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I'm New
Sept 17, 2007 9:21:36 GMT -5
Post by omegahpla on Sept 17, 2007 9:21:36 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm new ;D Hi Pat, you told me about your forum so here I am.
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I'm New
Sept 17, 2007 9:49:08 GMT -5
Post by prismwolf on Sept 17, 2007 9:49:08 GMT -5
Welcome! And...so...why don't you tell us a little about yourself...and the animal you have that Pat suggested you share with us...:-)
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I'm New
Sept 17, 2007 12:01:38 GMT -5
Post by omegahpla on Sept 17, 2007 12:01:38 GMT -5
Hey Prismwolf : ) I'm in Idaho, I have 4 iguana's (well my kids and I) they are pretty new too lol ... got them about 2 months ago because the kids liked them, thinking they were just another lizard. I quickly noted that they were not just another lizard, but very intelligent and interactively sensitive. My daughters got sick and went really bad before I knew it was really sick, and died before I could find a vet and would have probably anyway. I think it died from eating aquarium gravel that looked like the green chunks of food we were giving it, the pet store owner said was good as a base, wrong! I now use newspaper.
I really liked the little guys, so I got one, and replaced my daughters that died, at which time we had 5. The store owner told me a bunch of bad information and kept on doing so, which I started finding out quickly by reading on the net, and calling a vet. One of the 5 started getting really agressive with the others and everyone in fact, and I decided to move it to it's own place. My daughter who owned it said just take it back to the store then because she didn't want to deal with it, so we did that.
The 4 remaining are doing very well, except we had to remove one of them that started being a real bully (the smallest one, outweighed by the largest it was bullying and chasing around the enclosure by nearly 10 times I'd estimate, lol) and he is happy and healthy alone now. They are all doing well and getting quite fat and spunky, thanks to reading up and making a lot of changes. It's amazing any iguana's live if all the pet store owners are as inept in understanding or sharing their needs with the buyers, as the one I bought from is. Things are still not perfect. Their tank is probably to small, and will surely be way small soon, but I can fix that. I'm going to make sure they have a great environment and great food. I love them, they are amazing and very intelligent little animals. There is a lot of expense I never counted on, thanks to Pat for selling stuff cheap and softening that for me a bit so far and I plan on more in the future as I upgrade their environments.
I have 3 babies in a 35 gallon tank, way to small I know. The other little guy we had to move is in a 10 right now, but upgrades are planned for the near future. I'm using a reptisun 5 for the small tank and a 10 for the 35 gallon. I'm also using heat emitters. It's amazing how much better they do with the right temps. We got the emitters and started checking temps and they started getting fat, growing, and shedding regularly. My iguana, Sam, who we got last and is probably the youngest started out about the same size as the others, but she has grown like crazy and is so much bigger. The other we got next to last started growing really fat and quickly too, but not even close to Sam who is around 18" now and about 3 times her mass I think.
They all got really stressed when the little crazy one started attacking and lost some weight. My Sam hid under the rock for 2 days. The next largest had lost a lot of mass, Sam just lost a bit and never really stopped eating. They are all back in the good now, eating like crazy and fat will full bellys. The 2 small ones who were looking scarey are also fat now with fat little tail bases and are starting to really grow too.
I think this is getting pretty long so I guess that's about it for now. Learing about these guys is so important to their health and well being. If I had not jumped in and started digging, researching, and reading up for hours and hours on end, their lives would probably really be a mess right now. You not only need to get information, much of the stuff out there is crap. It's great to have forums like this one to weed through the info and allow questions to be asked of experts. A really valuable thing I wish I'd known of before ever buying iguanas.
I hope what I've written is ok, I don't have time to go back and proof read it. Sorry in advance, lol
Thanks Prismwolf, for the welcome : )
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I'm New
Sept 18, 2007 21:00:13 GMT -5
Post by prismwolf on Sept 18, 2007 21:00:13 GMT -5
Okie-day! I have a little time now. The chams got outside for some sun. Rearranged the bricks around the little pond, fed the dogs and the coons, let the ferret out to play with the kitten, fed myself a sandwich (now getting heartburn... ), doctored my broken pinkie toe (dang thing gets hooked on furniture too often... ), and told Discover Card "No thank you. Not at this time". I was actually nice... . So...yep...there's tons to learn. If you type into google or dogpile -multiple iguanas- you will find quite a bit of info regarding the keeping of more than one. Have you noticed one laying on top of another in the basking area? Or trying to climb on each other in that spot? It's not for companionship if so. This is the start of a dominance game. Even all girls will warrant you some dominance issues. Did I say that in another post already? Oh well...better safe to say again. I have successfully kept the "Psycho Sisters" together, but I had a whole bedroom for them (and two more from the same surrender) at first...then a wonderful cage was donated to us and I moved the sisters into that. The two larger ones had been adopted out by then. The enclosure is 6'T x 8'L x 4'D. This is still too short for the suggested average for two full-grown iguanas, but it did fine for two 3 year olds. Each had her own basking area. This is a must with multiples. Iguanas don't share. It's survival of the fittest. The dominant one is in the Tac...she's the one in the high spot. Tic's basking area is lower and to the left. She wasn't in it in the pic...but she used it often. They did share the salad well...but there was a lot of it and plenty of room to spread out between each other (the kitty litter pan)... ;D. So yes...larger accommodations are definitely needed. A 50 gallon is the smallest needed for one baby. This is the smallest available to get the right heat gradients in all three areas - basking, ambient, cool end/nighttime. Yes...you can get the right basking temps...but the other end of 75 for a baby will not be met. Setting up more than one will jack the temps up too high all the way around. With the heat emitters...is this all you're using for heat? Iguanas need a bright light source to go with UVB sources. What bulbs are you getting from Patrick? They need the bright lights to go with UVB so the irises of their eyes can react the way they need to during "normal" (as normal as we can artificially give them) basking behavior. The bright light allows the iris to constrict which blocks out the UV which can damage the eyes. Using a regular house bulb will do fine for heat and light. Use the heat emitters for night, but only if the temps get below 75. They'll probably come in handy for winter... . Gosh...talk about long. I think I'm done too. The purple is starting to fade from my hair and I swore I would get it done tonight... ;D.
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I'm New
Sept 19, 2007 4:02:12 GMT -5
Post by twiggie on Sept 19, 2007 4:02:12 GMT -5
**waves** hello
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I'm New
Sept 19, 2007 22:48:29 GMT -5
Post by omegahpla on Sept 19, 2007 22:48:29 GMT -5
Okie-day! doctored my broken pinkie toe (dang thing gets hooked on furniture too often... ), and told Discover Card "No thank you. Not at this time". I was actually nice... . So...yep...there's tons to learn. If you type into google or dogpile -multiple iguanas- you will find quite a bit of info regarding the keeping of more than one. Have you noticed one laying on top of another in the basking area? Or trying to climb on each other in that spot? It's not for companionship if so. This is the start of a dominance game. Even all girls will warrant you some dominance issues. Did I say that in another post already? Oh well...better safe to say again. I have successfully kept the "Psycho Sisters" together, but I had a whole bedroom for them (and two more from the same surrender) at first...then a wonderful cage was donated to us and I moved the sisters into that. The two larger ones had been adopted out by then. The enclosure is 6'T x 8'L x 4'D. This is still too short for the suggested average for two full-grown iguanas, but it did fine for two 3 year olds. Each had her own basking area. This is a must with multiples. Iguanas don't share. It's survival of the fittest. The dominant one is in the Tac...she's the one in the high spot. Tic's basking area is lower and to the left. She wasn't in it in the pic...but she used it often. They did share the salad well...but there was a lot of it and plenty of room to spread out between each other (the kitty litter pan)... ;D. So yes...larger accommodations are definitely needed. A 50 gallon is the smallest needed for one baby. This is the smallest available to get the right heat gradients in all three areas - basking, ambient, cool end/nighttime. Yes...you can get the right basking temps...but the other end of 75 for a baby will not be met. Setting up more than one will jack the temps up too high all the way around. With the heat emitters...is this all you're using for heat? Iguanas need a bright light source to go with UVB sources. What bulbs are you getting from Patrick? They need the bright lights to go with UVB so the irises of their eyes can react the way they need to during "normal" (as normal as we can artificially give them) basking behavior. The bright light allows the iris to constrict which blocks out the UV which can damage the eyes. Using a regular house bulb will do fine for heat and light. Use the heat emitters for night, but only if the temps get below 75. They'll probably come in handy for winter... . Gosh...talk about long. I think I'm done too. The purple is starting to fade from my hair and I swore I would get it done tonight... ;D. Hey Primwolf, Ouch the toe Yeah, there is a lot to learn. I just learned a lot on that post to me and I've been reading a LOT over the past couple months. I have an emitter and a reptisun 10 on one tank and an emitter and a reptisun 5 on the other. I have a lightbulb in a corner of the larger (way to small) tank, but it's on the other side of the emitter fixture so I don't think it's helping the eyes ... actually, I think I have a lamp over the small cage too, or we did before I found a fixture for the reptisun, and putting that lamp back will be easy. I have a rheostat hooked up to both emitters and I can turn them down at night. It gets cooler than 75. It's around 90 or a little more right under the emitter during the day with the 100 watt bulb helping on the same end. The other side of the tank is cooler, and it's covered by screen so there is good ventilation. Since the little crazy has been moved there seems to be a power struggle going on with the largest one which is very mellow, and the next who has been chasing the small one a little bit and laying on the large one, which chases the middle one a little bit, but then most often they lay around together on the rock or climb in the fake plants and vines, I've put a bunch in there so it's like a jungle, except for above the large hidey rock. Something has to change here before things get worse, and it's going to require a lot of rearranging and some more stuff. Thanks a bunch for the information. I've read all over the Web and Green Ig Society, and I've got a book I read through, and still there's more. You should write a book on this stuff really. Thanks again, and I hope your toe heals up well. I broke one a little over a month ago myself lol, OUCH! I hate when that happens
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I'm New
Sept 19, 2007 22:52:20 GMT -5
Post by omegahpla on Sept 19, 2007 22:52:20 GMT -5
Hey Twiggie : ) waving back
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I'm New
Sept 20, 2007 9:35:55 GMT -5
Post by prismwolf on Sept 20, 2007 9:35:55 GMT -5
Thanks a bunch for the information. I've read all over the Web and Green Ig Society, and I've got a book I read through, and still there's more. You should write a book on this stuff really. Thanks again, and I hope your toe heals up well. I broke one a little over a month ago myself lol, OUCH! I hate when that happens Don't need to write a book...there's several good ones out there already along with some good websites...one of which you're already familiar with (GIS)... ;D www.iguanaden.comwww.anapsid.orgwww.greenigsociety.orgBooks: "Iguanas for Dummies" - by Melissa Kaplan "Green Iguana The Ultimate Owner's Manual" - by James Hatfield III "The Iguana Den's Care and Keeping of Giant Green Iguanas" - Meri Martin, Gail Elsey and Diane Remphrey I got a shoe all the way on this morning! WOOT! Had to...the pittie girl just ate the sneaker I had turned into a slider while I walked on the folded in heel...
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I'm New
Sept 21, 2007 20:16:10 GMT -5
Post by omegahpla on Sept 21, 2007 20:16:10 GMT -5
Your iguana ate your shoe?
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I'm New
Sept 22, 2007 11:46:50 GMT -5
Post by prismwolf on Sept 22, 2007 11:46:50 GMT -5
NO...lol. She's our pit bull pup...the pittie girl! Not the "pity girl"... ;D
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I'm New
Sept 25, 2007 10:03:37 GMT -5
Post by omegahpla on Sept 25, 2007 10:03:37 GMT -5
Oh, good, except for the dead shoes. I didn't think iggys would eat shoes, unless they are made out of woven grass, or hemp or something.
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