LEAPIN’ LIZARDS! : Spiny Iguana Makes a Cool (Blooded) Pet

You love dinosaurs. But having seen “Jurassic Park,” you know that owning the real thing means running the risk that it’s going to paralyze you with its saliva, then eat you.

A viable alternative: Own an iguana. They’re smaller than dinosaurs, they’re vegetarians, and they generally like you better than they do each other. If you want to find out if you like them, go meet Kiwana, a 5 1/2-foot iguana with free run of Ben’s Plants and Pets in Costa Mesa.

“Kiwana’s loose at all times,” store owner Ben Wright said. “She’s a real sun-worshiper, so during the day she lies out in front of the store on a row of raised bricks. Nobody has to watch her; she’s not on a leash. At night she’s on top of a cockatoo cage, but never inside of a cage.”

The iguana sold in pet stores is found from Mexico to Brazil and can range from green to gray in color. It has a large dewlap and a crest of scales down the back and tail. Wright likened the iguana’s personality to that of a more common house pet, and cited his breeding pair, Cisco and Lizard Girl, as examples.

“They’re very dog-like in personality, very personable,” Wright noted. “They come up for affection; they like to be close, and they’re very calm. Iguanas can also be housebroken. I had two that used to scratch at the door, go outside to go to the bathroom and scratch to get back in. I fed them in a dog dish.”

To iguana owners’ delight, they’re even more long-lived than dogs.

“When I was small, and it was small, I gave one to a friend,” Wright recalled. “Now it’s pushing six feet, and he’s had it for almost 27 years!” Iguanas can live for 30 years, but six feet indeed seems to be the limit; they grow an inch a month, or about a foot a year.

It’s unusual that Cisco and Lizard Girl get along so well, and Ben recommends owning one lizard rather than two. His large male, Bubba, exhibits more common behavior, immediately becoming aggressive when let out with Kiwana.

With good adult supervision, a 6- or 7-year-old can make a good iguana owner, according to Wright, and there is no upper age limit: “The senior citizens who come in the store get quite a kick out of them.”

Cost for the reptiles can be very reasonable; at Ben’s, and at Prehistoric Pets in nearby Fountain Valley, they start at $19.99, although they can reach up to more than $1,000 for larger ones.

Unlike Kiwana, younger iguanas require a cage. Proper lighting, heat and humidity are essential to iguana health, and a common problem is that the little ones get away. Pets should be kept in a terrarium until they’re at least two feet long. Wright carries a variety of tanks from 10 to 60 gallons as well as several types of lighting facilities, and, of course, “The Green Iguana Manual.”

Health considerations for owners are also important; commenting on recent reports that contact with iguanas as well as snakes, frogs, turtles and other reptiles can cause salmonella, Wright said: “That’s basic hygiene. You need to wash your hands after handling any reptile.”

The initial investment, from $150 to $200, can be considerable, but upkeep thereafter is minimal.

Wright offers a frozen fruit and vegetable diet chock-full of iguana vitamins at $6.99 for eight ounces, which can last a baby iguana over a month. “The leafy green stuff is not enough,” he said. “The professional formulations are better.” Owners can supplement with cantaloupe, bananas, yellow squash and broccoli; iguanas can also eat flowers.

Accessories allow even young iguanas to get out of their cages some of the time. “We sell harnesses so you can take them out for a walk,” Wright said. “People used to walk in with birds on their shoulders. Now they walk in with iguanas.”