[I] Litter box training iguanas
Alison Irving
i have an iguana, and have had for almost a year now, and was wondering if
there was a way to litter box train her. i've heard of people who can let
their iguanas roam the house and use a litter box for their messes. does
anyone have any hints as to how i could show gordie how to use one?
thanks,
ali
bf1...@binghamton.edu
Litter box trained Iguanas:
Hmm... sounds nice but I highly doubt it. Those people must have
been hoping, but I seriously doubt. The iguana is in my opinion, not
smart enough to learn this or is it willing to! Well they do seem to use a
particular area in cages, and that may be true roaming the house, but I
really doubt, but if you or anyone else here knows how to train an iguana
to do so, please tell me first. Sounds more like wishful thinking to me,
but I could be wrong. I really doubt it though!
RSC Geology
Alison Irving wrote:
>
> i have an iguana, and have had for almost a year now, and was wondering if
> there was a way to litter box train her. i've heard of people who can let
> their iguanas roam the house and use a litter box for their messes. does
> anyone have any hints as to how i could show gordie how to use one?
>
> thanks,
> ali
Method #1: Iguana's often get in the habit of going in the same place.
Find out where it is and put your box there.
Method #2: Water usually stimulates a poop response. Wet some
newspapers and you will increase the chances of her using them. If
she starts pooping on the paper you can gradually move the newspapers
to where you would like her to poop. (I mean move the paper a little
closer each day, not that you should carry around the poopy paper).
Eventually she will get habituated and it won't matter if you wet the
newspaper or not. This is the theory. My ig picked a convienent spot
in a corner to begin with so I just put down newspapers there (wet at
first) I only get about 1 "accident" a month.
If at first you don't succed, try different materials for the poop
site.
Phil Hughes
Stephanie Wilson
I haven't quite gotten to this stage yet(my ig's too little to free
roam) but I have found an easy way of cleaning it up in the cage... my
ig almost always goes in the same spot in his cage so I put newprint
down in that spot and replace it every time it gets soiled. I assume
(and hope) that I will be able to do the same thing (on a larger scale)
when Yippee gets older. I realize that there will be some messes at
first, but once he finds a place he likes, I should be able to at least
limit the amount of cleaning up needed. You may want to try paper
instead of the litter box because once he finds a place, he may not use
that spot anymore if there's a big box in his way. Good luck.
--
Stephanie Wilson
yip...@psu.edu
Center for Academic Computing
Pennsylvania State University
kirby smithe
Alison Irving wrote:
>
> i have an iguana, and have had for almost a year now, and was wondering if
> there was a way to litter box train her. i've heard of people who can let
> their iguanas roam the house and use a litter box for their messes. does
> anyone have any hints as to how i could show gordie how to use one?
>
> thanks,
> ali
You bet, Ali! Like some other things, this probably takes a certain
amount of luck. Here's our story:
We got a little help from our friend in that he refuses to poop in his
house; my house is fine but not his. Second, he would always poop soon
after his late afternoon feeding (which we did by hand for bonding
purposes).
We tried putting him on a piece of newpaper which he would just walk off
of and poop on the floor. We tried putting him in a box too high to jump
out of but this freightened him so that all he was interested in doing
was getting out of the box.
In order to get him in a place where he was not freightened and could
not
easily run away we got the idea to put newspaper on the kitchen counter.
It worked! After several months of this disgusting process we put the
paper on the kitchen floor next the counter. Didn't work. Back to the
counter. But this time we lined a large box lid (4' x 20") with a
plastic
trash bag and paper on top of that.
Some months later it was time to go on vacation and leave the igster
"home alone" and we couldn't invision a baby sitter going through the
counter routine so we went back to the box lid on the floor. It was then
that we realized that he _wanted_ to poop right next to the back door.
So we put the box lid next to the back door and the problem has been
solved!
About one day a week he misses the box, but all-in-all it's a success.
The only problem is that the newspaper is not absorbant enough for the
rather dense liquid which runs across the paper. Sometimes "we" drag our
lovely "little" tail through it. A small price.
Oh, yes, he is a so-called free roamer. He has full run of the house 24
hours a day. There are no other pets and we are almost ig-proof.
Lot's of luck. If you have any specific questions, feel free to e_mail
me.
Nancy Linford
=>
=>Litter box trained Iguanas:
=>
=>> i have an iguana, and have had for almost a year now, and was wondering if
=>> there was a way to litter box train her. i've heard of people who can let
=>> their iguanas roam the house and use a litter box for their messes. does
=>> anyone have any hints as to how i could show gordie how to use one?
=>>
=>> thanks,
=>> ali
I think you missed the point. For this to work you don't train them, they
train you. This is from personal experience as well as reading people's
experiences on this group.
SO here goes...
You too can be trained by your green iguana
1) watch your ig's habits. If it likes to poop in water, make water
convenient. If it likes a particular part of the house, put something
cleanable in that location. Kitty litter? well mine would just eat it.
2) sometimes the "chosen place" is not optimum (like your pillow). In this
case making it more difficult to get to your clean sheets than to another
okay pooping spot may be the answer. I solved this by putting a large tub
of water in a place that was totally unavoidable for her to step in on the
way to my bed.
3) Beat your ig to the punch. Coax your ig to go while you are there by
putting your ig in the "chosen spot" and not letting him/her leave until
the deed is done. Once they are in the habit, most will keep it.
4) beware of reversions. For no apparent reason (stress) your ig may
forget (temporarily) all of the potty training ever learned. It all
amounts to persistence and LOTS OF LAUNDRY.
Hallie Chase
That is a good idea but you may want to use something other than
newsprint. I have read that the ink from the paper may be poisonous to
the iguana if he licks it.
Stephanie Wilson
I guess I mis-spoke (or mis-typed). I actually use unprinted sheets of
paper. I am an architectural engineering major and buy it with my art
supplies. I will eventually switch to something a little cheaper (right
now I only have to cover about 6 square inches).
RSC Geology
Hallie Chase wrote:
>
> That is a good idea but you may want to use something other than
> newsprint. I have read that the ink from the paper may be poisonous to
> the iguana if he licks it.
I think virtually all newspapers (in the US at least) now use
non-toxic soy based inks.
Phil Hughes
Yvette Ferry
In article <Pine.SOL.L3.93.961112230454.22010A-100000@bingsun1>,
<bf1...@binghamton.edu> wrote:
> The iguana is in my opinion, not
> smart enough to learn this or is it willing to!
I've got a very potty trained iguana. :-) I started early (since
hatchlinghood) putting him the bathtub every morning with just a little
water. He hated every minute of it for about 5 months, although he went to
the bathroom in there anyway. Today (at about 18 months old), he waits to
be put in the tub every morning to do his thing. The only times he has
ever gone to the bathroom anywhere other than the bathtub were the times
when he had to go more than once per day and I was still at work. He then
went to the bathroom on the floor next to the closed door to his room.
It certainly IS possible to potty train an iguana. It's part natural
inclination (many of them prefer going in water); part habit (if you put
them in a bathtub every day at the same time, it becomes a part of their
daily routine); and part training (after a while, they KNOW what they are
expected to do). It just takes a little persistance on our part. :-)
Yvette.
Yvette.
