We have a 3 year old female iguana and a 1 1/2 year old male. The previous owner had "thrown them into a cage together when the male was about 3months old and he lost a couple of toenails from clinging to the roof of the cage which was a wooden box. The female wouldn't let him eat and basically they just didn't get along. Then my husband and I stepped in and took action against the owner and now we have the iguanas and have given them separate housing. I have built cages out of pvc pipe and plastic coated chicken wire. My question here today is, being on oppisite sides of the room, they suddenly seem to be interested in each other whereas up until now, I would take one over to see the other and the head bobbing would go on for a while and that's it. Now the male is literally pulling his toenails off clawing to get out and over to her cage. I had to line his cage with plexi glass to save his toes! I figured it might be mating time for them but how would we go about this? Should we let them walk around on the floor first to check each other out? Or just put one inside the others cage? Any suggestions would be very appreciated! Thanx and Happy New Year to all! Deb
i wouldnt because they will want to mate. And the last thing we need is someone to breed iguanas. There are too many neglected and abused ones.
I wouldn't worry so much about the breeding. I'd worry more about them being aggressive toward one another regardless of the fact that they are opposite sexes. I'd keep them separate.
I wouldn't put them together at all. The breeding risks are too great (one of the biggest causes of death in adult female iguanas is eggbinding. This is mostly through lack of exercise, too small an enclosure and not being able to build up the muscles). Plus as biochic says, they can be very agressive. With such an age difference, there's probably got to be a pretty big size difference too. Definitely keep them separate. We have 4 iguanas right now, three of them are 6 footers. The two girls live together, and the boy lives separately (and always will). The other is still a baby.
