Kingdom Petrie

But my iguana poops in my hand

Have been giving Petrie daily baths again, instead of spritzing to minimize stress on the late Ducky.

With baths comes potty training. We’d prefer if he went in his tub all his own, but instead he likes to poop from way up high and sometimes he makes it, other times he doesn’t.

I (female slave) have been working on him pooping at each bath time. If I hold him in my hand, rub his left side for about five minutes (he likes his left side to be scratched for whatever reason) and then start trickling warm water down his back, starting at his neck, out comes the poo poo.

Kind of gross having an iguana poop in your hand, but in a sick way it makes us happy that he will calm down enough to do it!

So we’ve noticed postings on several iggy sites, blogs, boards, etc. about new iguana owners being in the same situation we were in oh-not-long-at-all-ago…

Do baby iggs hate their new owners?

The simple answer, no. We joke a lot about Petrie hating us, but we’ve known all along that it’s a fearful response. It is hard to believe, however, when they’re giving you THE STINK EYE.

The Stink Eye needs no description. You will know it when you see it. It is the look of pure hatred, despise… When you are given the stink eye, you know you are the lowliest thing on the planet.

But have no fear! The stink eye is not visual poison.

So when will they love me?

Probably never, but we can all dream. But thin of it this way… We’ve had King Petrie less than two months, and he has made vast improvement. Here is how his progress has gotten so far…

At first, we got the stink eye for walking in the room. He was probably giving it to the wall when he heard the front door close.

As time went on, we got it when we stood too close to the cage. We’d get an occassional tail whip at this point as well, if we stood much too close. Flap out. Spikes up.

Then we got it for opening the cage door. Tail whips and posturing were a given. At this point, if we put a hand in the cage to.. I don’t know… give him a delicious balanced gormet meal while we ate top ramen for dinner… we would get a quick tail whip, and then a rapidly scurring iguana.

Now, we can open the cage, clean it, and feed/water, usually without incident. He still postures and moves away if we have our hand within about 6″ of him, but overall a lot of improvement!! No more stink eye!

He still is scared of us catching him in his cage, but after a few moment of scurrying we can usually get him on one of our hands to be caught. If he’s in the tub or another room (like near the basking window) he is much easier to catch.

Is this helping anyone?

We hope there’s some other new iggy owners out there finding solace in these words. It’s not that they hate you. They’re 4″ long STV, and you’re what… 3 feet nose to inseam? Pretty intimidating.

We honestly just thought we had the most evil lizard on the face of the planet, but we were never discouraged – we knew that if he remained evil… well, no free-roaming for you Petrie! But now we’re sure that with more time, we will be able to let him hang with us to watch TV or bask in the sun on the back of the couch in the summer time .

So first off, we must announce that the camera is kaput. I hope I spelled that right.. that’s a funny word. Have been trying to get photos to turn out, but every picture it takes is dark and slightly blurry, even with brand new batteries in it. Will get one as soon as our animals stop having vet bills… rriiiiggghhhttt….

But there is good news! Maybe we’ll take up drawing to show you the wonderful things going on with our iggies

The good news is

1) Petrie is the picture of health. We don’t know how – he eats half as much as Ducky and has been to the vet 0 times. He however is in shed after shed, constantly growing, always in beautiful color and strong looking. He’s also getting nicer!!! YAAYY!! Party! He is still not keen on being “caught”, but I can usually hold him pretty calmly and I can pick him up from underneath if he’s in the tub or something and no freaking out. Yay!

2) Ducky has been lying to us! All this time we thought she genuinly hated the water, and where is she found the other day?!!!??!??! No where but in the bathing tub – going for a nice little swim while we’re out of the room! Sneaky little lizard!!! The tub has sticks going in and out, and is only deep enough for a nice little dip (and no drowning, in case she were to get on her back and not be able to flip over). Tonight, we saw her getting ready to climb in when we interrupted her skinny dip by barging in the room to check on them. Stinking slaves!

3) Waiting anxiously for our mega ray

4) Humidity has been doing good, 50% all day. Adding their “pond” seems to help and we don’t have to fill the humidifyer up twice a day, just once. In the mid morning when the humidifyer is going it gets up to just about 70% in their room.

We just can’t wait for the day that our little Ducky is as healthy and robust as Petrie… perhaps the seed of the devil comes with a vita pack… She is however getting stronger and still eating well, and has started gaining some of her weight back, so maybe we just need more time and she will get there .