Oh man... At least I got the diet and habitat and everything else right.
Taming is tough. Especially for someone like me with a temper.

Today was a particularly cold day, and also happened to be rep-cal, calcium, vitamin and probiotic day, and I took an hour to make the food. I put the food inside the cage on one end of the basking platform, took the ig for a tour of the house as usual. Saw down with him and let him rest on my arm all fine. It took weeks to get to this point. Usually, everyday, I will then walk back to the cage, let him down, and he would sometimes climb down to the floor, poop, then climb straight back up to his basking platform on one end, where the food is, and chow down. Or he would just go up and eat without pooping someitmes and poop a few hours later. It's up to him.

Today, he went straight UP to the platform, took one bite. I left the room and when I came back, he was on the far end. I took a look at the plate and he had POOPED ALL OVER HIS FOOD!
I lost my temper and I picked it up roughly, put him in front of the dish and pointed at it and yelled "BAD IGUANA!!! YOU DON'T POOP IN YOUR FOOD!!!!" a few times. He stayed pretty still as if he didn't know what the heck I was on about. Then took the dish away and made another salad. When I came back, as soon as I entered the cage, he started running around scared. At that moment I was like "uh oh...."

Did I just waste all my previous efforts? Or will it still remember somewhat and forgive me and become calm faster this time around?

Having said that, ok, I shouldn't yell at my ig, but how can I show it that what it did was bad??

I don't know why he did that today. He usually poops in either one of two spots on the floor, same two places every day for the past 3 weeks.
Perhaps it was a little cold today and it didn't want to leave the platform lights? I did turn up the heat in the room, even though it was still it may have been slightly colder. The thermometers didn't show much difference. Also, the humidifier was spraying higher than usual today. Can it be he likes to poop in humid places and today his basking platform was humid? What shoudl I do, make sure his basking platform is NOT humid? That's bad for shedding.

Arghhhh. I need an ig that speaks english or cantonese.

I know I shouldn't yell at it. I'm a pretty intimidating figure even to HUMANS and people are scared of me at first. Now this thing weight like 1/200th of my weight I know I shouldn't have.

But if I tell it nicely it doens't know a word I say so how can I teach it not to poop in his food?

Replover,
I have been in the same place as you!
I have lost my temper with Iggie before but not had her run from me, could be he got spooked by you voice Im sure that others will have more helpful tips for you than I do.
I can say that Iggie has pretty much done the same thing infact she has even gone one step further than your Ig.
Like she was roaming on my bed right next to my daughter and myself , crawling under the blankets, peeking out, then bam! she pooped right there! right next to me! down the bed, onto the floor! another time It was pretty late about 3am, Iggie was asleep on my chest/stomach when I went to move over in the bed my foot felt something COLD WET & STICKY, yep you guessed it she had pooped in my bed under the sheets! mad? oh ya!
I finally figured out that she wanted to be in her own bed not with me Im sure she didnt sleep any better with me than I did!
I do know that any changes around them can set them off, even moving the furniture in the room Iggie doesnt like that either she will poop on what ever I have moved in the room so Im very careful if I do any furniture moving in our room.
Good luck, keep trying, and most of all dont give up, it will get better
I say that as my girl has been driving me NUTS for the past 2weeks!

__________________
Natalie & Iggie LaLa
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0.1.0 Green Iguana ~ Iggie
0.1.0 Chow Dog ~ Kieko
1.0.0 Chow/Malamute Dog ~ Chubbers
0.1.0 Six toed Cat ~ Barbie,(decendent of Ernest Hemmingways cat)

Pic's of Iggie

Awww Replover, I sincerely feel for you It is difficult to understand why ig's do what they do sometimes. Maybe your ig was protesting about being put back in before he wanted to, maybe he didn't like his vitamins - there are 1001 reasons for various behaviours but the main point is you have realised that your shouting (and we've ALL done it) at your ig was maybe not such a good thing. Your voice is very important to your ig and he will quickly learn to recognise your nice voice, your little bit naughty voice and your really annoyed voice - it is not nice taking an hour to do his food for him to poop in it.

If you want me to be totally honest though and please don't take offense at this, I think you are trying sooooo hard to do everything right that you are not taking the time to learn his various behaviours and stuff. We learn from our mistakes and I know that you don't want to make mistakes with him but as far as his basic husbandry need go - you're doing great. Now that you know he is well cared for in every way - take some time out. Observe his different moods and behaviours and let him observe yours. Talk to him and spend as much time as possible with him. Having an ig, IMO, is like having a baby. There is only so much a book can tell you and experience is the best way forward. Please, I am not meaning to sound out of order to you but ditch your books and stuff for a while and enjoy the little silly things he does without trying to find reasons for them all - sometimes an ig does stuff 'just because' Good luck

That's good advice there, Britton.
I agree, don't worry so much, Love, you're going to drive yourself nuts. They are kinda like having a human baby. They can't tell you what's wrong, where it hurts, what they want, why they do what they do, etc. And you will never find a reason for everything. Take some time just to develop the bond with him, he's young, he'll make mistakes like all kids do and it will take time for him to learn. Just be patient. And don't expect yourself to be perfect in dealing with him. You learn as you go along too.
As far as the temper thing goes, I know it's hard, but try not to let it get to you when things are out of your control. No human or animal is perfect. When I was having babies, I learned a lot about patience and now that my 3 kids are all teens, I have even more. It comes with time, age and experience. It'll get better for you as you go along, don't worry. Just think of him as a baby that needs constant and unconditional love and has no control over himself yet. And don't expect too much too soon, that's a great way to disapoint yourself.
Like Britton said, just let loose and have some fun developing that bond, don't sweat the little things. He's happy, healthy and loved.

Anthony, slow down! You are expecting way too much, too fast. You are still in the very early stages of getting you and the iguana to trust each other. This takes TIME! And you are expecting the iguana to think like a human. THAT isn't going to happen. You have to learn to deal with them on their level. Young, nervous, iguanas are frequently stimulted to poop by the stress of handling. It had nothing to do with the food, and in fact if you had held it a bit longer it probably would have pooped on YOU. Trust me I've been there!! Putting the iguana next to where it pooped after the fact and screaming at it does not accomplished anything other than to scare the daylights out of it!. It has no idea what you are doing. You have to catch it in the act.

First thing you need to do is control your temper, or you will never get anywhere with it. You will end up with an iguana that is terrified of you and trust me a frightened large iguana is a dangerously unpredictable iguana. Talking in a low gruff tone is better than the screaming.

Let me show you, from your description, the picture I got from an iguana's point of view.

Here I was in my house minding my own business when that big "thing" came back into view again!. It grabbed me and carried me around for a bit. I don't know whether this thing is going to eat me or what it's going to do to me!! And boy is it BIG! It pestered me for a while and then put me back in my home and left.

I just couldn't wait any longer and had to "go".

All of a sudden the thing came back in sight. It started snarling and growling loudly and charged at me, I thought I was dead for sure! It grabbed me and shook me till my eyes rattled! I just knew it was going to kill me! Then it flung me next to a plate and howled and growled at me some more! I didn't know what this thing was going to do to me but I'm scared! It finally let me go and went away, only to come back a few minutes later.

NOW what is it going to do to me. I have to get away! RUN!!!!

I realize that it is trying your patience. They all do it. You just have to relax a bit and let things happen as they will.
You cannot scare your iguana into behaving as you would like.

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Thanks Brittone, Kira and Merlin. I need to relax. Sorry for sounding agitated and thanks for pointing it out. I was starting to lose it. LOL!

Ok I had my computer down yesterday so I didn't post but I noticed that he has again pooped in his food yesterday. He seems to have chosen this as a new pooping place. I think perhaps the reason is that since the amount of food is still small and doesn't fit the whole plate, that part of the plate is exposed water, and iguanas like to poop in water. Obviously this is a problem.

I replaced the plate with a smaller one today, and placed the large plate with water on the floor, hoping he'd go down to poop in it this time. However, he didn't poop at all today and his stomach is really big. I don't think it is change related stress because he is well familiar with the smaller plate. It is actually a pretty looking small wood stump that is hollowed out and sealed (I didn't make it, it is sold like this) that I had used for his afternoon feedings as he eats more in the morning and I feed it once more when I get home from work with the smaller plate. He ate from it readily with no problems.

I am a little concerned but I will wait a day or two to see if he's pooping again. There was and is absolutely NOTHING in the cage that can possibly lead to impaction I have taken due care of that. I did notice one strange thing today that I haven't seen before. I entered the room at one point, and he had his mouth open, with a large chunk of veggies held in his mouth. He was motionless and didn't move and he was dribbling a little bit. When he saw me open the cage door, he deliberately dropped the chunk of veggies on the floor. Usually, when he has food in his mouth, he keeps swallowing until it is down. I may add that today was really cold here, and despite the fact that I kept all the basking bulbs on, and IN ADDITION turned on all the night time heating on during the day, that it was still a few degrees below normally both in the basking area and the cool end.

In the mean time, if you people have any suggestions please let me know.

Hello Guys!! Ive had my iguana go on thier food before and I was told that the reasoning may have been because they didnt like thier food and that was thier way of telling me. Hasnt happened since then "knock on wood"! Maybe your guy doesnt like his food. Youre not the only one out there thats happened too! Hang in there!!!

Anthony if the food is large enough that the iguana has to work at swallowing it you need to chop it up smaller. If the food is too large the iguana can choke on it. A grater or food processor is an iguana keepers buddy! Just because they don't go every day doesn't meant it is impacted. Mine has held it for up to 3 days, just because I was away and broke her routine. As soon as I took her out and put her in the tub she let go and beleive me there was a lot of it! The pooping in the food bowl could mean that it is annoyed about something. They do find ways of getting even with us.
Even if we don't know what we did to cause it!

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!