Iguana taming - help, anyone?

[DeCypher]

I've had my [male] green iguana, Marley, since July 30th 2011. He is a very happy and healthy iguana....until it comes to handling. He tries to run away at all costs. I've been handling him 30 mins-1 hour every single day since February-ish. This involves me reaching in to get him [he always runs away, I have to catch him], and recieving multiple scratches and tailwhips, open-mouth threats, etc. After this he just walks around in my hands and I hold him, and put him back only when he is calm. I give him one bath a week, and he has recently begun hand-feeding. There has been no progress made whatsoever. He still runs and hates interaction. I've been persistent and firm, but I am very close to giving up. Does anyone have any info or experience/tips with this? I just want to be able to go get him without him running, and be able to set him down outside of the enclosure without taking off.
Note: His enclosure is too small. It is a 55-gal tank with a sliding screen top. I understand this is too small, I have already started building a huge mesh wire enclosure. I also understand me grabbing him from above isn't the best wayt either, no way else I can do it. Other than size, the rest of his environment is perfect.

 

[GreenDragon]

Did you ever make him bleed while cutting his nails? And a couple of other things, even though you have to do it, grabbing iguanas from the top scares them. Maybe you can try sticking your hand in his enclosure and let him check it out for a few minutes. Or stick your hand in there with some food.

 

[DeCypher]

I never cut his nails.
Yeah I know from the top is bad..I dunno how else to do it though. I could try putting my hand in there and just leaving it in for 10 mins or so. It would probably weird him out.

 

[esn]

I wonder if your grabbing him and forcing him to be handled is detrimental. I have a wild caught blue tongue skink that took months to tame down to where I could hold him long enough to cut his nails. I was told by many people on the blue tongue forums that he'd never be a handleable. Some said that it would take well over a year of our only interaction being feeding and cleaning his pen to get him even near tolerating me. I wasn't able to even touch him without him thrashing at me and attempting a bite.

My method for working with him was putting a small hand towel with my scent in his enclosure (which he now uses to sleep under every night instead of his hides), as well as simply sitting in a small room with him.

In some cases a reptile seems to need a place to go and hide if the stress of handling is too much, otherwise you won't be able to work with them. I sat in a small bathroom with my bluey every day for about a half hour. I just sat and used my computer, and didn't touch him at all. I'd talk, as well. The place he could hide was behind the toilet. Within a month he began to not fear my presence and would become curious and climb onto my lap and computer on his own. In 3 months he has progressed so completely that he comes to me and takes food from my hand, will sit and be held for nail clipping without squirming or thrashing, and will climb into my lap and fall asleep after wandering the room. He's tamer than a lot of captive bred blueys now.

It seems to me that taming a reptile is specific to case, but I think you may simply be hurting your progress by forcing the handling. I'd advise you to relax and let the iguana become less fearful and more curious of you by simply allowing it out and about. I do hear that male iguanas tend to have a lot of trouble, so I think it'd be best to start this now before he becomes say, 4 or 5 feet long and those tail whips are becoming more dangerous. Keep in mind that it's possible that forced handling has already damaged its trust of you.

Hope my case helps you. I have a couple of wild caught reptiles that have responded well to a more relaxed kind of waiting. It works the same with any animal I've ever had - I've got a vicious little hedgehog that's working through the same treatment right now. Just a couple of days in and there's already been a lot of progress. It's always faster with mammals though.

 

[Coastal Groovin]

Take him to the herp vet and have him fixed like a dog. It will calm him 50% easy.

 

[DeCypher]

Elena, that is a great idea. I will do that thing with a shirt with my scent in his cage.
I'll also try the bathroom thing, I'm interested to see how it will go.
I would fix him, but I do intend on breeding at some point.

 

[FrogEyes]

Iguanas, especially males, are notorious for being nasty SoBs. It's not unusual for a "tame" iguana to reach 5 years of age, and then suddenly become nasty and unhandleable. Count yourself lucky if you can tame it, but don't count on it STAYING tame, or even becoming tame to begin with. To top it off, iguanas apparently respond to human menstrual cycles, and thus become nastier every 28 days or so.

 

[DeCypher]

Good thing I don't have menstrual cycles, haha.
I've heard that even though they're tame, you still have to handle them often to keep them tame. And since I have nothing but time, I think when and if he becomes tame I will be spending a lot of time with him [and actually enjoy that time]
I just really hope the new way of taming is going to do at least something, I'd like to be happy when I spend time with my iguana.

 

[esn]

To be honest, I don't think green iguanas should be bred anymore than they already are. They're the top problem reptile in the northwest. People don't realize how big they get or how crabby males get and just release them or expect a zoo or humane society wants them. Humane society has announced that they do not care for reptiles so there are very few reptile rescues to take them in.

There are enough private breeders to cover the amount of people wanting them that are actually responsible enough and experienced enough to care for them.

But that's just my experience from working at a reptile rescue this summer... Hopefully the taming does work for you and you don't have to take away his iggy manhood if you don't want to. If he's reaching the age I hope you get him some "toys" for him to play with to ease his stress until you have a female and in the meantime when she isn't receptive to breeding. Making or buying a luv sock would be good. I'm sure you know about that though.

Good luck. I haven't had any that weren't receptive to my methods yet, (with my group of herps totaling to over 60 now) but I'm sure there are some that simply won't become tame. You'll know if there gets to be no progress in the next few months. If he doesn't start going to you, you can safely start going to him and touching him or just following him after a month or so. Don't rush it, but you may have to help it along. Just don't force handle anymore.

As a side note, does he rub his aquarium glass at all? He may also be experiencing more stress than you know just from having an aquarium and glass. I recommend you finish the new enclosure quickly.

 

[DeCypher]

Thank you for the info. He does not nose rub.
I am actually laying down ont he bathroom floor right now with the laptop as Marley roams around. This is his first time having freedom. He might be rather shocked. As I let him go he did not run away. Actually he doesn't seem very fearful, rather calm. Just confused, taking it all in. Hopefully it stays this way and we can build some trust.
I will take into consideration about you said with breeding. You are quite right...iguanas are so ridiculously common.