How to Handle an Iguana

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village, I'm Nichole, here to tell you about Iguanas. Some Iguanas are not so friendly, their a little harder to tame than others. This one has not been handled very often, so he is a little timid, so it's going to take a little time. He does bite, which can be very painful with Iguanas this size. So you have to be very careful in how to get him out, and avoid being bit or whipped. He does that to see where he is to smell. He jumped out of his cage at me when I was trying to catch him, so he is really frightened right now. I chased him into the kitchen area, and what I did to catch him is I just threw a towel over him and grabbed him. You have to make sure to grab them right behind the front legs here, so that they can not bite you so easily. As you can see he is biting the towel right now. He is very frightened right now, and this is his reaction to me holding him right now. His eyes are also closing and his is very frightened. But these Iguanas do have several teeth, and they can leave a pretty painful bite. I have heard several stories where the bites actually required stitches or surgery. The juveniles do not have as many teeth, not afflicting as much damage, but as they get older, such as this guy, he is about two and half years old, he can cause quite a bit more damage. The tail is a second thing you want to look out for, they do use it as a weapon for defense, and they will whip with it. "