He could be pooping on his basking shelf to let you know he is stressed from all the changes in a short amount of time...I once owned a female who would poop paint her basking shelf if she was not happy with something I did....She was unhappy a lot it seems LOL....but the other 2 girls she shared her cage with (not suggested ....) have never ever pooped on the shelf....Good luck...I would definitely make sure whatever he is climbing on is rugged feeling for him....if they are not secure, they wont use the ramp or whatever it is you use....Lyn

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Warmest Regards from Lyn

You should try what mar said first..and if that dosnt work then you can get rid of them lol

Ultimately this will come down to personal preference. Some people like the natural look in a cage and will say go with the logs. I prefer clean lines with materials of strength, light weight, easy to clean, and easy to secure. I see natural looking logs and similar objects as being too heavy, hard to clean, and hard to design and secure.

Right now the grids you use are probably the strongest and easiest type of ramp for you to use, clean, and secure just the ig does not see it well and does not know how to climb it. Adding something to these ramps to make them seem more solid for the ig will be the easiest, cheapest, and smallest change to try.

If you go with logs you want to keep them at least 1.5 times as wide as the body of your ig. Furthermore you need to think about how the ig will turn around to climb back down.

Trees may work for you for a while but will have to be a tree of steel, heavy steel at that, when the ig matures.

A word to cage climbing layout:
I like to allow for the iguana to do circles in the cage. This is not to make the ig turn around on a shelf but have a second ramp for the ig to use and climb off the shelf. You almost end up with two spirals around the cage up to a single basking platform. In my current cage I have a circle at the bottom and a circle at the top with a spiral connecting the two. I can't really tell but it looks like you have much the same thing.

Be happy that the ig is climbing down when he does descend. Many igs will look over the shelf, start to hang off the shelf, then just let go and fall to the floor.

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~ Mark

Greetings Anthony-

I think Merlin is right about the psychology of the iguana. It will do what it wants. For pooping, we generally wait to see what spot the iguana chooses and then SLOWLY modify the set-up to make it easier to clean.

For the top shelf, where it is pooping now, put some newspaper there, over the poop spot. The iguana will either poop on the paper or move to a new location to poop. If it poops on the paper allow it to do this for some time and get it used to the newspaper, then slowly move the newspaper away, a shelf at a time. HOPEFULLY, the iguana will recognize the newspaper as the pooping spot and move to it to poop.

Drastic changes in the cage will confuse this young iguana. Make slight, slow changes as it develops its routine.

I don't actually agree with feeding on the ground level. It is very different than their arboreal instincts dictate. In the wild they foriage in trees and occasionally go to ground level to eat. Of course there are many wild iguanas who are fed on the ground and they do just fine. So yes, some will feed on the floor, but I believe the best spot is one or two levels below the basking shelf. Again, you could place small bowls in several spots each day (except the top shelf) and figure out where it is comfortable eating by seeing which bowl has food eaten out of it. Then, SLOWLY remove the other bowls one at a time over a period of a couple of weeks. Slight, slow changes to minimize stress.

Most of all, I think you need to properly protect the top shelf, maybe with a washable towel or solid surface flooring and tolerate it until the iguana finds an acceptable spot to poop. It's a tough waiting game. Took us a long time to have Rex settle on one spot, and in that spot we placed newspapers so we could more easily clean it up. But before that, he would poop anywhere and on anyone he liked. Right now, at 8 years old and free-roaming for 5 years or so, he is "linoleum" trained, that is he will poop on any linoleum surface he decides is right. Not the best scenario, but at least he doesn't poop on the carpet or the couch or (ewww) the bed anymore. Except when he is upset with us, and then he just might poop on the carpet.

Also, as Mark pointed out, once they get bigger, they utilize more of the cage, so it should find a better spot in time.

Deep, cleansing breaths, hang in there Anthony. Try to see every experience as a learning experience so you don't keep getting frustrated over and over again. In a few years, when things settle down, we will all talk about this stuff and chuckle.

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Regards,
Dominick
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"Do you watch too much television? Did you do so as a toddler? Evidence tonight that it could be the cause of learning disorders, like attention deficit and hyperact-Ooooh, a kitty!" - Keith Olbermann

lol, your a nut replover. My ig does the same thing. i dont think you could ever get an ig that will take full advantage of exactly what we want it to. That would be asking too much of it and what else where igs put here for than to keep us on our toes at all times? They just have to be the center of attention no matter what...and so far it's working for yours

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-Adam

"Help Protect our Planet from Overcollection, Purchase Aquacultured Livestock and Captive Bred Herps"

Thanks for the responses everyone.
Thanks for responding Dominick.

I think there is a misunderstanding here. It's not the cleanup that is bothering me. Dominick. I already have newspapers there where it poops. It is now pooping in the same spot on the basking shelf everyday. The exact same spot. So cleanup is easy.

I am also not asking the ig to use my intended path. I know it can climb in whatever way it wants.

My problem is that it is NOT climbing down anymore, at all. It NEVER leaves the platform. Even on Sundays that I am there all day, he stays on the platform 24/7. He doesn't climb off AT ALL. Just a week or two ago he was climbing all around, pooping on the floor etc. etc. He's just not MOVING anymore except on his platform, and except when I take him off myself. This sudden change in behaviour is what concerns me.

Dominick, like I said, I have last week put the food on the lower platforms and floor etc. for 4 days. He did not eat AT ALL. I would put a certain piece of vegetable at the top at a certain angle so I would know if the food is disturbed, but he did not eat a single bite at all. When I get home from work, I carried it down to the food, and it ate two bites and then went back up to the platform.

Temps are not the problem. In fact, I turned up the temps for two days a little just in case the bottom was too cold. One day, when I came home, the top basking shelf was too hot. Yet, instead of climbing off, it went to the edge and hung out there in the coolest spot on the shelf.

The sudden change in behaviour is what concerns me. It seems something went wrong. The fact that it was pooping in the exact same spot every time on the floor pretty much, then all of a sudden go to pooping on the shelf and never leaving it, concerns me. I am serious. It stays on there ALL DAY.

I can see that turning around could be a problem but that's not it right now. The platform is about 6 - 7 times wider than the ig itself. He can lie down HORIZONTALLY accross it and his tail wouldn't have to be bent all the way from the vent.

Could just be something on the floor of the cage is bothering him. Might have seen a reflection, or something it perceived as dangerous. Really hard to say Anthony. They are creatures of habit and fickle.

All of this will settle out once the ig gets more mature and a bit larger. While they are the original lounge lizards and spend 80% of their time basking, they do eventually move around the cage, if for nothing else than to see if they can escape it.

I really doubt anything is medically wrong, since you take such good care of it. Moreso, I think it just isn't comfortable with something near the bottom of the cage. Perhaps a hide box on one of the intermediate shelves would help it feel more secure in its large cage.

We certainly can't figure out an answer to everything they do, they have minds of their own sometimes.

I would just sit back and relax and continue to monitor behavior. Maybe it will give you a clue one of these days to what it doesn't like about the bottom of the cage.

Hang in there Anthony. We can't solve all their issues for them all the time. ;-)

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Regards,
Dominick
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"Do you watch too much television? Did you do so as a toddler? Evidence tonight that it could be the cause of learning disorders, like attention deficit and hyperact-Ooooh, a kitty!" - Keith Olbermann

Well as long as there isn't anything wrong medically, it isn't urgent. I guess I will just handle him more and put him on the bottom to allow for exercise.
I haven't changed anything on the bottom of the enclosure since the time that he was going there on his own everyday. So while I am not sure I don't think anything is scaring it, unless it is the new patterns on the new newspapers I put in when I clean. He don't seem scared when I put him down there and even poops there when carried down. Maybe it's scared, but if I was to bet money, I would bet that it's just being lazy. You never know. Maybe if later the weather changes he will go around more. If it can go from runnign around to not running around on it's own it can do the reverse also.

One thing though, do you people think that the fact that I have now made the basking shelf higher in humidity makes him poop there? Before, only the floor was wet and humid. But now, I have rearranged the settings so that the entire cage is equally humid. I know that this is better for the igs health, but just wondering if it could have been the cause of the pooping behaviour.

Well all of a sudden it has learned by itself to poop into the water bowl. Still the one of the platform though, so it seems that it is still not climbing down by itself. But at least it is pooping in water by itself the second time of the day. Been doing that two days now.

It poops beside the large water bowl on the floor level after handling and being put on the floor, but never in. I can't even put him in. He seems very scared of being immersed in water. The bowl on the platform is drinking size so it doesn't entirel go in if at all, only put its butt over it. Wonder why its so scared of being completely in water.

Either raised on a farm or captured from the wild, the iguana has no real experience with water, other than you sink-pooping it, not the most comfortable thing for a baby iguana. LOL

Glad to hear it is pooping in the bowl! Now, don't change anything, let it keep pooping there until it becomes habit. Then, maybe, you can start inching the bowl around to a better spot.

Perhaps the bottom bowl IS scary for the iguana. Try another bowl, or another color. White, bottomless pits, like a bathtub, can be frightening to an iguana. So, maybe try something else at the bottom of the cage.

Good luck Anthony.

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Regards,
Dominick
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"Do you watch too much television? Did you do so as a toddler? Evidence tonight that it could be the cause of learning disorders, like attention deficit and hyperact-Ooooh, a kitty!" - Keith Olbermann