Outline for lecture (Children 5-12)
Health and Safety:
- Salmonella - Describe, tell who it affects, prevention (washing)
- Sharp nails - warn that they can get scratched
- Biting - Iguanas don't bite unless threatened. Territorial in cage, bite if
hurt
- Tail whipping- some iguanas whip their tails to protect themselves
- Gravid - carrying eggs (don't have to be fertilized)
Handling
- Make animal feel secure - hold belly and legs
- Arms and legs should be on something, not flailing (demonstrate)
Anatomy
- Tongue/Mouth
- Split tongue
- Smell - Jacobson organ in roof of mouth
- Food swallowed whole - tulip shaped part of tongue at back of
mouth helps draw food in
- When too hot, an iguana will stick out its tongue and pant like a dog.
If this happens, get the iguana into a cooler area as soon as possible
- Teeth
- 120 - not really teeth, considered jagged gum
- Shed like skin
- Nose
- Doesn't smell
- Breathes
- Sneezes to get rid of extra salts in the body
- Ears
- Flat
- See through - hold iguana up to the light so they can see in ears
- Excellent hearing
- Eyes
- 3
- Pineal eye on top of head - dark spot with lens and retina - connected straight to the brain, shadows,
heat sensor
- Skin
- Scales that shed when the iguana grows
- Iguana skin cannot stretch
- Bad sheds - explain about tail amputations and toe amputations
- Dewlap
- Down=relaxed
- Up=scared
- Down, mouth open=angry
- Boys versus Girls
- Femoral pores or plugs
- Bulging tympanic scale
- Color-boys prettier
- Body shape - girls flat and wide, boys upright to show power
- Bathroom
- 3 things, poop, urine, urates (white stuff like birds)
- All parts come out the vent - opening that opens and closes like a heater vent
- Heart
- Hind gut ruminant
- Bacteria in the hindgut or cecum breaks down the food like a cow
- Meat cannot be broken down by iguana so it stays in the hindgut and rots. Never feed meat
- Tails
- Used for defense
- Can snap off (never hold an iguana by the tail)
- New growth is black, shiny - scales grow later, smaller
- Claws
- Sharp - for climbing
- If cut they can bleed. Soak in corn starch to stop bleeding
- Nails can be ripped out but will regrow
Diet
- Explain MBD- metabolic bone disease which is caused by poor diet and
lighting
- all vegetable - no meat products because that would cause kidney failure and
premature death
- High calcium to phosphorus ratio(2:1) smelly vegetables - kale collards,
mustard greens, parsnip greens
- Protein - beans
- Color - orange squash, sweet potatoes
- Drink
Caging and Heat
- Large cage - with room to climb
- Two types of lamps
- Ceramic heating element about 90 degrees
- Special fluorescent with vitamin D
- Cool spot for night
- Free roamers - explain
Miscellaneous
- Intelligence
- Swimming - hold breath for ½ hour, blow up and float when tired
- Length measurement
- Measure iguanas two ways - snout to tail and snout to vent because so many of
them lose tails
- Size - 4-6 feet, age 15-30 years, weight up to 20 pounds
|