how do you train your iguana?

Normal.

It can take up to a year, or even longer for some iguanas to trust there slave/owner.

Keep interacting w/ your iguana daily.

After bath time, to me was a great bonding time. Give head rubs (be careful of the 3rd eye), chin rubs, body rubs. Try to offer a piece of canalope see if he/she will take it from your fingers, if he/she doesnt the first time, not a big deal, keep trying one day he/she may ... is a sign that the ig kinda trusts you.

Please remember that it is best not to hand feed an iguana. Because when your iguana is oh say 3yrs old, are you going to want to stand all day and feed your iguana cups of food? Igs should learn to eat on there own from a plate or dish.

Sites for you to read:

http://www.greenigsociety.org/ - http://www.iguanaden.org/ - http://www.anapsid.org/iguana/index.html

A great book to read and have on hand:

Iguanas for Dummies by Melissa Kaplan

Yahoo has some great sites for Iguana owners... these groups helped me and still help w/ questions .. if you'd like to join:

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/BabyIguana/ - http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/IguanaDen/

First off, where did you get a 5 month old iguana from? Most pet stores have a guideline that they follow that iguanas must be at LEAST 6 months old.

There are many reasons why an iguana could be tense. It could be stressed out from improper diet, lighting, caging, or you didn't give it enough time to acclimate.

What diet do you have it on? What size cage is it in? Do you have UVB lights for it's cage? What are the temperatures of it's... basking spot, warm side, cool side?

A young iguana needs an enclosure 4' tall by 4' long by 3' wide with a basking spot of 93-95F, a warm side of around 88-90F, and a cool side of about 83-85F.

Diet should be a mixture of collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, escarole, parsnip, green beans, snow peas, kale, yellow squash, butternut squash, and dandelion greens. Fruits should be added into the salad twice to three times a week including strawberries, peaches, pears, peaches, mangos, ect.

Iguanas should have a 10.0 UVB light at most a foot away from their basking spot or should be taken outside for half an hour daily. This helps their metabolism and bone growth.

Those are just a few things I can think of off of my head.

JoAnne

Your lizard is tease becuase it is healthy!!! Every lizard besides a select few should be flighty clear up to about a year old. That is normal. If you was able to reach in and it did not run from you then you have a health issue. But iguanas, anoles,niles, savannahs, tegus, ect should all be flightly while they are young. While you should listen to the second answer and make sure you have all of the things you need to not only care for it now but as well as later on.

Just keep handling it on a daily basis and hand feed it as much as you have the time too. It will eventually quit tensing. In the meantime, I wouldn't recommend that you allow others to handle it until it gets quite used to you handling it first. You can also try little things like stroking his back, etc. When you hand feed it give it a special treat instead of the usual and eventually it will associate you with the special treat and look forward to you handling it to receive the treat and will stop tensing.