Phaedra, however, has turned into all that I ever could have wanted in an Iguana. She went through quite a long period of adjusting to her new home and caretakers where I had to wear gloves to handle her. She's never whipped her tail, but she did like to bite! Now though, she delights in being scratched, and is even what I would call affectionate at times.

Although in the close up picture you can see that Phaedra does have a little something in her stomach. She was eating just a few bites of food a day at this point.

She came to live with me, here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in May 1998 after the unfortunate need to find a new home for my previous Iguana. He was a male that I had for two years prior to getting married. Anyone who ever says that Iguanas are uncaring impersonal animals has never known one. He was jealous of my wife to the point of attacking her anytime he saw her, all the while being a big suck with me.

The x-rays shown were taken in January of this year. They clearly show both what a healthy Iguanas skeleton looks like, as in good calcification of bones, and exactly why gravid Iguanas don't eat for quite a period of time. There is just too much room taken up by the eggs.

Providing a large enough cage for a giant lizard can be quite a challenge. A structure of even moderately adequate proportions can overwhelm anything but a very large room. As a creative option, really my wife's idea, Phaedra's cage is a renovated closet in one of our spare rooms. The interior dimensions measure 5.5 feet wide, 3 feet deep, and 6 feet tall.

Cage furnishings include food and water dishes, climbing apparatus, and a litter box. (during breeding season the litter box is replaced with a large nesting box.)

The cage floor is 3/4" plywood which rests onto framing made out of 2x4's. The sturdy construction makes periodic cleaning and maintenance easy as climbing into the cage is infinitely more convenient than having to have a step stool or ladder around. Ample storage space for supplies for Phaedra as well as our other animals exists under the cage bottom.

Heating and lighting consists of 2 120 watt spot lights, and a 48" full spectrum florescent tube. Currently I am using the Zoo Med 5.0 Iguana light. Lights are controlled by a standard household timer.

Temperatures in the enclosure range from 75° F on the cage bottom, to up to 105° F on the highest basking spots. Since these pictures were taken, there has been one other tree limb added horizontally in the middle of the cage to provide even more temp options.

Of course, she does get a lot of "free roaming" time which she puts to good use getting into everything possible. Phaedra also spends a good length of time outside in the summer. She has no problem with the other animals provided they hang back and watch from a distance, which they all learned to do very quickly.