TYPICAL IGUANA POSTURE

I will be posting a few photos of a few commonly seen postures that iguana may do and explain what each means.

Here is the first one

 

These both are or can be resting positions. Iguana may have their dewlap extended or slight handing down while resting or basking depending on their temperature. In a resting and calm position the dewlap should not be sucked forcefully into the neck, you will see this on the nest photo.

 

 

 

In this photo you can see the stuffed iguana toy that I have in the bottom left corner and this is Pip's reaction to that toy. Pip does not like the toy as well as he is afraid of it. The key features in this position are the sucked in dewlap and t shrunken body. You can see the skin fold all along the side of the stomach when comparing it to the resting photos. When this line appears when it normally isn't there (can apparent due to dehydration) the iguana is attempting to make him or herself seem as small and non threatening as possible to what ever is scaring him or her. In this case Pip left his head up since he knew the toy could "see him" and was very close. In some cases you may approach your iguana's enclosure and he or she may shrink down and lay flat against a branch or even try to move around the side of the branch. You will be able to see the same features as this but the iguana will be flat against what ever they are laying on at the time. They do this when they are trying to not be seen or detected. You do not want to see this in your iguana, along with this posture comes stress.

 

SUCKED IN DEWLAP. If you have multiple iguana you may see this posture or just the sucked I dewlap when they are together. This means the one iguana (with the sucked in dewlap) is trying to tell the other iguana that he or she means no trouble and surrenders to the other, however this posture may not stop another iguana from attempting a fight if he or she really doesn't want the ig there.

 

 

Finally for this blog post (I will add different postures later on in a different post) is aggression or a warning posture.

 

 

 



Key features in this are a puffed up body, iguana may stand up tall with base of their tail off the ground, open mouth and the iguana may be hissing along with fast jerky head movements if you move your hand near. What happens a lot with baby iguanas is if they are in this position and you move closer they will whip their tails so this is a warning sing to back off or leave me alone.

 

Scared iguanas may take on this position also as a last resort or if they are cornered. In this case the iguana may tail whip and bit however each iguana is different and some my just put this on as show and if you move closer they may run. You really have to get to know your iguana personally these are just guide lines.

 

 

MY LAST POINT. If you just purchased an iguana and you are seeing the second posture a lot, give the iguana some privacy for about a week and try not to handle them a lot in order for them to settle in before you work with them. If your iguana continues to posture like that find out what it is that is scaring them and work with it or remove it, for example it may be you which just takes time and training or it may be an object in the room or even a pet cat. I have also seen problems with this posture when the iguana could see himself in a mirror that was close to his enclosure so he was constantly scared of that reflecting. So be aware of your surroundings as well as your iguana's to help him be as happy as he can and have very limited stress.

 

I hope this help some new owners with posture and look for another post like this in the future for other postures and how to react to them.

 

 

Robin