I bought George on August 12, 1994 from a couple on the south side of Orlando. She cost $40. She was living in a 20 gallon aquarium. The couple also had a baby goat sitting on chair in the living room of their trailer.
Here is a picture of the newspaper ad that introduced me to George
Patty ( my sister) came with me after work to pick up George. George squirmed a lot and Patty got all scratched up. Of course I bought George before I had a cage set up. So off to PetsMart we went. I bought a small rabbit type cage figuring she would be okay in it. This was a very poor choice for cages. While her head wouldn't fit through one way, it fit fine the other. I came home from work to what I thought was an iguana that hung itself, by putting its head through sideways. This feat caused her to get infection in the top of her head. Dr. Caspermeyer gave her a fairly new antibiotic called Baytril. The next 2 days, I kept George in the bathroom. Came home from work on the second day and she vanished. She found a hole under the cabinet and up she went. Too big to get out, surgery on the wall was necessary. While this was happening, I was constructing a cage for her. Now I had some drywall repair to do also.
George was a beautiful green iguana that was about 2' long. Her tail was broken a while before and grew back some. Here is an early picture of George taken in front of my house in 1994.
For several years I had a group of people come to my house to collate and prep a newsletter for a local singles group called Outdoors & Active. After we finished snacking and preparing the newsletter, I asked how everyone liked my Christmas tree. I pulled George and Mojo out of the tree and showed them my live Christmas ornaments. Here is George snoozing away in the tree.
My first winter with George and Mojo resulting in lots of iguana mating. Of course I had not heard of iguanas successfully reproducing, so I posted my first message to the IML. Found out that yes iguanas did successfully reproduce in captivity. I made a nest box using a rubbermaid Roughneck container filled with dry potting soil. Her pregnancy went normally including not eating, drinking a lot, and hyperactivity.
George's record of egg laying.
| Date Laid | Number Laid | Number Hatched | Date Hatched |
| 2/21/95 | 30 | 0 | NA |
| 2/7/96 | 38 | 0 | NA |
| 1/25/1997 | 42 | 0 | NA |
| 1/10/1998 | 47 | 0 | NA |
| 1/1/1999 | 44 | 2 | 3/30/1999 |
| 1/5/2000* | 34 | 0 | NA |
*George was spayed due to problems with egg laying. Came through surgery just fine and is now a 9 lb iguana that eats like there is no tomorrow.
In November, 1999 I noticed a very troubling sign in George's front toes. They had become frozen for the most part. They had always been fat just like her feet, but they lost mobility. A sign of renal failure and uric acid deposits. On 11/8/99, I took her to the vet and had a bunch of blood work run. I hope for the best and fear the worst. The blood work came back okay. The most likely cause was due to the strain of being gravid on her system.
In March of 1999 I was asked to be on Ask the Vet on TV. I brought George and Mojo. Of course I brought a baby with me also. They were both very well behaved iguanas. Mojo in typical iguana fashion headed up an artificial tree. They had to get a ladder to get him down.
Over the next few years George retained her alpha status. She was still Mojo's favorite when it came to mating. Often they slept side by side. On one occasion I found Mojo with his front paw on top of George. George would always run to me from the perch in the cage to me. Catching her as she got heavier was at times tricky.
This is not for everyone...read at your own risk...somewhat graphic
On December 26, 2001 I came home from work to greet my iguanas. I went to the baby cage and opened it to move the food plate. One of the babies came flying out and ran into the kitchen. I followed it and startled George as she was just starting to jump from one jungle gym to the other. She missed and hit the floor, a five foot fall. She lay there with her tail twitching. No other movement. I called the vet who answered the phone after hours. Told them what happened.
I raced to the vet and should have gotten a number of speeding tickets. By the time I got her there she was moving a little more, but still no movement in her front legs. The vet checked her for fractures and could feel none. She was given a short of cortizone and we headed home
I need to finish this later...
