I've been posting many places about Amazon the iguana, looking for any help I can get. Many people have expressed interest, and so, I plan to keep this log. Please note that I am historically terrible about the update and continuation of logs and records, but I will do my best. If you have any comments or ideas for me, feel free to email them to me!


Backstory
    Original Message sent out:

I have the opportunity to work with an iguana here on campus and get
him used to people and being handled again. He used to be handled a
lot, but then about two years back he 'got mean' suddenly and hasn't
been handled since or even taken out of his cage.
I have a theory that he may have just been ripe for mating, but I
don't have enough information on that. I do know that he was stressed
before, because there was construction going on very close by.

Anyway, I was wondering if you guys could throw out any tips and
cautions or whatever to help me. I've been checking out a lot of
different sites, including Melissa Kaplan's, the Iquana Den, and
myiguana.com, but it'd be cool to get all the help I can get.

I also am not sure whether I'm going about this correctly. I have been
treating him as simply an aggressive iguana, but I'm starting to
think, the more information that I get, that he may not be so much
aggressive, as kind of inadvertently abused, if that makes sense.
Any ideas and help I can get are greatly appreciated.

Q

    Amazon is a four foot long male green iguana (iguana iguana) who lives in the greenhouse here on campus. The greenhouse people take care of him as far as food and water, cleaning, and heat, etc go. I have been coming in to work with him nearly every day in my spare time for about two weeks. As stated above, Amazon's behavior changed two years ago, and he has been 'aggressive' ever since. That's where I come in. Drawing upon my past experiences with Ginki, my own iguana, as well as all the research I've done, I once again am learning just how confusing and amazing these animals can be.

Tuesday, April 13th
    Amazon and I got along real well today. He was being just a normal, stubborn iguana, with few signs of aggression. Oh, I got the occasional headbob now and then, but looking back on my resources, I'm inclined to believe they weren't anything to worry about. Right now my tools are a green towel, gardening gloves, and a sweatshirt occasionally. I wear the sweatshirt if I'm going to pick him up, but it's hot in the greenhouse, which is good for Amazon, but not comfortable for me in a sweatshirt! I was able to open the cage all the way for the second time today, and the door to that area of the greenhouse was closed so Amazon could roam around. Amazon did not want to roam around- he was perfectly happy sitting on his branch basking in the sunlight coming through the glass roof of the greenhouse.
    It made it kind of difficult on me- I had one of the greenhouse personnel watching me in the event of any mishaps. She had other work to do, though, and so soon left. It was then easier to relax, without having someone watching over my shoulder and possibly judging my every move. :) Besides, then I'm better able to focus on the iguana. After all, last Wednesday I wasn't paying attention and he leaped at the cage. I turned in time to see a flash of orange and watch him bite the wire of his cage, about where I would have been had the door not been in the way. Good learning experience, that.
    Anyway, I found that Amazon really likes being petted with the towel, or so it seems. I'm sort of worried about his slow opening of the mouth while being petted, though. Not sure what to do about that.. It seems to be going well- really well. I've been thinking that maybe a lot of his headbobs are a "pet me" type thing....... this seems to support it, since he barely postured or head bobbed at all today. I'll have to watch and see.

Thursday, April 15th
    I've been really busy, so I missed my log for yesterday. Let's see...... Yesterday went really well. I spent a lot of time with him- almost an hour beyond closing time, in fact. I was doing some research and reading bits and pieces aloud to him every once in a while toward the end. We had a good petting session, and he was almost perfectly tame. He likes being petted with the bare hand, but a towel is fine with him, too. Especially since I feel more comfortable with it. He really likes his shoulders rubbed down.
    He did try to taste my hand to see if it was good to eat, but I told him off. I snapped my fingers in front of his nose, and that got his attention- he was real docile after that for a while, although he did eye my hand a bit. Other than that, there were no difficulties.
    Too bad I won't see him Friday, since the greenhouse will be sprayed.


NOTE:

Unfortunately, I will no longer be able to work with Amazon. Finals week passed and was very busy, so I could not get in to see him as much as I wanted. And then, shortly after summer break started, Amazon died. The autopsy showed the cause of death to be lung cancer, which I am thinking may have played a part in his aggression.