gaby huebner-noblitt

Hello All:

I need some advice on what to do, if anything, with our very spoiled but
healthy six-year-old female iguana, Basil. We moved to Wisconsin about a
year a ago and shortly after that built her a what we think is a nice and
roomy, open cage construction that she can leave whenever she wants. I call
it cage "construction" since it's not an enclosed cage but just a kind of
frame. There are plenty of logs in there, UV light, an incandescent 75 W
bulb and a ceramic heat emitter, and artificial plants. It's in a corner
right by a window and the patio door and has sun through the vertical blinds
the entire afternoon.

The problem is that Basil has never liked the cage and quickly acquired the
habit of walking into one of the bedrooms to sleep under the covers. We both
work and don't know for sure who much of the day she actually spends there.
If we close the bedroom doors, she squeezes herself between the sofa
cushions and enjoys sleeping there, so she definitely wants some place to
hide. I'm just afraid she doesn't get enough heat and UV in those places.
Sure, now in the summer the apartment gets pretty warm, and maybe she does
spend the whole morning under the lamp/UV and just "thermoregulates." But
once she is in bed, she stays there until we come home from work and put her
back on her log.

She is a very tame, very friendly animal. I would just hate to enclose her
in some sort of cage that she can't leave. She's never been confined to a
cage and we never had problems.

It can be anything: too much heat, too little heat, logs too high, too low,
or what not. I think, though, she feels unsafe in the cage. We live on the
first floor in a suburban, quiet, and very green neighborhood, but I have
noticed that every time a car drives by, she gets all nervous and attentive.
We used to live on the second floor in an apartment in a much busier area in
Chicago. There she used to spend whole afternoons in the sun on the window
sill behind the screen and would go back to her cage in another room when
the sun was gone.

Any tips? Thanks a lot!

Gaby

Bjoern Migge

Liebe Gaby,
ich muss da passen. Mit Reptilien kenne ich mich nicht aus. Aber ich wollte Dich fragen ob Du und Scott Lust haetten als lit agents (fuer den Beltz-Verlag) mein "Handbuch Coaching und Beratung" (633 S.) auf den US-Markt zu bringen; z.B. bei Sage pub. oder anderen Verlagen. Infos findet Ihr hier: drmigge . de / handbook-counseling.html (ohne Leerzeichen dazwischen).
Ich finde es ein bisschen Aufregend Dich Gaby (eigentlich Euch) auf diesem Umwege wieder zu finden. Ich hatte auch vergessen, dass Scott auch Alan heisst. So taucht er ja meistens bei google auf. Ich hoffe, dass Ihr beide sehr gluecklich miteinander seid.
Ich bin nun auch verheiratet und habe zwei suesse Toechter und bin sehr zufrieden.
Ganz liebe und herzliche Gruesse an Euch und Gottes Segen!
Bjoern aus Hamburg (jetzt Porta Westfalica), Germany