Christmas with Angel has been amazing. This is her Second Holiday in Reno and she is well adjusted and actually loving her window view now. She loves the 24 hour attention, since I on my work days, I work in the room with her on my computer.
She still refuses to eat much, which seems to be a regular trait when traveling here. It is also winter and come fall their eating decreases to nearly nothing.
She has been spayed and this is her first year without laying eggs. I feel that my decision was right and I am happy to report her behavior seems to be the same.
I see an increasing enjoyment of cuddling and petting, which was non-existent just 6 months ago. She is starting to want a pre-bedtime pet of a few minutes, in fact, she seems to be fussy and restless if I don’t indulge her and pay her attention before she seeks shelter in her upper cubby on the bunk bed.
Her average day begins with a gentle wake up. I notice her peeking her head out about 9am and she enjoys to lay in the warmth of her electric blanket for 30 minutes, before I gently remove her. I take my time and speak softly to her as I give her my hand and encourage her to climb out. Many times she refuses and snuggles back in., I oblige her sometimes if I am not in a hurry to get her up.
She has always had a tendency to sleep 14-16 hours a day. I don’t know why, but I just let her. I let her have her way and live life the way she wants, with the only exception being her diet.
I do spoil her with some non-native foods, such as bread, but in small amounts. Her bread is a training tool for me, a reward that she responds to.
At noon, it is potty time and she is brought down and allowed to walk back to the bedroom and in to the shower. Sometimes she makes her way in by herself, but most of the time she needs guidance. Due to her lack of enthusiastic eating, her poo is small and hard. I give her acidophilus, a 1/8 of a pill and open her mouth and make her take a bite of greens with a mixture of that and some Repti-cal vitamin and calcium powder.
At about 2 pm it is time to roam the house and I encourage a walk downstairs and to the living room. She usually looks around and eventually finds a hiding place under the couch. The days are short and the weather is cloudy and dark and it natural for an iguana to want to take cover.
I will bring her back to her window, let her bask and rest.
After the solstice I noticed she began to want to stay up later. Almost immediately, she began to stay up until dark, it must be an inborn instinct of knowing the days are getting longer. I don’t know how but it seems to be something internal.
She climbs down and at this time I take the opportunity to hold her and cuddle her. I stay in a bunk bed and the ladder to her upper bunk is positioned nearby. Sometimes she rests with me for 5 minutes, sometimes 20, but when she has had enough, she beelines up the ladder and cuddles in behind her cubby. She doesn’t go in the cubby, she feels safer on the other side of it.
Feeling safe and secure in really important to her. When I think of how she had no privacy in the shelter years ago, I realize how scared she must have been, thinking of the night janitors and how they would turn the lights on and all. This little girl has come along way!