Post by petergunga on Feb 25, 2009 11:20:30 GMT -8
So i have had a baby iguana for about three weeks total now. He is awesome and I love him very much. I have wanted an iguana very badly for a long time. I was totally prepared to deal with any and all issues, so this issue doesn't suprise me; I was just wondering how I should deal with it.
The first day I got him, he got a bad bruise on his foot. Despite this, he seemed relatively unthreatened by me and tolerated being handeled quite well. There was fairly little running away, and only the occaisional raise of the dewlap.
This past Thursday, I took him to the vet to have the bruise on his foot looked at. He spent the weekend there. The foot is fine, but now that he is home, he is acting much more skiddish, scared, and even defensive. He runs away from me now when I try to pick him up out of his cage and gets scared even when i change his water or food. When I hold him outside the cage, he is calm for a few minutes, but then starts getting anxious. The only reason I even mention this is that before i took him to the vet, he was very calm with me and even would fall asleep (or relax and shut his eyes) in my hand.
I don't know exactly what caused such a drastic change. I am assuming it was a stressful weekend, and combined with all the relocating and a strange vet touching him, I'm sure he is still on edge. I understand and am willing to be patient. I think the approach I will take is to simply let him re-acclimate to my apartment for a few days, with relatively little handling, so that his overall stress level decreases. Then I will resume the gentle handling - gradually. Im thinking that is a much better way to go about it than forcing socialization through submission. I do realize, though, that I can't just let him go when he gets fussy, or he wins and realizes that he just has to act up and he'll get left alone.
I ultimately do want a socialized iguana, but also a happy, unstressed one. Does my approach seem like a good one, and is there anything else I should be doing? Anyone's advice would be great!
The first day I got him, he got a bad bruise on his foot. Despite this, he seemed relatively unthreatened by me and tolerated being handeled quite well. There was fairly little running away, and only the occaisional raise of the dewlap.
This past Thursday, I took him to the vet to have the bruise on his foot looked at. He spent the weekend there. The foot is fine, but now that he is home, he is acting much more skiddish, scared, and even defensive. He runs away from me now when I try to pick him up out of his cage and gets scared even when i change his water or food. When I hold him outside the cage, he is calm for a few minutes, but then starts getting anxious. The only reason I even mention this is that before i took him to the vet, he was very calm with me and even would fall asleep (or relax and shut his eyes) in my hand.
I don't know exactly what caused such a drastic change. I am assuming it was a stressful weekend, and combined with all the relocating and a strange vet touching him, I'm sure he is still on edge. I understand and am willing to be patient. I think the approach I will take is to simply let him re-acclimate to my apartment for a few days, with relatively little handling, so that his overall stress level decreases. Then I will resume the gentle handling - gradually. Im thinking that is a much better way to go about it than forcing socialization through submission. I do realize, though, that I can't just let him go when he gets fussy, or he wins and realizes that he just has to act up and he'll get left alone.
I ultimately do want a socialized iguana, but also a happy, unstressed one. Does my approach seem like a good one, and is there anything else I should be doing? Anyone's advice would be great!
