We recently acquired the rhinocerous iguana shown below. I'm holding him to show how he looks. His previous owner fell ill, and was hospitalized. Due to the owner's health problems, the remainder of his collection was sold/given away. The iguana was kept with the thought that perhaps if he got better, he would have something to "come home to." Something to boost his spirits. Alas he passed away, and the iguana was forgotten about. Fast forward a few months, and the family realized this animal was more than they could properly care for. As many of you know, rhino iguanas are not known for their wonderful temperments.
So we got a call and were apprised of the situation, and would we take the animal. Of course we said yes, as we already have two rhino iguanas. We did not realize what shape this animal was in. After bringing him home, we questioned our sanity, and our resources. This of course meant yet another cage to be built, with the hope that this animal will survive long enough to enjoy it.
With that in mind, we wondered if we should even try to rehab him, or just have him euthanized. Which is preferable? How does the animal feel? Is he in pain? How's his attitude? That alone made a big difference on what we planned to do, as he was feisty. If he were lethargic, we may not have bothered with him.
So how does one go about rehabbing? Our plan, so far, has been to keep him warm, and hydrated, and feed him every single day. We are feeding him only vegetables, and some fruit. We feed our other iguanas veggies, and some dog food, but he's too thin to try to pack on the pounds in a hurry. We feel he needs to get his digestive system operating properly again, and give us some good looking stools.
The picture is him after a month in our care, so you can tell, he was almost more than emaciated. He's actually gained weight in this picture. Look at the folds of skin in his tail and rib cage. With horses there is a scale called the Henneke scale, 1 being the thinnest (1=Poor:Emaciated. Prominent spinous processes, ribs, tailhead and hooks and pins. Noticeable bone structure on withers, shoulders and neck. No fatty tissues can be palpated), 9 being almost too fat. This poor guy was a 1 or perhaps even a negative 1.
With any luck he'll start to really fill out, and we can call it a success. Since starvation can hide other problems, and/or cause other problems, we'll probably consider him "out of the woods" a year from now. These things cannot be rushed. As much as we want him to be fat practically overnight, he didn't get skinny overnight, so it will take time to refit this very desirable animal.
If this all works out, we'll post pictures of the fully recovered animal. His attitude, at this point, is "better" (read that to mean even more feisty) than when we originally retrieved him.
So we got a call and were apprised of the situation, and would we take the animal. Of course we said yes, as we already have two rhino iguanas. We did not realize what shape this animal was in. After bringing him home, we questioned our sanity, and our resources. This of course meant yet another cage to be built, with the hope that this animal will survive long enough to enjoy it.
With that in mind, we wondered if we should even try to rehab him, or just have him euthanized. Which is preferable? How does the animal feel? Is he in pain? How's his attitude? That alone made a big difference on what we planned to do, as he was feisty. If he were lethargic, we may not have bothered with him.
So how does one go about rehabbing? Our plan, so far, has been to keep him warm, and hydrated, and feed him every single day. We are feeding him only vegetables, and some fruit. We feed our other iguanas veggies, and some dog food, but he's too thin to try to pack on the pounds in a hurry. We feel he needs to get his digestive system operating properly again, and give us some good looking stools.
The picture is him after a month in our care, so you can tell, he was almost more than emaciated. He's actually gained weight in this picture. Look at the folds of skin in his tail and rib cage. With horses there is a scale called the Henneke scale, 1 being the thinnest (1=Poor:Emaciated. Prominent spinous processes, ribs, tailhead and hooks and pins. Noticeable bone structure on withers, shoulders and neck. No fatty tissues can be palpated), 9 being almost too fat. This poor guy was a 1 or perhaps even a negative 1.
With any luck he'll start to really fill out, and we can call it a success. Since starvation can hide other problems, and/or cause other problems, we'll probably consider him "out of the woods" a year from now. These things cannot be rushed. As much as we want him to be fat practically overnight, he didn't get skinny overnight, so it will take time to refit this very desirable animal.
If this all works out, we'll post pictures of the fully recovered animal. His attitude, at this point, is "better" (read that to mean even more feisty) than when we originally retrieved him.
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