New Iguana! Advice and Tips welcome! 10 points!?

OH boy. I'll try to break this down as short and basic as I can keep it, but you have some issues going on that you best correct Yesterday; your iguana will thank you. Now let's get the fingers cracking, because no matter what I say, this will be long, but worth reading.

1.) HANDLING:

Leave her alone for at least a week. All reptiles need an acclimation period where they are allowed to become familiar with their new "safe" surroundings and the sights and smells of every day. Iguanas are creatures of habit and should be given time to adjust to their new routine as well, a young iguana can become stressed quickly.

Iguanas are skittish little buggers when young, and most of them will battle with you for the first years of their lives. Heck, some will grown into aggressive, territorial, mean tail-whippers and clawers. Some of us have the luck to come across a well mannered iguana who will mellow out with time and patience, and a good amount of elbow grease and work; but don't expect it!

Read the iguana den site and begin your process slowly. If your ig decides it doesn't like you, slow down!

I'm going to assume right now that your 18" iguana (about 8 inches if you don't count the tail, so it IS young) is cold, lethargic or scared to death, because unless it was a fairly socialized adult, an iguana wouldn't perch on top of a new owner's head right from the box. My safest bet is on cold, because your heating leaves a lot to be desired of, she probably prefers your nice, warm head to freezing, even though as far as she knows you might eat her.

-After you have given her the week of adjustment, start handling for short periods of time, five minutes tops around twice a day for the first few days, slowly increasing to 20-30 minutes per handling session. If your iguana is healthy, she will most likely thrash, bite, gape and possibly try to whip you. Do not put her down until she stops trashing and always keep a few strawberry or mango slices handy to treat her. FOOD = GOOD. You want your iguana to associate you with getting treated to good things.

If she doesn't trash, but her heating and diet are correct to the Tee and she is active (no signs of MBD, lethargy or parasites) then you hit the jackpot and got a fairly mellow iguana, even so, use the same process as you would with an untamed lizard.

After the iguana can stay safely and calmly out for 30 minutes, you can start leaving her out for as long as it's healthy (out in a cold room is a no - no, allow her to rest and heat up between handling sessions!)

2.) ENCLOSURE:

You mention a large, home made tank, but still small enough that you would use a heat pad on it. Your iguana is too large already for any kind of tank. Minimum "commercial" tank size is a 55-75 gallon until they around 9- 11" long, after that it's too small.

A juvenile iguana should be housed in nothing smaller than a 4* 2* 2 (in feet, taller than it's wide) and an adult in nothing smaller than 6* 4* 4. An enclosure about the size of a small bathroom (8/12* 6* 6 or more) is ideal for an adult. NO TANKS.

3.) HEATING AND LIGHTING:

This is by far your biggest issue right now. Ditch the fish light and the heat rock, [Now].

Proper heat means proper digestion, provide a basking spot of 90-95F for your iguana to bask, ambient temps of 80-85F and cool spots to thermoregulate when necessary. Temps should never be lower than 70's.You obviously can't know exactly the temperature of your enclosure because you're using an aquarium light (meant for viewing, not heating) and a plug-unplug heat rock.

Go to the hardware store and get yourself a couple of 50 watt flood lamps, one should be RED for night time, with a dimmer or a thermostat. Mount both on the top of your tank (re configure when you build a larger enclosure) and aim it to your highest basking shelf. Use a digital, probed thermometer to read your temps. You will need to adjust your dimmer/Tstat until you achieve the 95*F basking temperature on that shelf. Remember to switch off the white lamp at night and turn on the red one, or get a timer to do it for you.

A UV bulb is a MUST. During the day, place it next to your white (heat) light so it rests above the basking shelf and always turn it off at night. (Megaray and Powersun are good to look into, never use a coil or compact bulb because it might hurt her eyes.)

4.) HEAT AND HUMIDITY CONTROL:

-A hydrometer. Digital is best, iguanas come from tropical environments and you MUST measure humidity for her. You want to have 80-85% humidity in there or she will dehydrate.

-A thermometer. Digital, also, you NEED to measure temperature.

-A thermostat/dimmer/rheostat to plug your lamps into. This is a MUST.

-A temp gun is a nice idea if you have the extra cash.

5.) SUBSTRATE

Take the bark out.

Tile, shelf liner, linoleum, paper towels or newspaper... anything solid. Iguanas explore with their tongues, and in the process they might ingest the bedding and injure themselves.

Not only is this safer, it's cheaper, easier to clean and you can monitor your iguana's feces better. You'll be able to see mites and parasites more easily as well if they ever happen and not have to worry about wood molding.

6.) FOOD:

>Daily diet consists of greens, nothing but good dark leafy greens. Pick as many as you can between 5-7 different types for good variety, nothing with the name "Lettuce" on it. Shred all greens to small pieces that your iguana can easily eat, if its a smaller iguana, get everything chopped as finely as you can manage.

DAILY:

>collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion greens, endive, radicchio, arugula, mache and watercress

OCCASIONAL:

>kale, bok choy, escarole, chicory, Napa and beet greens.

SOMETIMES: (can also be used as treats)

>Fruits and miscellaneous should be offered VERY sparingly, maybe once or twice a week in small amounts:

snap peas, bell peppers, parsnip, sweet potato, yam, acorn squash, butternut squash, buttercup squash, papaya , kiwi, mango, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, honeydew , cantaloupe. Remember to remove seeds and/or cores. Do not feed acidic fruits.

DO DO DO :

Sprinkle a small amount of calcium (Rep cal, ect.) on your iguana's food. (2-3 times a week while she's young, especially!)

7.) LINKS FOR YOU (to sit and give a good, hard reading to.)

http://www.iguanaden.org/

http://www.greenigsociety.org/

http://www.iguanaden.org/diet/dendiet.htm

http://www.iguanaden.org/care/index.htm

http://www.iguanaden.org/care/taming.htm

8.) BOOKS that are great to have

>Iguanas For DUMMIES; by Melissa Kaplan

>Green Iguana - The Ultimate Owner's Manual; by James W. Hatfield, III

An under tank heater is not appropriate for an iguana. They are arboreal animals and spend their time basking in trees. Set up something for her to climb on like branches, cork bark tubes, or even a platform silicon ed to the side of the tank directly under a heat lamp. This spot should be anywhere from 95 to 100 degrees. The basking site should have multiple levels so she can choose a temperature range. She will be unhappy without a high place to bask. Actually, setting places to climb all over the cage will be great for her. You can use the under tank heater as a supplemental heat at night. Connect it to a dimmer, rheostat or thermostat to get a reading of about 85. Connect the lights and the under tank heater to timers so the heat mat will come on when the lights go off. Hope that helps a bit.

what I noticed about college is that the first week everyone looks sort of cool, and then just wearing simple jeans and pajamas for the rest of the semester. You really don't have to worry much and try hard about your appearance. Everyone in there will be too sleepy after studying for the tests all nights anyway to notice anything else. Other than that, I would recommend maybe to get a basic facial, eyebrow wax, maybe highlights? Or just a haircut that will be easy to take care of. You can do the manicure and pedicure at home, as long as you have all the right supplies. And then just eat healthy for few weeks to get a healthy skin tone and shape. But don't worry too much. You will be fine/. Remember, the only people you will have to impress in there are your professors! :)

I don't keep iguanas, but I do keep alot of other reptiles. You're gonna want a tempature gradient with a cool side that ia probably in the high 70s to low 80s and a hot side that is quite a bit hotter. I'm not sure of a specific temp, but i know bearded dragons and monitors like a spot that is 110 to 130. To create a gradient i put a Radient Heat Panel on one side. You probably don't need a humidifier if you don't have too much screen to let moisture out. As for handling, it goes by the individual animal. If it doesn't struggle when you get it out then it probably won't hurt anything. Don't overdo it though. No reptile LIKES to be handled. Some don't mind, but they don't like it. If it does struggle then let it adjust and get used to seeing you.