December 16th, 2000 - Playtime?  Yeah right.  ;)  Maugee hardly tolerates me sitting by her cage at this point.  She's extremely unsocialized, though I wouldn't say she's extremely untame.  I had her quite tame four years ago, and she still looks at us with understanding, though she does not like to be touched.  She's got a lot of potential, thanks to early handling and socialization -- though that was so long ago...
          I have been talking to her as much as possible, eating in the same room with her (to show her that I'm not eating iguanas... I know it sounds silly, but whatever works!), putting my hands in the cage as much as possible without actually touching her (to show that the hands are not always there to touch her), touching her tail (see the sidebar for information on why I'm starting there!), etc.  She sees me putting fresh food and water in her cage every day, and replacing her substrate as soon as it's soiled.  She even sees me making more substrate (taping paper towels to newspaper), and she seems to understand that I'm doing it for her.  She's become quite tolerant of me changing things around in her cage, though touching her is still QUITE the issue.

I made the decision to start with Maugee's tail solely because it's easiest for me right now.  She's in a dog cage which opens from the side, and she spends most of her time on a "hammock" we've made out of a folded beach towel, safety-pinned to the sides of the cage.  No matter what position she's in, it's generally easiest for me to reach her tail, either through the bars on the cage, or by opening the door.  Despite the fact that Maugee always hated having her tail touched (as do most iguanas!), at this point it seems the best place to start for HER.  I cannot say what is best for YOUR iguana, and you will have to use common sense.  Maugee seems to prefer having her tail touched at this point, because she can angle her body in such a way that she can see what I'm doing, and keep her eyes on me at all times.  I am touching just the last 3/4 of her tail, stroking from the uppermost part to the tip -- slowly.  Slowly being the key word here -- fast movements indicate a predator ready to strike, at least in your fearful iguana's mind.  She's in no danger of dropping her tail when I do this (if you don't know what that means, you need to read a book or two... see Maugee's Library for more information), and if I thought she was, I would NEVER do that.  As I said, it's what's best for us right now -- if anybody out there is terribly concerned about it and has a better suggestion, I would of course appreciate your input!  You can e-mail me anytime at misskelley@aol.com.  One more reason that I think it's best for me to start with her tail is that it's the place she hates having touched the MOST.  Therefore, if I can conquer this before I even get close to actually handling her, the worst will be behind us.  Maugee will be used to having her tail touched, so she'll be in no danger of EVER dropping her tail, and the rest of her body should be no problem.  In conclusion I would like to state once more that I DO NOT RECOMMEND TOUCHING YOUR IGUANA'S TAIL, AT LEAST UNTIL IT IS COMPLETELY TAME AND USED TO BEING HANDLED.  This is what works in ONE individual situation.  If you have any questions, e-mail me.