Post by Alika on Aug 5, 2004 8:28:37 GMT -8
Hello everyone!
My name is Alika and I'm relatively new to the iguana community. I'm 22/F and married.
My ig's name is Xander and he's getting close to turning 2 in the next couple of months. Since I know you're all more interested in hearing about him than me, here goes:
I got Xander as a gift for my husband in Feb. 2003. He had an iguana as a kid, and was always talking about getting another. At the time, I knew very little about iguanas. I depended on the people in the petstore to set me up with everything I needed - boy, did I end up being disappointed! They sent me on my way with a 10-gal. aquarium, a heat lamp, a heat rock, and iguana pellets.
I knew we needed to do some research, so as part of his gift I went to the library store and picked up as many iguana books as I could find, which was about 6. I know now that I should have bought a book, but I'll get to that later. We didn't know it at the time, but the books were all at least 10 years old and outdated.
Based on the information in the books, we knew nothing about UVB and his diet consisted of mixed frozen veggies, iceburg lettuce, and iguana pellets. We did know how big they get, and getting a bigger cage was a priority right from the start.
In the past year and a half, Xander has been in a 10-gal. aquarium, a Reptarium (the smallest size), a homemade cage that was poorly built and fell apart when we moved, and a 30 gal. aquarium. He's had everything from fake grass to indoor/outdoor carpet to wood chips as a substrate.
As you can see, Xander's care during his first year here was less than desirable. We tried, but we did all our research in the wrong spots. Early in June (over Memorial Day weekend) Xander broke his right femur. We rushed him to the nearest emergency reptile vet (3 hours away). He was treated for his broken leg but also diagnosed with MBD. I had heard a little about MBD - not enough to know more than that it wasn't a good thing - and the news fell heavily on us. Xander was sent home on liquid calcium twice a day for a week, and now receives calcium supplements twice a week.
Concerned about his health, I began looking around online for iguana resources. Not too long before the leg break, I had a lot of luck getting help with my birds and learning more about them on an online forum. Some members from that forum pointed me to greenigsociety.com, and the rest is history.
Xander's diet has received a makeover. He now gets a daily salad consiting of: collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, bok choy (or swiss chard) watercress, cilantro, green beans and squash (or sweet potato). I then add a tiny bit of fruit or other vegetable, such as bell pepper, to this. I have learned a lot about UVB and bought him a UVB lamp. He also spends 30-60 minutes outside in the sun at least once a day - unless the weather is bad. I got rid of the hot rock (this actually happened before I knew it was bad- back in Feb or March) and replaced his woody substrate with newspaper. He's still in the 30-gal aquarium, but my husband has built him a new cage that is 6ft tall, 4.5 ft. wide and 4 ft. deep. Xander is not in it yet because it was just finished and we are moving in 2 weeks - the day we move is the day Xander gets his new cage.
He has a CHE for night heat and a day heat lamp along with his UVB. His new cage will accomodate a 2 ft. UVB bulb and a 3 ft. UVB bulb on adjoining walls and we bought a T-Rex Merc Vapor bulb for heat. We live in a colder climate, and I worry about winter UVB...
Today, Xander is 7 in. SVL and 22 in. STL - too small for being almost 2, I know. We had wondered why he was growing so slowly... now we know. Since his makeover, Xander has shed twice and grown a full inch SVL. He's an active little thing but is very tame and has never given us any problems. He gets to go back to the vet in 3 weeks - first because I'm worried about his tail (I'll explain later) and second to see if the vet thinks he's improving. His color has really improved, too. Physically, he doesn't have any traits of MBD. His jaw, though slightly disaligned in one spot, is more or less normal. His legs never bulged, and he walks up on all his legs instead of dragging his hind end around. I'm very proud of him and we expect him to become a very healthy, happy adult.
Thanks to sites like this, I was able to turn Xander's care around. I've also bought Iguanas for Dummies and another ig book (who's title I can't remember). I hope I can give something back with my story and plan on using Xander to educate people in the future.
Alika
My name is Alika and I'm relatively new to the iguana community. I'm 22/F and married.
My ig's name is Xander and he's getting close to turning 2 in the next couple of months. Since I know you're all more interested in hearing about him than me, here goes:
I got Xander as a gift for my husband in Feb. 2003. He had an iguana as a kid, and was always talking about getting another. At the time, I knew very little about iguanas. I depended on the people in the petstore to set me up with everything I needed - boy, did I end up being disappointed! They sent me on my way with a 10-gal. aquarium, a heat lamp, a heat rock, and iguana pellets.
I knew we needed to do some research, so as part of his gift I went to the library store and picked up as many iguana books as I could find, which was about 6. I know now that I should have bought a book, but I'll get to that later. We didn't know it at the time, but the books were all at least 10 years old and outdated.
Based on the information in the books, we knew nothing about UVB and his diet consisted of mixed frozen veggies, iceburg lettuce, and iguana pellets. We did know how big they get, and getting a bigger cage was a priority right from the start.
In the past year and a half, Xander has been in a 10-gal. aquarium, a Reptarium (the smallest size), a homemade cage that was poorly built and fell apart when we moved, and a 30 gal. aquarium. He's had everything from fake grass to indoor/outdoor carpet to wood chips as a substrate.
As you can see, Xander's care during his first year here was less than desirable. We tried, but we did all our research in the wrong spots. Early in June (over Memorial Day weekend) Xander broke his right femur. We rushed him to the nearest emergency reptile vet (3 hours away). He was treated for his broken leg but also diagnosed with MBD. I had heard a little about MBD - not enough to know more than that it wasn't a good thing - and the news fell heavily on us. Xander was sent home on liquid calcium twice a day for a week, and now receives calcium supplements twice a week.
Concerned about his health, I began looking around online for iguana resources. Not too long before the leg break, I had a lot of luck getting help with my birds and learning more about them on an online forum. Some members from that forum pointed me to greenigsociety.com, and the rest is history.
Xander's diet has received a makeover. He now gets a daily salad consiting of: collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, bok choy (or swiss chard) watercress, cilantro, green beans and squash (or sweet potato). I then add a tiny bit of fruit or other vegetable, such as bell pepper, to this. I have learned a lot about UVB and bought him a UVB lamp. He also spends 30-60 minutes outside in the sun at least once a day - unless the weather is bad. I got rid of the hot rock (this actually happened before I knew it was bad- back in Feb or March) and replaced his woody substrate with newspaper. He's still in the 30-gal aquarium, but my husband has built him a new cage that is 6ft tall, 4.5 ft. wide and 4 ft. deep. Xander is not in it yet because it was just finished and we are moving in 2 weeks - the day we move is the day Xander gets his new cage.
He has a CHE for night heat and a day heat lamp along with his UVB. His new cage will accomodate a 2 ft. UVB bulb and a 3 ft. UVB bulb on adjoining walls and we bought a T-Rex Merc Vapor bulb for heat. We live in a colder climate, and I worry about winter UVB...
Today, Xander is 7 in. SVL and 22 in. STL - too small for being almost 2, I know. We had wondered why he was growing so slowly... now we know. Since his makeover, Xander has shed twice and grown a full inch SVL. He's an active little thing but is very tame and has never given us any problems. He gets to go back to the vet in 3 weeks - first because I'm worried about his tail (I'll explain later) and second to see if the vet thinks he's improving. His color has really improved, too. Physically, he doesn't have any traits of MBD. His jaw, though slightly disaligned in one spot, is more or less normal. His legs never bulged, and he walks up on all his legs instead of dragging his hind end around. I'm very proud of him and we expect him to become a very healthy, happy adult.
Thanks to sites like this, I was able to turn Xander's care around. I've also bought Iguanas for Dummies and another ig book (who's title I can't remember). I hope I can give something back with my story and plan on using Xander to educate people in the future.
Alika
