UV Light

Well, I mentioned before that Isabella hasn't been feeling well. I noticed that Ferdinand has not been letting her eat. He's been pushing her out of the way and also sitting on her so that she cannot get up. Meanwhile he eats the food! He doesn't even eat it all but he continues to sit on her. I don't know why he started acting this way all of the sudden. He has not done this in the past. But I have an idea...
I noticed that he just recently started doing this after Isabella was looking down and out. About a month ago the UV bulb burned out. Not long after this Isabella started acting different. Today I just put that connection together. I haven't made the trip to Petco to buy the UV bulb but I will tomorrow. I feel so bad now because I'm thinking this is why she's acting different. And now that she's weaker, I think Ferdinand is taking advantage of it. Males are usually competitive with each other. Females stay out of it and seem to just do their own thing. This is why it's been okay to keep them together in the same cage. Also they've just always been together and I haven't really seriously thought about separating them. But Ferdinand has been bullying her all this week. I don't even know if he might be trying to mate with her. I was told that she laid eggs in the past but it has never happened in the three years they've been with me. So I just don't know what is going on right now and I've been looking on the internet to try and find answers. If anyone knows, please help!
(In case you didn't know, iguanas need UVB light to get their vitamin D3 and use their calcium. So I need to have a UV bulb that is supposed to put out UVB rays and the iguanas absorb this into their skin. If they don't have this they can get weak and ill.)

Bullsnake

Here's my bullsnake. This snake doesn't have a name. He was actually found in a parking lot and I decided to keep him. I haven't had him for a year yet and he is not even a foot long yet. I thought a bullsnake would be a good addition for teaching my classes. People ask me a lot about bullsnakes. It seems that everyone has seen a bullsnake but they really have no idea what one looks like. By this I mean that when people around here see a snake, it must be a "bullsnake." I think the yellow and black on this snake makes it look pretty.

Drew

Here is Drew. He is a great plains rat snake. He's about 1.5 feet long. In one of the pics you can see his pretty light brown eye. Drew is a snake that I would use at my snake class. He's native to this area. If you have ever seen a corn snake in the pet store, Drew is related to that kind of snake. Corn snakes are usually yellow and orange colored.
I got Drew when he was about 9 inches long. I found him on one of my herp hunting trips. I don't recommend anyone just getting snakes and taking them home as pets. The first class that Drew did was at Frontier City, an amusement park in Oklahoma City. Like my other snake, Lucky, Drew received his name from students. Students from a Lawton high school worked with me and Randy at Frontier City and they were the ones to name him. One of my favorite types of snakes is the rat snake. Drew is not big enough to eat full-grown mice so he eats "pinkies" or "fuzzies." These are the hairless or very young mice. If I feed him pinkies I usually have to feed him about 4 of them depending on how big they are. But if I feed him fuzzies, it's just one. I feed my small snakes as often as my mice have babies. This is about once a month. I also do freeze pinkies then thaw them out to feed my snakes later. Sometimes they do not want to eat these.

Isabella's Skin, Toes, and Tail

I talked earlier about Isabella's skin, toes and tail. I think by looking at the picture of Isabella's leg, you can see how her skin looks "baggy" and kind of hangs off of her bones. This is because at one time her tissues were excessively filled with fluid as a compensation for weak bones.
The other picture shows her toes. It doesn't really show how they are bent but you can see they are abnormal. Also the claws are very long and basically useless for climbing. In the same picture you can see the spines on her back and how they are broken and bent.
The last picture shows her tail. The portion on the left is the part that has grown back. It is just dark brown. The right side shows her tail before the break point. You can see it actually has bands of orange and brown with short spines along the top. Buddy has a tail that was broken before, too. So his tail looks similar to this.

Ferdinand

I haven't posted any pics of Ferdinand, so I thought I'd better. I took these today. At first he didn't want to open his eyes but he eventually did. I think he looks pretty good.

Buddy's cage

Here are some pics of Buddy's cage. It is 4X4 feet and 6 feet high. I designed it to be large enough for him to climb around but also be easy for me to clean. The floor is covered with a waterproof barrier and the shelves and climbing beams are covered with astro-turf. The shelves and climbing beams are all easily removable and easy to shift around. A large door on the front lets me get in the cage to clean and feed. Most of the time he hangs around the top where his UV lamp and heat lamp are located.

Ophi

Besides iguanas I also have snakes. Actually snakes are my favorite reptiles. Ophi is a ball python. Right now he is almost 5 feet long. Ball pythons are from African jungles. They eat rodents. I try to feed all my snakes about once a week. Sometimes they are shedding or for some other reason they do not eat. But most of the time they eat regularly. This week three of my four snakes shed and Ophi is about to shed his skin. Ophi is a very gentle snake. He was my first snake and I purchased him at a pet store when he was only a foot long. Here's a pic of Ophi just after he spent some time in a wet pillow case. This helps them shed their skin properly.

Buddy

Let me tell you about my other iguana named Buddy. He came to live with me about two years ago. I was working at a wildlife refuge at the time and a co-worker had found him in a field near his home. He caught him and we tried to find a home for him. Well, I know it is hard to find homes for even cute, cuddly dogs and cats, so you can imagine that we did not have any luck. But seeing as how I have a soft spot in my heart for animals, yes even reptiles, I took him in. It turned out to be good. For a short time he actually lived in my bedroom free-roaming. This was okay, but he needed his own space. (Or maybe I needed mine.) Anyhow, my husband and his grandfather followed my plans and built a cage for him. Buddy was already 2.5 feet long. He seemed healthy enough but he has several scars all over his body and at one time must have lost his tail although it has grown back. He is very gentle, so I know he must have been handled a lot.
Being the responsible person that I am, I put a ad in the newspaper for a found iguana. No one claimed him. Maybe people who own iguanas don't read the newspaper, they just line the bottom of cages with it.
I named him Buddy because he was so gentle and I figured I could use him for classes. At the time I was doing several reptile classes with two of my snakes. I thought Buddy would make a good addition and his name might show people that he may look a little scary or intimidating, but he can be a friend. In fact Buddy's first and, sadly only, class was a Bass Pro Shop thing that lasted all day long for four days in a row. He did well, and for the most part the people's reactions were positive. But the long days of thousands of different people were hard on him. He has not done a class with me since. But this is also because my classes were about native reptiles and Buddy is not one of these. They may live in Florida as feral iguanas but they are native to central and south America. Also I do not have a demand for classes now that I am not working at the wildlife refuge at this time.
Buddy is an example of what a really nice, gentle iguana can be if someone will take the time and effort to be nice and gentle to them.

Isabella and Ferdinand

I thought I'd write a little about my iguanas. The male is named Ferdinand and the female is Isabella. They are the king and queen of iguanas! I got them "second-hand" from a science teacher. He told me at the time I got them that Isabella was about eleven years old and Ferdinand was about nine years old. I have to confess that I am the one who named them, so you can blame me for being cheesy. The science teacher actually did not give them names. I found this a little sad and that is why they have such royal names.
They are both about 4.5 feet long from nose to tail tip. And to be honest, but not disrespectful to the science teacher, I don't think they were in such good health when I recieved them. He fed them a diet of romaine lettuce and roma tomatoes. This is not good at all. Also he did not provide UV light or water. The only water source was in their food. So Isabella was puffy because her tissues held as much excess water as possible to protect her bones from breaking. It is a condition that iguanas get to compensate when they lack adequate calcium in their diet. After a month on a good diet with me she lost the puffiness but her skin has been large and wrinkled ever since. (I don't really know how to describe this so I will try to get a picture to show it.) Isabella also has a problem with her front toes and claws. I was told that as a young iguana she tried several times to escape her glass terrarium and would slam into the glass. This must have broken the bones in her front toes and they are permanently bent to the side. I think her claws grew abnormally long; probably to compensate for broken toes. For this reason Isabella is not a very good climber. She can only use her back legs to climb objects. Isabella also has broken spines along her back and I am not sure why. However, despite all of these problems I think she is a happy iguana; at least now.
Ferdinand looks decent but his wrists on the front are bent permanently. This problem is not so noticable and he climbs around just fine. This seems to be the only problem I could see that resulted from his diet. I know that iguanas have to receive adequate amounts of calcium and that certain foods are better than others. I try to give my iguanas fruits and vegetables that I would eat (not ugly, bruised, or rotten). I skip the calcium:phosphorus powder and just put the straight calcium powder on their food at least once a week. I figure they get enought phosphorous in the foods they eat. I also provide water on a daily basis. I know that this is important because I have seen them drinking it often.
I also try to give them a good environment, at least as best that I can provide. I give them a UV light which they can sit under and a heat lamp as well. I also have a heater to keep their room warmer in the winter time. And I also use a humidifier when I need to. I hope all of this makes them happy. I think it does because when they first came to me about three years ago they were not gentle at all. I think this was because of the lack of handling and possibly their diet. I have basically left them to themselves this whole time until recently I started trying to handle them. In the past they rejected any touching from me so I did not push it. Recently I tried again and they have let me touch them to move their tail or leg out of the way as I feed them or clean their cage. This gave me courage to pick them up. One day I first tried the male because I accidently left the cage lid open and he was sitting on the edge. I gently picked him up and put him back in. A few years ago this would have resulted in a fight, with me eventually getting him back in the cage with the wounds to prove it. Next I tried the female. Now I think for the most part they are not scared of me and we have an understanding. Besides they have learned that I am the source of their food. When they see me they do get excited if their food bowl is empty because they know it will be filled. Well, they get as excited as iguanas can get!
I hope that I am doing enough for them because this is important to me. Yes, keeping reptiles and enjoying them in nature as well are a hobby of mine. But Ferdinand and Isabella are more than just a hobby. They are living creatures and I know that although they can look scary to many people, they do have feelings of comfort or pain. With them being about fourteen and twelve years old (which I think this is old), I just want them to be comfortable. This just makes me feel good.

Isabella

Today I spent time with my female iguana named Isabella. She has been worrying me lately because she is not eating like she used to. She has lost weight and she is slower in moving around. So today I gave her half a banana and some collard greens. I also let her sit in the tub for a while. She drank the water and relaxed. Now I am just letting her rest on the floor before I put her back in the cage. Mayber this time out will help her feel better.