views himself as a great chef he has fun creating ultimate balanced iguana salads now)... They've learned they need to keep him out of a wire cage and in a proper enclosure(a few toes and scarred nose later..) and now finally they are respecting his size.
It's sad, iguanas have always been his dad's 'dream' animal, he just never listened to the right people and did it wrong, and probably brought the poor thing close to death a few times. Before, he was convinced the iguana was probably going to die soon but he'd 'do it right' next time. Now, thankfully, he's changed his mind. This will be the last iguana they probably own. He's going to look into much easier to care for reptiles from now on. For now, he's fixing what he did wrong. A little late, though. At least it's something.
This experience has been good for me though, I've really seen first hand what happens when you don't research before getting a pet, and I don't plan to repeat those mistakes with any animal! It's sad this poor guy has gone through so much, but he is a fighter.. I'm excited to see him finally get the home he deserves!
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