Lesson learned!

[KanoasDestiny]

Sometimes when it is warm outside, we'll take our female green iguana outside and tie her to a Fruitless mullberry tree we have. She has a harness on and the leash is long enough where she can't hang herself (the tree is small). We had to retire her old harness, and today she was wearing a new one that seemed to fit perfectly. She's been out there sunbathing for most of the day. It started to get a little too warm but she didn't seem ready to come inside, so my husband put the sprinkler on under her (which she loves).

About 10 minutes ago, he went out to check on her and she had slipped the harness. We started to panic because we only live about 15 feet from the road (busy street). We looked everywhere, in other trees she likes, under the vehicles, around the bamboo. Our dog in the back yard has been barking a lot this past hour, so I braced my husband for the worst and told him to go check the back yard. I'm sure the dogs would have killed her if she was back there.

I started looking through the bamboo better and there were a couple of eyes peeking back at me. I was so relieved! Draco and I have had our differences, and although we aren't extremely fond of each other, I do love her and would miss her if something happened (even if I do tease my husband that we should have just flushed her down the toilet when she was little

).

He got her down, and she has a broken toe nail which we'll have to watch closely but it could have been so much worse. We've been lucky for the past 6 years, leaving her unsupervised outside, but never again! We'll be building her an enclosure in the near future that she can't get out of when she sunbathes.

 

[chandab]

You can't post a story like that with out pics, you know better.

I don't want one, but iguanas are unique animals. Glad you found none too worse for wear. I went to college with a gal that hid an iguana in her dorm room, and not a small one, I might add.

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Ok, ok, I'll post a pic of the trouble maker. She had us so scared. She's in her cage napping right now.

She's going through that stage where she's "supposed" to be laying eggs, you can see them inside of her but she always ends up reabsorbing them rather than laying them (she did lay one year). But she's been fasting to make room, and she hasn't been very active. So, we figured she would really enjoy sunbathing. We think the water from the sprinkler might have made her too cold and she got herself away from it.

This is the only pic I have in my photobucket right now, it's an older one.

 

[REO]

She's cute

I'm glad she was found!

 

[laughingllama75]

As a reptile lover, I am especially glad she was found. It was her (and yours!) lucky day. I am sure she loves to go outside, I bet the water was too much and she said see yah! LOL. How big is she? I had a male, that I had for 14 years. he was so neat.....loved the outside too (that and his window!).

Glad all ended well, and oh yeah...thanks for the pic!

 

[KanoasDestiny]

She's fairly big. This is a picture of my husband holding her -

Of course, her tail's another 2 feet. So all together, a little over 3 and 1/2 feet in length? I feel so bad for her, her toe had stopped bleeding by the time we had found her, but she just recently split it open again and is bleeding all over her enclosure. We put some cornstarch on it to slow it down. She's been fairly active, and hungry, so she doesn't seem like she's in a lot of pain. We'll be watching her for signs of infection though in the upcoming days.

For the first 3 years that we had her, she did not like me at all. She was definately a daddy's girl, although she didn't really like him either. Lol. But as she's gotten older, she's become more docile and even allows me to reach in and pet her. I've heard stories that they can be really aggressive and bite. She's only bitten Mark once, and our rabbit once. I told Mark not to, but he thought it was cute that she was taking food from his hand. One night he reached in there to feed her and she grabbed his arm. He was feeding her another night and our dwarf rabbit ran past her open door. She reached out and bit his back, although she only got a mouth of fur. Thank God she didn't get his actual skin. The fur kids aren't allowed near her cage anymore when her door is open. So you can imagine my surprise last month when I walked into the house, and right at the door entrance, was three "cats". It took me a moment to realize that one of them was green.

She was face to face with our two male cats, about a foot away. They all seemed calm, like they were watching each other. I on the other hand, was freaking out! She has one heck of a tail slap, she's broken our skin on more than one occasion. But she calmly let me pick her up and put her back in her cage. Her cage is locked at all times now because she's escaped the cage twice, and had the door open a thrid time. She's a lot friendlier now than she used to be, but then again, my husband went through a period where he hardly gave her any attention. Now she LOVES it.

It's the strangest thing, we've had her for 6 years and she's only laid eggs once (during the third year). Every March she stops eating, but her stomach gets huge. Then a few weeks later, her appetite comes back and the belly starts going away. A month before my husband and I got married, I bought her for him as a wedding gift. He had wanted a chameleon but I saw her for sale for $15 and bought her on a whim. I knew absolutely nothing about Iguanas. She was just this tiny little thing, about 2 months old. We read a book and had an idea she was a female, but when she didn't lay any eggs, we questioned whether she was really a male. Then one night, 3 years later, there was an egg in her cage. Over the next week, she had a total of 37. This year, strangely she did have one egg on our anniversary (the 7th), but she hasn't had anymore.

This was her when I brought her home. The wire cage on top of her is the same one she came home in. We kept her in a fish tank until she outgrew it.

This is the cage she has now. The same wire cage is at the bottom of it.

And for the curious, these were some of her eggs. I can't imagine reabsorbing them.

 

[Sue_C.]

She's a beauty! she also has the same happy-face leash I have for my min pin.

 

[disneyhorse]

I do like reptiles, but not really a fan of iguanas. You have a great setup for her!

You can pretty easily build an "aviary" outside for her, might be safer than the leash.

She looks very well cared for. Reptiles are not super intelligent, but the more you handle them the more docile they will get. Usually the older ones are slower and more mellow for sure!

Thanks for the pictures!

Andrea

P.S. I love Stitch too!