How to Make Your Iguana Nice

When you think of playful animals you usually think about dogs or cats-not iguana's. Iguana's, however, can actually be very playful if they have been around humans for quite some time. Since each iguana is different you must try several different techniques to find the one that is going to help you teach your iguana to be nice and playful.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• An iguana
• Yourself

1. 
    
   Holding an Iguana

   Spend time holding your iguana each day. Your iguana is never going to be nice to you or anyone else if it never has any human contact. Make sure you do this at a time of the day that your iguana is ready for play so that it associates you with something fun. You may have to try different times of the day to find which one your iguana likes the best.

2. 
    
   Climbing Iguana

   Try climbing play. Iguana's like to climb including climbing up and down their owners bodies. Many owners have used this method to make their iguana's so friendly that the iguana's will climb up an sit on their shoulders or head to go for a walk.

3. Trying sitting quietly with your iguana. This will help you start to bond with your little lizard like friend. Have the iguana sit on your lap and just pet the iguana on the head. Rubbing in between the eyes will even make your iguana go to sleep. This is soothing and a great way to show your iguana that you are nice so the iguana will be nice back.

4. Play with an object. Iguana's are known to love certain pieces of clothing (often green), stuffed animals, and even some pool toys. Find out which objects your iguana likes and take them out to play together. Show your iguana the toy and give him the space to make a decision. You may have to do this several times each week until eventually you learn what your iguana likes.

5. Use the bath tub. Iguana's love water so this is a great place to do some interacting with your iguana. Add an inflatable floatie to the tub and keep your hand in the water until your iguana gets use to you. The more time you spend doing something the iguana likes, the better chance you have of the iguana associating you with the fun thing. When the iguana does that it is going to respond in a nice manner.

Tips & Warnings

• Try introducing your iguana to some other pets in your house. Only do this when you are there to supervise. Getting your iguana use to other animals can help it become a little nicer.
• Do not agitate your iguana or force it to bond with you when it isn't ready. Just be patient and work a little at it each day.

Resources

• The Ultimate Owner's Manual

[Ruehlman]

on 8/31/2008 Hi!
I had an iguana...mine was very mean.
I wish mine had gotten to be nive but it never did.
Some iguanas just never like human attention...they are all different.
But a 4 year old iguana bite can cause some damage so dont force yourself on him to much.
But you can always tell if your iguanan is going to bite if he bobbles his head at you or lifts his tail or turns his body towards you and slitely opens his mouth. Iguanas are very unpredictable creatures and can take monthes or even sometimes a year or 2 to train.
But even then they can still bite ...and WILL bite unless you always pay atttention to its body language.
So just try to hand fead him and try giving him a bath.
Mine was ONLY nice when i was bathing it. But other than that mine was thrashing at me or biting me or tail whiping. And im not sure why....but i just guess that mine wasnt a human friendly iguana.
But my fr

[Haley22]

on 8/28/2008 Hello,
I just recently got an Iguana named Patrick and he's 4 years old and never been held. Every time I stick my hand in his cage to spray him with water < which he absolutly LOVES> he gets real territorial and wants to tail whip me. I want him to know that I dont want to hurt him. And I want to hold him and interact with him but he wont let me get near him. The only time I can touch him is when I'm spraying him with water. I hung some salad leafs and grapes from a fishing line and tied it to the top of his cage.. he seemed to really love that! He is really scared so it may take time, but how trainable is he at 4? He's three and a half feet long and he is constantly hissing and snapping. However, he has gotten better in the last few days but I'm still worried I will never get to really interact with him.