- GoHerping then, I'm not an exotic vet.
I'm not your vet, no other YouTuber's your vet.
Just find a vet.
GoHerping now, I'm basically an exotic vet.
Licensed vet, everyone, that's me.
(joyful music)
GoHerping then, I hate iguanas.
(cage clatters)
(grunts) Oh, my god.
(laughs)
GoHerping now, iguanas are kind of my favorite reptile.
(gentle music)
That's pushing it,
but I do have some second impressions on green iguanas.
Awhile ago I did a video on my first impressions,
which I'll briefly go over.
Basically, with that iguana,
it was pretty small, it was not cared for very well,
and it was terrible with people.
After months of work, it very slowly gained weight,
which was good,
but it did not get any better with people.
The slow changes that it did show when working with people
were probably just gonna be reset
as soon as it was at a new home.
And basically I was pretty turned off by iguanas,
I was not gonna recommend iguanas,
and I did not want an iguana for myself.
Pretty much all that still stands true,
I pretty much agree with everything that I said before,
but I'm happy to say
I've had some second impressions on them
because I've had a second experience with them.
With this second green iguana...
With this, with this second...
Green iguana, you thought it was gonna tail whip me,
but no, not today, this one is friendlier,
kind of, when he wants to be.
So basically green iguanas
were one of the most popular reptiles in the trade
for a long time when it was a new thing.
They were super cheap, they were all over the place,
and they got huge and a lot of people didn't realize
how big they get.
So they would get them as these little babies
for a few dollars,
and then end up releasing them when they got bigger
because they were such a pain.
That's why Florida has so many iguanas
along with other regions
that aren't supposed to have iguanas.
This one, funnily enough, was found in North Carolina.
I live in North Carolina,
and it was obviously released by someone.
The people that found it weren't sure
if it was released on purpose or not,
but we know it was released on purpose.
It was caught by a mix of animal control and state troopers.
It took them a few months to actually trap it,
but they did it!
And, and then they didn't know what to do with it,
so they gave it to me!
And I was like, "Oh, god, I guess I'll take it."
I didn't want it, but (clicks tongue)
(sighs) nobody else is gonna take it.
So basically this green iguana was roaming
in the wild of North Carolina throughout the summer,
enjoying himself as he pleased, and now he's stuck with me,
at least for the time being.
So impressively, he's doing quite well
to have been in the wild for a while,
which I guess isn't too much of a surprise
if they're able to thrive so well
in other places in the wild and completely take them over
'cause they're so invasive.
Now, he probably would not do well
in North Carolina's winter.
I don't think we're gonna have invasive iguanas
because of that,
the same reason we don't have invasive
bearded dragons or ball pythons,
'cause it just gets too cold here,
even though there have been beardies
found in North Carolina.
Someone on Twitter actually showed me one
that they found on a hike, so okay.
And I just recently saw another one on Instagram
that was just wandering a college campus,
so (clicks tongue) yeah, they're...
Everything's released, and basically most of them
are going to die when winter hits,
which is just about now or in about a month
in North Carolina,
but this one was found and caught before that,
so thankfully he will be thriving from this point on
assuming being with me is thriving.
Hopefully it is, we'll find out though.
So the very first thing is his claws were extremely sharp,
just like others.
Their bites can be pretty bad.
At this size, it won't do a ton of damage.
You probably wouldn't need stitches,
and I should probably use tongs while feeding him,
but I don't, I don't know why, I just don't,
don't worry about it.
But it's fun to actually have
a different experience with iguanas.
So the first cool thing was he has a lot of attitude,
which can be kind of fun,
and basically his personality is not very linear
and it changes a lot throughout the day,
throughout the week.
Even just a few minutes in between
he shows a lot of different emotion and personality.
Sometimes he'll be super sweet,
other times he just won't want to deal with you.
I was getting some shots of him while he was asleep
and then I woke him up and he wasn't happy,
but then he ate food because he likes food
and he was happy again.
So he has a lot of emotion, he's kind of all over the place,
he's much like a person in that sense.
He's still better than a person though,
because look at him, how's he not?
So when we got this iguana, we were not prepared.
We got it with less than a week's notice,
so all we had enclosure-wise was just some very large tubs.
So basically what we were gonna do
is just keep him in one of these big tubs for a few days
while we find him another enclosure.
And a lot of people have a lot of different iguana setups,
there's a lot of controversy around it.
Who knew there could be controversy
in the reptile community?
I love my community, do you love this community?
I love this community.
(wind blows)
So there will be a lot of controversy
with the different ways you can do it.
Some people will set up a huge enclosure
made of acrylic, or glass, or metal, or wire, whatever.
Our previous iguana was in a critter cage sort of thing
with plastic around it to keep humidity in.
Other people will transform a whole room
into an iguana home for an adult.
It'll have like basking in one spot,
food in another, a nice big water bowl,
and then it's somehow either just hardwood floors
so it's easy to clean.
There are problems like this with humidity
and things like that,
but basically our temporary setup was a pretty big tub
that he could fit in.
He could turn around in it but he can't explore it
'cause it was just a tub.
It had coconut fiber that was moistened to keep humidity up
and he had a big water bowl that he could fit in,
and then he just had a simple heat lamp.
Turns out he was smart enough
to basically push the lid to the side
and he wasn't contained,
he ended up just walking out of the tub.
But the best part is
he walked back into the tub on his own accord.
We didn't have to force him in,
he knew that was his home.
We've only had him for a short period of time,
but in this period of time,
we've kind of just let him do his thing on the first floor,
which involves a tub, some heat lamps,
and the first floor.
In the morning, you'll go down
and you'll probably find him somewhere around the room,
like today I found him sleeping on one of the shelves.
And then once the lights turned on
'cause all the lights are on a timer,
they flicked on, he would go over to his tub and bask
under his lamps for most of the day
because basking is important.
He needs that UVB and that heating to grow properly
and he seems to know that, or at least he enjoys the heat,
and he would just wander over to his tub.
He jumps into the tub (laughs) himself,
and then he just chills.
Now this tub, again, looks terrible.
It would be an awful setup for an iguana
for either a long period of time
or if this was his only area.
But for now, it's just worked as a place for him to just
bask when he pleases, get water when he needs.
He only poops in his water, which is pretty nice.
He does drop urine, it's kind of all over the floor,
but I clean the floor almost daily anyway
since a lot of dirt gets on it
and then I just clean up after him.
Food-wise, he's always hungry pretty much,
he eats pretty much any type of veggie or fruit,
mostly vegetables like, do I have any?
(mellow music)
(laughs) There.
(lettuce crunching)
I think I gave him too big of a piece.
Yeah, so you can probably already see the key differences
between this iguana
and the previous iguana.
The previous iguana really liked to be on my head,
which people mentioned I shouldn't really let them do
'cause it probably makes them very dominant
because they're literally on top of my head,
on top of the world and I'm beneath them,
literally and metaphorically,
which isn't a great thing to have with iguanas.
So thankfully he likes to be more on your shoulder
or on your side or on your arm like this,
and he's actually pretty calm.
More fun things about him.
One, at first we thought his tail was necrotic
when we first looked at it,
but no, it turns out at some point, probably in the wild,
he lost half of his tail and it looks like it regenerated.
It regenerated with a completely different pattern,
a completely different set of scales,
and that little back spine thing is not there on his tail.
So it's just this weird, rough thing
that grew back actually pretty well, it's pretty straight,
and I'm impressed by how well it grew.
Also his nails are in surprisingly good shape.
They're extremely sharp,
but not as sharp as like monitors that we have,
so I don't mind it too much.
I don't feel the need to use gloves with him,
which is surprising based on his size.
When it comes to safety and safety precautions,
there are things you should probably do
like feed them with tongs,
really be careful around their face and head,
especially if you don't know the iguana very well,
and I kind of do some of those things.
Again, it's more of an adult iguana
where you have to worry about extreme injuries
that might need stitches
or losing part of a finger or something,
but with this size I'm comfortable with how he is.
And I didn't just immediately jump
into letting him on my shoulder like this.
It was a slow sorta thing, but he seems smart enough
to realize that I'm not here to hurt him,
unlike the other iguana,
which again, that iguana was abused, so it's understandable.
I don't know what his care was like because he was--
(scraping)
Stan just fell off his basking spot.
I don't know what his care was like
before he was released, obviously,
but it probably wasn't great
if they ultimately released him.
So I would like to think that it's because
he's getting better care now that he is calm.
That's probably not why, it's probably partially luck
and just because we got lucky with him, who knows?
Finding iguanas new homes is very difficult.
There are not many people interested in an animal
that gets many feet bigger than this, multiple times bigger,
like five to six feet, including the tail,
which is a lot of iguana,
and needs a lot of space, like I said,
and that's not something that a lot of people can offer.
So I do not plan on keeping him permanently.
I say that about just about every animal,
and normally I'm right.
I don't feel a lot of personal connection to him.
I haven't named him or anything like that,
but it is nice that we get to experience
an actual pretty chill iguana.
But with that said, he does get moody at times,
he will tail whip,
and it definitely hurts worse than the other iguana.
Not as bad as an adult, it doesn't leave bruises,
it might leave bruises actually, if it's on your bare skin.
He really only tail whips you or acts defensively
if like you startle him, if you sneak up on him,
if you wake him up and he's not expecting it
or if you come at him too fast, things like that,
completely understandable things.
He doesn't just irrationally start freaking out
and whipping you and stuff, which is cool to see.
He actually doesn't mind being touched like on the back,
he's okay with it, which is pretty cool,
and he seems to be okay with multiple people,
which is very nice to know that he's not just picking
one favorite human that he's okay with,
which means that if we do rehome him,
it'll be much easier to do so.
Overall, their diets are easier than certain animals,
like certain big animals especially,
like say a really big snake,
you might have to end up getting frozen rabbits
or frozen chickens or something.
He doesn't need that, he just needs a ton of vegetables,
a lot of variety and stuff like that.
So I would say the biggest reasons that they're so difficult
are because one, their temperament can be very iffy,
and it's not like a little angry leopard gecko
where the worst thing that happens
is they just keep biting you over and over,
where you just keep going, "Ow,
"ow, that kind of hurts,
"ow, that hurts a little bit."
But if you get bit by an iguana,
you might be screaming if it's big enough.
So, (laughs) that's one of the--
(clattering)
So that's one of the deterrents from people getting them,
and also I think the biggest reason
is probably space as well
because they want and need a lot of it, they explore,
they want to have a place to bask,
they want to have a place to be cool,
a place to hide, a place to reach water
and soak if they want to or just drink, a place to eat,
they need a lot of places.
It's a lot more like a dog or a cat or something
where they don't necessarily need a whole house,
but they definitely are going to want more
than just a small snake tub or something
because they actually enjoy doing things
and they are an animal that's more likely to get bored
or stressed if they don't have those things available.
So for me, iguanas,
when it comes to how appealing they are as animals,
it's a little bit different
from the first video I did on them,
not as much as you might think
because I still don't want to take in iguanas.
We are still open to it,
but we do actually have to charge fees
to take in certain animals now
because they just take so much work.
For example, sliders,
like red-eared sliders and yellow-bellied sliders,
are now a small fee.
Iguanas are a bit of a larger fee
because they are a lot of work
and take a lot of time and money.
And so for myself, I still don't want one,
I'm happy to be able to help them out,
this is a very cool iguana,
but it's definitely a lot of work
if you're going to keep it long-term
'cause although I think personally
the care that we're doing right now
is fine for a short period of time,
I don't know if this is sustainable long-term.
Well, okay, obviously it's not
'cause he's gonna be a lot bigger,
and technically he could be stunted,
he could stop growing because of his previous care,
but you have to assume that he's gonna get full-size
as he would normally,
which means he's gonna need a lot of stuff.
For myself, I still don't want one,
but I can see where they can be enjoyable,
and where especially rescues and stuff,
it's definitely a lot of work and I'm sure super rewarding.
Thankfully there's been like no rehab on him,
the only thing was just stuck shed,
which is pretty common in iguanas,
especially just wild, random lizards.
They seem to just have pretty beat-up faces,
pretty stuck shed, he does have some scars,
but he was out in the wild for months
just living it up, survival mode,
and I think it's cool to see that he's able
to transition in here, be okay with people,
enjoy basking under artificial light, and eat snack.
Quite the contrast from the other iguana we've seen,
but still definitely a contrast
from other reptiles we've seen
because he does feel a lot more personable,
a lot more personality, and a lot more lizard in general.
So he's definitely intimidating at times,
but it just takes a good bit of confidence
to work with him and get over that.
I wouldn't recommend getting an iguana to just anyone.
I wouldn't really recommend an iguana to anyone.
I think if you want one, you don't need my recommendation.
Hopefully you're already set on getting one
and I don't want to try to convince you to get one.
This one probably will be available shortly
as soon as we think he's good,
as soon as we figure out shipping
'cause he would be pretty big to ship.
So what do you think of green iguanas?
Would you look into getting one in the future?
Any tips, should I get him a toy?
I don't know, what can I give him to make him happy
or to make him hate me less?
How can I butter him up
to make sure he continues to enjoy his stay here?
Let me know, what are your experiences with iguanas?
Have you seen more iguanas
that are like the first iguana we got,
or this iguana, or somewhere in between,
or better or worse than one of the others?
Let me know, that'd be cool to know.
Thanks to the members for supporting
this chan, what, channel, video.
Um, yeah, you're feeding this iguana, so that's cool.
But I think that's just about everything
on this green iguana, so that's it,
I'm Alex, thanks for watching.
(mellow music)