I've never had problems with her egg-binding, and after one breeding season where she laid eggs all over our apartment, she's since reabsorbed them every season and doesn't even slow down on her eating.  I don't think she even develops eggs anymore, and if she does, it doesn't affect her ability to pack away the food (like she absorbs them before they get large and suck up space inside her) She's our biggest iguana measuring 17"svl, and weighing around 14 lbs.    

She's very nice, but isn't crazy about being touched (She will smack her hand/arm back when she's touched).  I think it tickles her very fine scaled skin.  When she's irritated with me, she poops on her shelf.  

When she was younger she had this fear of patterns on some of my clothing.  Every once in awhile I would find myself in the lizard room wondering why she was spazzing out, and look down to see those shorts or a top she was a afraid of- oops! She no longer goes into a panic, bashing into the walls of her cage.  She just extends her dewlap to intimidate the clothes into leaving.  I change clothes and everything is fine again. 

My father-in-law named her after the mathematician, Mandelbrot.   

 

12/3/98-  I was making a video for NIAD and the Iguana Video Resource Library.  I thought that showing Mandelbrot's reaction to some things would make for an interesting and educational tape.  I showed her a photo of one of our deceased males, Hoot.  She puffed up and headbobbed.  That was neat because she recognized an iguana in a photo.  I then showed her that pair of shorts she used to freak out over.  I figured she would have puffed up at them and headbobbed and that would have been the end of it because that was how she had acted since she got bigger.  I was very wrong.  She sucked her dewlap in and flattened out, then went into panic mode!  She dove off her shelf and onto the floor of the room where she did some jerky motions, like an iguana who doesn't know quite where they want to flee next.  After that she took off running and smashed right into Slava's (my Cuban knight anole's) glass cage door, breaking it.  Neither Mandelbrot nor Slava were injured.  Had I known the shorts would have made Mandelbrot react like that, I never would have shown them to her.  I really thought she would just puff up a bit to intimidate them.  I was wrong.   Less than 24 hours later, Slava had another scare.  He no longer had one of the doors to his cage, which for him isn't a problem.  He had been free roaming for well over a year and the cage was set up for him mostly as a place to keep warm, get UV, water, and eat.  Well, Oobleck is now free roaming for the time being.  She seemed to have climbed down from her basking spot, and I'm assuming felt a little cool and saw Slava's cage as an oportunity to bask somewhere else.  I went in to check on all the lizards later that day and found... Oobleck sitting in Slava's cage under the basking light with Slava a darker color than normal, hiding in the back of the cage.  Poor Slava!
Click here to see the fabic of the shorts that set her off. Click here to see the other pattern that
used to scare her but no longer does.

4/14/99-After I get the kids to bed I like to go into the lizard room to clean cages.  I let Mandelbrot out to clean her cage and Igor was all over her.  He's pretty much half her size and only has one eye, so he wasn't really getting anywhere trying to mount her.  I hurried up and cleaned her cage and got her back in it, but she was able to get one nip in on Igor's arm before that.  She didn't hurt him.  She just wanted him to leave her alone.  I moved on to another cage and was cleaning it when Igor came out of nowhere and nailed my forearm.  He was looking to mate and not hurt me otherwise the bite would have been bad.  An arm for an arm, I guess 8-).  Poor Igor can't find a female that will let him mate with her.  The only one that is his size is Oobleck, and with her history, I don't think it's a good idea.  He's never shown any interest in her in the slightest.  He likes the females that are bigger than him; Hobbes and Mandelbrot.  Mandelbrot and Oobleck are the only ones I would let out while Igor's out, and now Mandelbrot's been added to the list of igs I won't let out when he's out.

1/7/00- I must have been off last time I measured her or she shrunk because I measured her on 12/30/99 and she was 16 1/4" svl. She looks much bigger than that though and has really been packing the food away lately.

2/3/00- I was just upstairs cleaning up poop in the cages. I opened Mandelbrot's cage and she took off into the room before I could catch her. She attacked Igor who immediately went after her (it's his season after all). I grabbed Igor and set him on the shelf in her cage while I went to get watered down Betadine and Bactoderm for his injuries (thank goodness they're superficial). Mandelbrot got up and postured at Hobbes, who was in her cage, just any of the males would- up high on all fours, tail whipping! Hobbes reciprocated with the same posturing from inside her cage and they threatened each other through the glass. Mandelbrot finally tired of it and walked away. I had finished cleaning Igor by now and set him back in the room away from Mandelbrot, who was already heading into her cage and up her rope to her shelf. She doesn't like to be out of her cage for very long which is odd considering her cage isn't as large as I feel it should be. I guess she feels it's home and where her pillow is. This has been enough excitement for more than one day!