November 6, 2015
I’ve had Angel for nearly 10 months now. The change I’ve seen in her in the last month has been absolutely amazing. Since my trip back from Reno she’s proved to me to be incredibly intelligent. Faced with the time change in the fall solstice a
nd she has taken well to the sunny window and her new winter room.
Since day light saving time changed last week, on Tuesday I created a little cubby in her closet and placed electric blanket inside. I introduced her to the cubby at lunchtime and showed her two times how to climb up the ladder and showed her that this cozy spot was for her.
I showed her how warm it was and how safe and comfy it was. I made it resemble her bedroom in my closet. Honestly, I doubted she would get it right the first day, but when I returned from work, I was awesomely surprised that she had found her way in and she was sleeping soundly just where I want to church now this is just great because what this means is that when I go to work and lever in the room she is good to crawl up and be cuddled in warm by the time I get home.
I don’t use heat a lot in my home son of the window seems to warm the room to a nice toasty 80° and keeps her window area about 100 on sunny days on cloudy days I will rely on basking lamps and of course I always run a 48 inch UVB T5 fluorescent bulb over her head to make sure that the bulb is far enough away from her that it will cause her any harm by far enough away I mean 24 inches being above her which gives her a little bit of space if she gets up on a pillow or she hangs out on one of her logs though she does seem to choose to extend her feet over the edge of the shelf and lay flat most of the time having her go to her cubby on her own every night.
It also means that in the future if I decide to travel and have to have a babysitter come over or mace and iguana sitter come over will be possible to leave her for a day or more without them having to do too much work.
A basic visit in the morning to ensure she’s up and in her window and feeding her; and then a visit in the evening to ensure she is in her cubby to clean up her potty area.
Speaking of potty area she actually knows now to go in a certain area and I put down potty pads for her since I have to close the door and she has no access to the shower. This is a definite issue, which I will have to work out a better solution.
If I allow her to leave the room and go to the shower I don’t know where she will sleep, I see that I need to make a ladder up to her area and my closet as well that’s a little difficult since if I do that I may not be able to view the closing closet. Easily just kind of messy I much prefer to place her in the closet at night is way get to say hello to her in the evening.
Overall she has been a great companion.She is no longer the wild iguana that I read about in my first weeks of having her those days are completely in the past now. She allows me to pick her up easily.
She rides on my shoulder she goes to the store in my purse. She has her fussy days in her fussy moments but I’ve come to understand that as a certain way she likes to be picked up and long as I pick her up correctly and gently she’s also gentle with me so we have an understanding now.
We have respect for each other and there’s actually a bit of camaraderie now. She becomes anxious when people visit the house. In her mind she’s wondering if they have come to take her away. But as time goes on and things happen between us she will come to understand that I am going to keep her.
I continue to reinforce this his in her mind and our whisperering, but really the changes come from real life experiences she will experience.
I am happy that I have an awesome little lizard, she is the star of the show.