Care and Placement of Hatchlings

Care and Placement of Hatchlings


Hatching - When the eggs start to hatch, I panic. One thing to be aware of is they will hatch out over the course of about 10 days. Sometimes you will see a cut in the egg’s shell. At other times, the baby iguana will cut the egg under the vermiculite.

The first one to hatch usually emerges quickly and without an egg sack. Most will cut the egg shell and sleep for a while. Later the baby will poke its head out and it will sleep some more. Finally, days later, it will emerge. Usually they have a small yolk sack on them that disappears in a day or two.

Some eggs will look good but will never hatch. Opening them up usually reveals a beautiful baby iguana that for some reason failed to hatch. Other times the baby is deformed so that it could not cut the egg, or the baby will cut the egg and end up drowning.

Once the baby cuts the egg and starts to emerge, it is important to disturb it as little as possible. The baby will come out when it is ready. If the baby is disturbed too much it will emerge early with a really big yolk still attached. The baby can tear it.

While I’ve had this happen, the baby grew just fine. I’ve heard this can kill the baby, but this has not been my experience.


Care of Hatchlings - Hydration is very important. Typically the first week or so that the babies are out of the shell, I get them something like Nutribac™ and some baby food (green beans and squash are favorites) to lick. Some have better appetites than others and will try to bite the plastic spoon I feed them from.

After that I place them in the tub with about an inch of water in it. I’ll leave them in it for a half an hour or so.

This handling serves a number of purposes.
First, it gets the bacteria in them they need to digest food. Second, it stimulates their appetites. Third, it helps with taming. This is the most important thing.

The baby associates humans with things it enjoys, both food and swimming. I feel that this eliminates a lot of fear of people these guys have. While they are still concerned about being handled, they don’t struggle like they fear for their lives.

Once their egg sacks are completely gone into a cage they go. Also around this time they are fed the same thing as the adults - MK salad and greens (mustard and turnip since they are soft). Of course you have to chop it a lot finer. I use kitchen shears for this.

Also I sprinkle lots of alfalfa on their food. I made these diet changes this year and the babies are doing really well. The previous two years I fed them more baby food and kept them inside longer. This year’s babies are 14-18” long at four months old. They are shedding a lot and eat like pigs. You’d be surprised how much food 20 baby iguanas can eat.


Placement of Hatchlings - Finding homes for baby iguanas is extremely difficult. I’ve found the following things helpful in finding homes. The first is networking. The first year I had babies I placed half of them with friends, neighbors, or co-workers. These are easy to track, as these are people that I see every now and then. The second is posting on the internet. The most common way I ship is something like Delta Dash.

This is a means of testing potential owners. If someone is willing to spend $90 for shipping an iguana, they are likely to take good care of it. Some of the babies went to a rescue that works with disadvantaged children.

I’ve also sold a number of them at Reptile breeder’s expos. All came with Melissa Kaplan’s Guide to Care and Socialization. Some went to a couple of vets.

Finding homes for iguanas is time consuming. Considering that in a single year you can end up with 30 or more babies per female adult iguana, you’ve got to come up with ways of placing them that you can live with. I’ve even thought about getting my breeder’s license so I can sell them through the newspaper.

The key is to find people that you can stay in touch with. Co-workers are great because you see them every day. Unfortunately, there can be so many babies that it is difficult to track them.