Raising iguanas: Part III

Iguanas care demands more of what the pet store vendors say, but not that much. You have to consider that raising iguanas is expensive and takes great time to build a terrarium, take it to the vet, installing heating, preparing its food, domesticating it, taking it to the sun, etc.
In case you have any problem with your iguana, take it immediately to a vet specialized in reptiles. Do not trust in iguana sellers at 100%, since some of them just are of keeping them alive until someone buys them.

The best is handling them with precaution. If they bite their own tails, they drop them just like lizards anyway. Their tail grows again, though shorter and it can get infected when it has been recently cut. When this happens, clean the rest of the tail with lots of water, peroxide and iodated alcohol to disinfect.

Iguanas change of skin constantly, the times that takes between each change will depend on the food, the stress of the iguana, the terrarium and other series of factors. It is not necessary to take them off their skin when it is falling, but you can help it taking out the little pieces of skin that are in their face, around the eyes, double chin, mouth, eardrum, etc. but with a lot of care.

Some people use to bath iguana. This is fine, but you have to do it carefully: the water must be warm, not burning or freezing; if they water has a great content of chlorine, it is better not to bath them without adding first some anti chlorine pills, the same that are used for fish aquariums. Wild iguanas swim in small streams and rivers, so if you decide to take you iguanas pet to these places this would not affect them. They even like to defecate in the water.
Iguanas a get sexual maturity approximately at 16 months old, but they are considered adults when they are 18 months and reach the 7 inches long.