From: bjz@sei.cmu.edu (Barbara Zayas)
Subject: Re: How long do you leave food / water out?
Organization: Software Eng. Inst.;Carnegie-Mellon U.; Pittsburgh, PA 15213   _USA_
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 15:30:06 GMT


In article <1dual0INNfnk@bigboote.WPI.EDU>, boisvert@wpi.WPI.EDU (Brian Richard Boisvert) writes:
|> In article <1992Nov12.153615.474@sei.cmu.edu> bjz@sei.cmu.edu (Barbara Zayas) writes:
|> >
|> >About water:
|> >water from an adequate diet.  This book recommends making
|> >water available just 2-3 times a week.  (The reasoning for
|> >this is that the water might easily get contaminated with
|> >waste, should the waste drop into the water bowl.)
|> >
|> >   Question: What is the popular practice or 
|> >   frequency for providing water?
|> 
|> Fresh water should always be available for your ig - both for drinking and
|> bathing.  If it happens to mess in the bowl, simply clean it and replace with
|> fresh water as soon as you notice.  Also, it sounds like you may have gotten
|> some of your info. from "A step-by-step book about iguanas" by Jack C. Harris.
|> If you did, then I suggest you take it all with a grain of salt.  It is, in
|> general, a poor quality book filled with bad advice.

I snarfed this info from "The General Care and Maintenance of
the Green Iguana" by Philippe de Vosjoli:

Page 16-17:

"
	Healthy iguanas can probably meet all of their water
requirements from the food they ingest, depending on the
foods and their water content.  Unfortunately, most imported
iguanas are initially dehydrated and thus clean water in a
large shallow dish should be offered daily during the first
three to four months of acclimation.

	Ideally the water should be placed in the enclosure
for a few hours daily and then removed.  The container should
be cleaned and disinfected daily.  [...]  As the animal(s)
become older, water can be offered only once or twice a week.
The author does not favor continuous water availability
because, if iguanas excrete in the water or the water becomes
foul with the high temperatures in the vivarium, this can
lead to rapid growth of bacteria and fungi.  Foul water can
also easily become a vector for the spread of disease.  The
author has seen several total wipe-outs of long established
colonies and of groups of imports as a result of disease
spread by infected water.
"

I don't know how long it takes for bacteria to form once
excrement drops into the water.  I change ig's water at least
once a day but if he drops into the water at 9am and I don't
see him until 9pm, I don't know if that's sufficient time for
bacteria to form and do any type of damage.

Ig likes to be misted often.  I do it 2-3 times a day
providing that his home will be well heated for a good period
following the rainfall.  He seems to really enjoy this -- he
runs over to the mist when he sees it and sometimes, holds
his head up really high and then licks the spray from the
air.  It's neat.

|> By the way, how did your ig get its name (Licorice)?

My 6-year old thought it funny that the ig licked a lot.  At
first, ig licked only my son's hands so my son named him
"Licorice."  Contrary to Jeff's opinion that ig was struck by
love for him (Jeff) at first sight, I suspect/ed that ig was
interested in Jeff's hands because of the concentrated
amounts of banana and orange bits that remained there.  :-)


Barbara Zayas				Software Engineering Institute
Information Management			Carnegie Mellon University
bjz@sei.cmu.edu				(412) 268-6378
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