This is not The Haters Club You're Looking For discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
I Hate Being Afraid of My 4ft Iguana
1. The Awakening2. Night
3. An American Tragedy
Well. Yeah.That sums it up quite nicely.
Our pet Iguana used to be very tame and calm, and all of a sudden, over the past few weeks, he attacks me the second I open his encloure. Totally unprovoked.
He never used to show any signs of aggression towards me before, and now I am terrified to feed him. How sad is that? I almost lost a finger today!
eeeks... that's crazy... Reminded me of my old pet monkey that out of the blue went crazy and jumped and swung all over the place.
Maybe he prefered melon over banana that day...
This is one of the reasons why I hate people who keep animals locked up in cages (enclosure is too nice a term) instead of leaving them be in their natural environments.
Aww, well that sucks, but Carlie has a point.
And here I was thinking the "4ft. iguana" was a dick reference.
Lori, have you consulted a behaviorist (and by 'behaviorist' I mean 'the inetrnet') to see what might be going on? That really sucks that his behavior changed like that. Definitely a sign. :( Oh no. I'm sorry, Lori. Pets make people's lives beter, but it's no fun when weird stuff happens...
Do you have a reptile vet near to you, Lori? Perhaps he can reptile whisper your iguana and tell you what is up. New heat lamps? Change in diet? Dirty enclosure?
We have two bearded dragons and every summer they go a little crazy. We change their light timer so they get more hours of the day in the summer so maybe that is it. They tend to hump a lot during the summer - and they are both girls (and sisters).
The other time they get weird is if my nails are polished red. They try to bit them... I think they believe that they are raspberries (which are a favorite treat).
Oh yeah, reptile vet.*smacks forehead*
Good call!
no new change to the enclosure (i call it enclosure becuase it is a 6ft high, 4ft long, 3ft deep room we built for it. Plenty of space, plenty of heat, plenty of shade)... food, light, everything the same.Just went from one day being nice and calm and climbing all over me, to making a mad dash to the door when i open it so he can attack me. Its horrible. When we first bought him, we picked up the Iguana for Dummies book (dont laugh, it covers EVERYTHING) but there really isnt anything on it about overnite behavioral changes. I know when i mist him, he dislikes it, more so now, so ive stopped doing that, but nothing else makes sense really.
If it doesnt get better over the next few weeks, i may have to call a rep vet. I dont think i could get him down there.... one of the two of us wont make it there alive, im afraid!
Geez. Sounds like Jurassic Park over there. Are you sure he hasn't morphed into a raptor?
Hah! I bought Bearded Dragons for Dummies when we got the girls. That book was awesome - full of great information.
I heard a story similar to this once about a guy who owned a python. It started sleeping in his bed and doing other weird stuff. When the guy took it to the vet, the vet told him he needed to get rid of it ASAP because the python was hunting him.Not that your iguana is hunting you, of course.
Haa haa Charity. Nah, ive checked his front legs... still just as long as his back ones :D
I wish all pets would start hunting their owners
1.Hamlet
2.Siddhartha
3.Of Mice and Men
2.Siddhartha
3.Of Mice and Men
Oooh, that would be fun, Carlie! My dog and cat could play hide-n-seek with me!My Zues - the cat - has left his share of love-marks on me. I have scars on my upper arm, across my hand, and one of my breasts. Fun stuff. I can only imagine the damage he could inflict if he hated me.
Maybe the iguana is having his mating season and is getting aggressive cause he has no one to hump?
Or maybe the iguana has never seen a female iguana… and he thinks Lori is the female… and he is trying to hump her!!!
Well, can you blame him? She's very humpable. And she feeds him and takes care of him. She's like his iguana-wife.
Well, Lori I think the problem is solved! You need to let your iguana hump you in order to bring back his old self!!!
now you guys are getting gross. No, if he wanted to mate with me, i would assume he would be more polite.... this is just pissed off aggression. Carlie, have you never owned a pet?
My little Zues (again, the cat) wouldn't survive in the great wilderness by himself. He may act tough, but he's a big wussy. The one time that he got outside without supervision (stupid petsitter!) for a couple of hours, he came back with bites and scratches all over his bum.Stupid petsitter didn't notice this large bump on his bum (seriously, she told me that she thought it was his hipbone - it was the size of an egg!) and by the time we got home, he had to go to the vet and get it shaved and drained. $250 later, it was deduced that Zues ran from another cat and got his ass handed to him.
I had 3 dogs growing up, cats in succession, a bird (who died the next day thanks to my cruel mama), and a chicken. It is my personal conviction (reached in my late teens) that animals should not be kept as pets.I imagine someday Martians finally getting here and doing the same thing to us. Taking us from our families and all we know, placing us in "enclosures" where we never see another member of our species again, feeding us what they think is the best diet for us (no more McDs) yet feeling ok about it cause they treat us nice and house and feed us and everything and when we finally go psychotic and start chewing their furniture or humping their table legs, they take us to the human vet. Do you get my point?
And I don't like the concept of "owning" another living breathing thing.
Oh and I totally forgot about my stupid attempts at having a pet cockroach and a pet tick.
The way i look at it, if its for sale, (bred and raised in captivity) I know what kind of owner i am, and i know what kind of owners other people are, and i would much rather have that animal than someone who would ignore it, or abuse it {intentionaly,or unintentionaly}.Also, think of the life some of these wild animals have. My mother used to adopt the stray cats and dogs in the area. They were starving and sick and fighting each other for meals. She took them to the vet, cleaned them up, gave them a warm house and plenty of food and love. How can you say that isnt giving them a better life?
Im a bleeding heart when it comes to animals. If it werent for my hubby (who is a pet hater), I would probably have a zoo-full of animals right now!
I completely understand where you are coming from. I've got a bleeding heart too. But in my analysis of the situation I eventually came to see it this way, if it wasn't for us encroaching upon their habitats, wild animals would live as nature or God intended. They wouldn't be starving and sick.I also get that we have totally messed with cats and dogs with the whole breeding thing such that they are so totally dependent now on humans that they could not very well survive on their own efficiently.
I've always thought of buying a ton of land and using it as a sanctuary for the animals you speak of. This way I would ensure that they have food (natural)...I'm not totally sold on the vet thing because I believe in death...but they would be free. You have no clue how it breaks my heart to see pet dogs (who are technically well taken care of) down with their head on their paws, bored to death waiting for their "owner" to get home so they can have interactions with another living thing.
Carlie, first, I don't consider it that I "own" Zues and Hershey (the weiner dog). Neither does my husband. They are our family. They are taken care of better than we care for ourselves.Second, I didn't "take" Zues from his home in the wild. He was found with his brother at 2 1/2 weeks old in a parking lot at the Arizona Fairgrounds in July. In Arizona. (~115 to ~120 degrees outside and he is black) I can say confidently that by taking him in to my home as my "child" that he is much better off than in the wild where he began life. He has food, water, shelter. Doesn't have to worry about being killed by other animals, cars, evil people.
Hershey is, admittedly, from a breeder, but there is not a happier dog alive. :)
However, I do understand where you are coming from.
Domestic dogs and cats have been tamed for so long, thousands of years, I don't think many could survive in the wild. Nor do I think they want to. I don't think they are wild anymore. With dogs, you certainly have to think of the breed and what they were bred to do. A Golden Retriever chasing a ball is the happiest thing alive! My GSD loves his search and rescue - I throw sticks into overgrown areas where he can't see it, and he'll determinedly get to business to seek it out.
Hee, great minds and all? I'm so proud to share a thought with you Donna!
1. Daisy Miller (it's short!)2. Siddhartha (it's also short!)
3. The Sun Also Rises (I hate Papa H, but I should read him I know. bleck)
My cat, Spooky, came into my life when he appeared at my sliding glass door and meowed to come in. It was all his idea...
1. Daisy Miller2. An American Tragedy
3. The Awakening
1. The Code of the Woosters2. An American Tragedy
3. The Sun Also Rises
1. Siddartha2. The Code of the Woosters
3. Daisy Miller
That's so funny Jackie cause my husband and I have an understanding that we do not buy pets but if one were to willingly follow us home, we'd be more than happy to let him/her in.Leave it to Seth to figure out the benefits of a pet iguana. Have you seen the terminator yet Lori? I guess if you had, you wouldn't be able to say anyway.
1.Night2.An American Tragedy
3.The Sun Also Rises
Nope, no terminator yet. Dont know if i should be thankful for that or not. I am just at such a loss. He used to be happy to see me, jumping on me the second i open the door after work to give him fresh food, and now when i open it, i have to watch that he doesnt jump and try to bite my face off. Oh for the love of god, i wish the damn thing could talk and tell me what the hell is pissing him off......
Lori, I really think it has to do with breeding season. Have you googled? Just for fun, I'll google iguana, aggression.EDIT: Lots of stuff. Here's just one http://www.anapsid.org/iguana/breedin...
That was very helpful. Doesnt change the fact that i am afraid to put my hand in the enclosure for fear of losing it, but very helpful. I will probably call the vet if things dont get better over the next week just to get her take on it.... Phew... if its only for a few weeks or so, maybe i can deal with it. 
Many years ago, I used to be a skills trainer with kids with disabilities. There was this one sweet, quiet nine-year-old kid with an IQ of about 50. He was an absolute doll, but had very little language. But he loved animals. So one day I figured it'd be fun to go to the pet store. He was pretty fascinated by the fish, and the kittens, and all the other pets. And then we came around the corner, and there was a giant 6-foot iguana. I was panicking, worried it would scare him and I wouldn't be able to control him. His response? "Whooooaaaahhh...coool." The most expressive thing I ever heard him say. It was hard to get him to separate from the cage so I could get him home!
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
1984
An American Tragedy
Catcher in the Rye
Daisy Miller
Ethan Frome
Hamlet
Night
Of Mice and Men
Siddhartha
The Awakening
The Code of the Woosters
The Sun Also Rises
*Voting ends as always on the 29th. The announcement of the winning selections will shortly follow.