Do you have iguana? No matter where you got that iguana from, purchase it or even adopt an iguana, you have to make sure to give the maximum effort on take care of your beloved one. Iguana is interesting animals, because even though they were part of reptilian group, they were proved that not all of reptilians are carnivorous. That is mean that iguanas are herbivorous reptile; they were vegetarian. They ate greens leafy, vegetables and fruits; and if you want to know the best food for your iguana, here are 3 best foods for them.
However, taken care an iguana is just not about the foods, and cages, but also how you keep your iguana in the clean conditions as possible. Schedule the bath time frequently would prevent some diseases such as skin problems and eyes problems, especially the one caused by mites and bacteria. Furthermore, if you are a beginner and don’t know the best ways to bathe an iguana, if properly done, they may swim too! Are you curious? One thing my friends, it’s not just about curiosity; it’s the basic skill all iguana’s owner must mastered.
So, here is the best ways to bathe an iguana, if properly done, they may swim too!
Let Your Iguanas Bathe Themselves
I know it’s a little absurd thing you could ever imagine, because in you mind, bathing an iguana should be like rub their skin like normal people would do when bathe a cat or a dog. Well, it’s not wrong either; because you have to rub your iguana skin too – but not too often. Remember, iguanas are inherited the wild nature in their blood, if you touch them too often they might do not really appreciate it. The cost of upsetting them? Well, be ready of immediate strike to your body or face.
So, how to do it properly without upsetting this creature? You could place a container (bowl or other receptacle) into you iguana’s tank, so they could approach it and take initiation to bathe for by their own any time they want. Most of the iguanas and actually, most of the lizards did like soaking in the water. All you need to makes sure is that you provide shallow water in a big enough container so that your beloved one’s body could completely saturate under the water.
You have to make sure the weight of the container; choose the heavy one to guarantee that its not just tumble aside when the iguana try to climb it. Fill the container with fresh water every single time. However, make sure they have access all the time to a bath especially when your iguana is in shedding period. Furthermore, do not forget to change the water daily. As soon as the iguana has finished the bath, empty the container and fill it with a new one. Note this, the water must be in the same level of room-temperature.
Why you must change it frequently, it because the water could be infected and contaminated by food or other substrates. How many times you should change the water? As soon you notice that the water had change color or become dirtier, it’s the time to replace with a new one. Moreover, not only the water that need to be clean up, once a week you must remove the container and scrub it with hot water and a mild dish soap. Pour out some disinfectant and let it cover the container surface for a while (estimated about 2 – 3 minutes).
You could put around 30 to 89 ml or equally with 1 to 3 fluids, per 1 US quart is about 0.95 l of water. Make sure you wash it with clean water before refill it and put the container back into the tank. To remove mineral deposit in the container, you could use white vinegar and warm water, the scrub it with fresh water. The question is, what if you have a big size iguana? What you should do?
Well, in that case, you should consider to built bath area inside the cage. It would really help to provide your iguanas their own large bathing place. However, build a built-in pool inside the area; adjust the pool size with your iguana body size, and familiarize yourself to the need of iguana. Apparently, every species do has different habitual. One thing you should know, having a built-in pool should be offset with the filtration system which would help cleanse the water during the changes.
Furthermore, because you are using a filter, it is vital to completely change the water and totally clean up the pool at least every 3 to 4 days. Consequently, build a pool inside the cage constrain you to put heater inside the water to keep the temperature in appropriate state for your Iguanas. At least, the temperature must be at 28° to 29° Celsius or equally about 83° to 85° F.
Bath your Shedding Iguanas
You should observe the iguanas, if only they need an help on shedding. Monitor the skin; do the skins are coming off naturally just it should be or not. Ordinary normal iguana had about one to three weeks of shed period; if you notice the shed period was over-limit the time, it’s the perfect time for intervention by soak it. Furthermore, in purpose to build up areas, you should un-shed the skin from toes to tail, around the dewlap and neck, also the crest and spikes.
All you need to do is soak your beloved iguana in a warm water around 10 to 15 minutes. If you face a problem of stubborn skin, put iguana into a tub of shallow water and let the skin soak to soften the stubborn dead skins. Give a gentle massage to your iguana on purpose to loosen up the dead skins. The next step is wrap your iguana in a moist towel for about five minutes to soften the skin that left on the body.
If, in any case, that the skin still didn’t loosen up after the bath, dip the towel into warm water, wrap it to the iguana for about 5 to 10 minutes. Rub mineral oil on the part of the stubborn skins, and gently give a massage.