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.

Raising iguanas: Part II

Iguana taxonomy

– Reign: animal
– Phylum: coprdata
– Class: Reptilia
– Order: Squamata
– Suborder: Sauria
– Family: Iguanidae
– Gender: Iguana
– Specie: Iguana
– Scietific name: Iguana iguana
– Common names: Iguana or green iguana.

Green iguanas live in wild condition in the tropical forests from the north of Mexico until Peru and the south of Brazil, in countries and islands that present moisture and high temperature. Iguanas live in the mountains, over the trees at a height of 4.5 to 9 feet to reach the sun beams they need to keep their inner heat, since they receive from the outside the heat they need for their metabolism: they can not generate it. They spend most of their day climbing branches and taking the sun in places near the water. Their bright green color allows them to be protected against depredators among the vegetables they eat: leaves, flowers and fruits. Elder iguanas live on top of the trees where there is lighter and it is drier, on the other hand, t young iguanas live nearer the ground since they require an ambient with more humidity.

Iguanas are not in danger of extinction in any place of the world nowadays, but they were extinct in Barbados Islands. However, they could be in danger if their commercialization is not adequately regulated.

Most pet shops sell iguanas born and raised in breeding places for this aim, and they are not taken out of humid jungles. In Central America is very common finding iguanas farms that raise them to sell them as pets and to eat them as well.