Finally settling in

[Cyndi]

Well, I think Kyo is finally settling in! A while back i posted with concern about her lack of self defense. And then that she hated my son, Steve.

Yesterday, I wanted to rearrange the shelving in her house (we need to put her basking shelf on the longer wall, boy was I NOT thinking when I set this up!). All the shelf holders are already in, so all I had to do was move the actual shelves...easy, right? lol

Welllll, picked up Kyo and her bed and moved her to mid. shelf. Turned to start taking down upper shelf, and she was right back there in the way. Moved her again, and ditto. I played around in there for about 30 minutes with her. She is definitely NOT afraid of me, lol.

Finally called Steve. I was holding her when he came in, and handed her to him, telling him it would take about 5 minutes. It took 20.

In in 1st couple of minutes, the poor kid's hands and arms where so scratched up, he actually had blood drips on his shirt. I went to take her from him, he wouldn't let me ( have to give the kid credit!). By the time I was done, Steve had her pretty much calmed down but I could not believe the difference in her behavior between Steve and me.

What a little snot (Steve has started calling her something else that I cannot repeat here, lol)

[dominick]

Hi Kyotosmom-

This seems to be a break-through moment from the way you describe it.

Good on Steve for enduring the slashing! That one event made a world of difference in their relationship. Sure she'll try stuff in the future, but now Steve has established that he is dominant and she will respect that.

Sounds like you both handled the situation really well. Kudos to you both!

Make sure Steve keeps interacting with her, even if he just speaks to her. She needs to be reminded who he is and his position with her.

Such a happy story to spite the clawed up arms.

Do you regularly clip her nails? It would take all that slashing ability away from her.

Remind Steve, scarred arms are the true badge of an Iguana person! He's in the club now! LOL

[Tesa]

(Steve has started calling her something else that I cannot repeat here, lol)

Thrasher has a .....uuhmmm...... nickname too. ;D

I dunno about establishing dominance in one 20 minute session tho. If Kyo is anything like Thrasher, she may need to be reminded ALOT. ;D

[Cyndi]

Dom, her nails get clipped about every two weeks.

She really dug into him! It's funny, in the time we've had her, the most I've gotten were little pin pricks when she's climbing on me.

After it was all over, gave both of them betadine baths, bandaged poor Steve, and put them both to bed, lol. His hands look like he went ten rounds with a feral cat! Kyo ended up losing the very tip of her tail, due to the previous Steve incident You can't even tell tho, it was such a tiny amount.

Thanks for letting me share that...none of my friend here understand. I told one of my girlfriends, and she was shocked that I would have an animal that would do that!

[Merlin]

You might consider either taking a tiny bit more off the nail or change the way you clip. Using a dremel sanding tool (or nail file if she is small enough) will leave you with a much smoother claw.
But we all have "The Mark"!

[Jay]

Animals are funny, I have an Amazon Parrot that we rescued, I spend more time with it, feed it, clean it's cage, and it hates me. Lauren walks into the room and it becomes a completely different bird. It makes all loving noises, not the loud screeches I get and even let's Lauren pet it's head.

[Cyndi]

Great news!!

Yesterday was weekly disinfecting day (oh, happy happy, joy joy) and I asked Steve if he would like to hold and keep an eye on Kyo for my while I cleaned.

This time he got the gloves! She protested a bit, but basically sat on his chest for the time it took to clean! And today, she doesn't even move when he walks into the room! She got a little nervous when he went into her enclosure, but she wasn't anywhere near as crazy as before, and even let him pet her without trying to climb the walls!

Oh, what a happy day!

[SurvivorSteph]

That is good news! Awesome!