Index
Updated 3/19/03

3/19/03 - Chester has been in a mild breeding season now for the past two months. He even has cagemate, Hemme living with him right now, but he's not interested in her for anything more than her being a pillow to lounge on. His eating has decreased considerable and he leaves the tell-tale semen strands on the shelves in his cage. I expect his eating to pick up any time now and that he'll go back to his normal chow-hound self.
3/18/03 - Measured Chester - He's 18 1/2" svl.; 60 3/4" stl.

Click on Chester to see his photo album.

Chester is a male iguana I took in September 23rd, 2000. It was supposed to be temporary. The story as to why he's with me is a bit hard to follow, but it has to do with his owner having shoulder surgery and a workers comp. lawsuit which she is trying to get settled. She couldn't lift him at the time and couldn't buy a house until she got money from the lawsuit. I used to hear from his "mommy" everyday in the beginning. She was very upset to be away from him. She even came out to visit him in the beginning of November 2000 and brought him a big stuffed animal lizard (which my youngest human kid seems to enjoy more than Chester).I haven't heard from his "mommy" in quite some time and the last time I heard from her was when I called her.

Everyone I know thinks she won't be back for Chester. I don't know what to think. I have started letting myself bond with him because it's not fair for either of us (especially him) to remain distant and not get attached.

If she comes back for him, that's fine because I know how much she adores him and that he'll have a great home with her. If she doesn't come back, I suppose I'll be redoing the room as time and money allows to give the three large non-free roaming males as much room as possible.

Poor Chester looked so gorgeous when he first came to stay with me - such a bright orange coloration! He then went into breeding season (with all those iguanas in the room - why wouldn't he? :-)) and he repeatedly bashed his nose doing backbends hooked on to the top of the cage (hardware cloth). It didn't do wonders for his fingers either! He would just start to heal up nicely and then rub himself up again and reinjure his cute face.
To top it off he also had the mites from Hemme, so now the underside of him is in dire need of a good shed to remove slightly damaged skin. His poop started stinking and was runny, so I took a fecal in to the vet to be checked and it showed Chester had pinworms. Now pinworms are rather common in iguanas, but Chester had a very high number of them. He was treated with Panacur. He seems a bit better now. He has lost weight - mostly in his head (bumps on the top of his head are a bit concave and his cheekbones stick out a bit), which I'm boggled by because right now he's eating better than all my iguanas - even Kiwi and Julep!!! He'll be making another trip back to the vet very soon. I'm thinking maybe he has an enzyme deficiency (Igor had the same symptoms - lost weight, but was eating very well. Igor needed a pinch of "Viocase V" on his food everyday and he gained the weight back shortly after). Or maybe Chester still has internal parasites.

There was a brief period of time where Chester kept trying to latch onto me for "breeding purposes". He was very orange and very ornery. He did get me once and I still have a scar on my forearm, but he didn't bite hard or stay attached. When he would get very amorous when I was trying to clean his cage I would throw a green towel by him and he would often latch onto that - two times even mating with the towel! Once he mated with the towel, he'd be content for the rest of the evening.

One time he missed me and got his tail. He stayed latched onto his tail for several minutes. I took pictures of that because it was just too funny. It reminded me of a dog chasing his tail and actually catching it!

I had removed Chester from his cage the one night while cleaning - scrubbed him down well in the tub (with a weak tea solution of Betadine) and let him free roam the room while I cleaned cages (since the others were already asleep - I wouldn't have to worry about Igor and then CDR (who was also loose at this time) getting into a fight). I bleached Chester's cage out and a bunch of other cages. I wanted his cage to air out a bit more and since he found a nice place to nap, I decided to just get him back in his cage before I went to bed. Well - I FORGOT!!! And the next morning it dawned on me that I left Chester out all night - I ran into the lizard room to find Chester and CDR in the middle of a fight and Igor very banged up too. I'm almost sure Igor just kept jumping in the middle of the two already fighting (he's smaller and usually the one starting a fight or they won't even bother with him). CDR's back was a bit roughed up, but no real damage. Chester had one very deep cut on his lower lip - which is now healing up well. Igor was very banged up and is starting to look like himself again. I took pictures of the injuries for reference (to see how they were healing and such) and cleaned them all up - each getting a Betadine/water soak and Neosporin ointment on the wounds.

Chester's face is healing well - he's calm again - no more backbending to hurt his fingers or face, and all the scabs are shedding. His orange is now a dull green coloration and he's not filling out in his face yet, but his body and limbs look a bit fuller. He's eating VERY well (several plates of greens and veggies everyday). He's very alert and friendly again.

4/22/02 - Chester's face has been back to normal for several months now (filled out, and healed too), but he's in breeding season again and I'm sure he'll be thinning down again. I'm hoping he doesn't lose as much weight as last year - This year he's still eating, just not as much as a couple of months ago. He's got an infection in his dewlap, most likely from some nips from Hemme - they're caged together and actually getting along pretty well. She just hates when he headbobs, which is the only time I've ever caught her nipping at him. I'm hoping to build them a bigger cage very soon.