Zeus

Nessie became my responsibility in 1993 when I was volunteering at a local veterinary hospital in Schenectady, New York. Dr. Hornfeck gave him to me because, as he said, 'Iguanas are too hard to keep alive. They're too much work. I'll stick with snakes.' The doctor was very good with snake care and owned over 200 snakes himself! Part of my job was to clean their aquariums, and he had over 200!

My initial meeting with the doctor was when my former iguana Zeus became ill. The doctor did the usual tests on her including blood work and found everything to be normal, except her glucose level was three times as high as it should be. Dr. Hornfeck prescribed insulin shots, but he cautioned that it might not work because Zeus was a reptile, not a mammal. I gave her the injections faithfully, but she did not make it. That is when Dr. Hornfeck was given a little tiny iguana, which I, upon inheriting, named Nessie (after the Loch Ness Monster). Nessie was 5 inches long, very bright green and had an attitude from the start. He would smack you with his tail as soon as you put your hand in the aquarium. He still has an attitude but now he's over four-foot long.

Nessie

I attribute Nessie's growth and long life to a few things. Nessie would not be alive today if it weren't for Dr. Funk in Tampa, FL. He is a reptile specialist and after one problem Nessie had which involved the rectum prolapsing, I thought he was a goner. But the doctor surgically removed part of the rectum two years ago and he has been fine ever since. Dr. Funk also instructed me on what to feed Nessie and what to avoid. Many iguana products on the market today will kill iguanas. They are too high in protein. Iguanas only require about 5 percent of their diet to be protein. I have check the contents on numerous pre-packaged iguana foods and found the protein count to be 21% and higher. The doctor also directed me to a publication by Philippe de Vosjoli called The General Care and Maintenance of the Green Iguana which explains what the iguana diet should consist of along with other information regarding additional vitamin and mineral supplements (e.g., calcium/Vitamin D). Temperature also has a lot to do with keeping your iguana healthy and happy. The temperature should be a minimum of 88 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and about 65 to 75 degrees at night (higher for juveniles). They need the warm temperature so they can properly digest their food. Iguanas need natural sunlight; it provides their vitamin D. Administering vitamin D in pill form is not the same.

Nessie, like most Americans, does eat food he should not. But his basic diet includes kale, mustard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, squash, grated carrots, cut-up grapes, apples, melon, and other green vegetables when available. He eats mostly fresh vegetables (and it's even better if I can get him organic veggies). He does get frozen vegetables (thawed out of course) about twice a week and once a week I give him either tofu, beans (hopefully not canned), and sometimes cottage cheese. Nessie loves cottage cheese. It is his second favorite food next to spaghetti, which he eats ravenously and in the process gets his whole head covered in red sauce. I give him treats like spaghetti with tomato sauce and cottage cheese only about once a month. Dr. Funk told me about a woman that visits him with her two iguanas who are both grossly overweight. 'They eat pizza and lasagna,' Dr. Funks says. 'Her owner says they love it'...and she is killing them with kindness.

Nessie is a fun guy. He is obsessed with my two dogs; which makes sense, because the dog is an iguana's natural born enemy. If they run by the aquarium he bangs his head into the glass as if to go after them. One day, I had him on the floor in the bedroom, the dogs ran in, and he went charging after them. Another time, I was on the computer and let him run loose around my bedroom. I went out for a couple of minutes, came back and could not find him. I searched all over and finally, through feeling through all the clothes in the closet, found he had lodged himself in the leg of one of my pants! On another day, I could not find him anywhere and finally discovered him looking down at me from the top of the curtain rod.

We discovered early on that Nessie does not like bright, flowery patterns. My mom had two sun dresses she had to get rid of because each time she wore them, he would smash his face into the glass of the aquarium and run up and down the tank as if someone was after him.

Nessie

Nessie does recognize people's faces. If I approach him he will bob his head and stick out his tongue, and continue. If I do the same, my boyfriend thinks I've gone off the deep end. If anyone new approaches his tank, he will puff up his body on his legs, his dewlap extends and he remains in this threat display until they leave. I have been told his 'attitude' is typical of most male iguanas.

I am by no means an expert on iguanas. I had two iguanas as a child and killed them both by feeding them lettuce (it has no nutrients and gives them diarrhea) and mealworms daily (too much protein). To this day, I would not inherit another iguana, because I believe reptiles, such as these, should not be captive. Many are shipped into the country, and the percentages that die on the way are staggering. Many parents today hear the cries of their children and go to buy an iguana without investigating the information they need to know to keep them alive. They truly are a remarkable animal and fun to watch and have as a pet, but most die before they reach one foot in length, because people don't know how to care for them.

I wish I could provide more space for Nessie. He has a 70-gallon aquarium inside the house, where he stays at night or when it is cold. Luckily I live in Florida and most days are warm. When I am home, he goes outside to the porch where he lives in a cage 4 feet high, 2 feet wide and 5 feet long. He sits in the sun (he loves the sun) and watches the other lizards run by his cage. He is still captive; and needs more room. I let him out to run around the living room when I am watching TV. I plan to buy him a bigger indoor aquarium by Christmas. But what he has as his home is a far cry from being wild.

Many iguanas have been donated to Bush Gardens and Lowery Park Zoo because they get too big and people don't have necessary accommodations for them. In my last conversation with the parks, they say they couldn't take any more.

Reptiles are great: they are like the last living dinosaurs. I have always loved iguanas but now realize that they probably shouldn't be captive unless the owner has a huge space to house them and wants to devote a great deal of time and money to keep them healthy and happy.

Susan Lindsay is a licensed Wildlife rehabilitator and a free-lance writer. She resides in Lakeland, Florida.