Ideal pet

Iguana Answers.

Ideal Pet ?

Iguanas gained a great deal of popularity 7 or 8 yrs ago through dinosaur program revivals and "Godzilla / Jurassic park" type films, which coupled with mass importation by pet stores, making them easy purchases for kids, or for parents to give to their kids.

What was not taken into consideration at the time, was that these cute little miniature dinosaur figures, ultimately grew into 5 or 6 foot long creatures, very quickly outgrowing fish tank aquarium containers and therefore giving their owners a huge problem!

Add to this the aggressive nature often exhibited at breeding season, which would not show up for the first couple of years and lasts about 6 weeks! and the result is some panicking and worried keepers.

Hence what we are often finding now is Iguanas in re-homing and rescue centres, donated from people who can no longer cope, either with the Iguana itself or its demands, The RSPCA may sometimes try to find homes for unwanted or abandoned Iguanas but when they fail to re-home then they are usually euthanased.

As a result of the numbers currently in rescue / re-homing centres, efforts have been made to try and form a National rescue organisation to cope with these and other types of rescued reptiles to help relieve the burden on individuals devoted to looking after the ones abandoned or no longer wanted, likewise anyone who does have the skills to look after one of these creatures if they could make efforts to adopt one from a rescue / re-homing centre, then that would be very much appreciated by all concerned.

Given correct care and conditions and as long as the owners eyes are opened to potential problems, Iguanas can however be kept successfully, but are not a whim purchase or even an ideal pet for the young or inexperienced.

Above is a picture of Spike, a mature male Iguana and the sort of behaviour that can be expected around 6 weeks of every year when in breeding season. The result if not careful may be a nasty nip and in some cases stitches.

UPDATE:
2003 has seen the start of the UK National Re-homing Register, a project hosted by the Ark Reptile group, of which I am proud to say I have helped set up and run, and also a project which is having huge success in finding unwanted reptiles new homes successfully week in week out!
Details here: National UK Re-Homing Database
Testimonials here: Successful re-homes

2004 update: The Re-Homing Centre is having continued success and is now re-homing reptiles on a daily basis.

2005 Has seen the re-homing register (see link above) continue to have amazing success with almost daily credits of reptiles re-homed.