Help me build my iguana a water fountain.

January 3, 2013 4:12 PM

Please instruct me on how to make a small-mediumish water fountain for my iguana's enclosure with things I can purchase at the Home Depot or aquarium supply store.

The enclosure is large, ~6ftx5ftx5ft. The iguana is ~3.75ft long.

The fountain will be in her enclosure which is inside a room in my house. I'm not looking to do anythign really fancy. I just want to have a source of circulating water for her.

How to proceed?

posted by pupus to home & garden (6 answers total)

Wow, we have an iguana and I have never thought of that. My GF, who reads more iguana sites than I, says it is really hard. Like REALLY hard.

Igs like to poop in water, so you'll need a filtration system or you'll constantly be cleaning clogged pipes tubes etc.

We have found that just offering our guy fresh water and bathing him at least once daily works great. We also have a fully sealed enclosure with ventilation, and humidity control.

Iguanas DO drink water but unless they are dehydrated its not like they need a steady flow of fresh. Humidity should be around 60-70%.

If you haven't found The Green Iguana Society check it out. It is one of the more active sites.
posted by Max Power at 5:53 PM on January 3

If you just want circulating water for her to drink, maybe get a cat drinking fountain? There are many kinds, and all of them would be too small for most iggys to get inside, therefore they're less likely to poop in it.
posted by The otter lady at 6:44 PM on January 3

If you want moving water in her enclosure and you'd be OK with cleaning it daily when she poops in it, I'd get a large plastic tub (tupperware?) and fill with water and just plonk one of the "tabletop fountain" pumps in it. You can tweak the flow rate on most of these to get the effect you want. Brace it with bricks or something so she can't push it over and pump all the water out. But, you could use this to your advantage; if it's a big tub, you can just stick a longer hose onto the pump and run the hose to the sink or whatever, and pump all the water out when it gets dirty, then be able to lift the empty tub out for cleaning.
posted by The otter lady at 6:47 PM on January 3

Oddly enough, this ig was a strong prefrence for pooping on dry land. She always has the option to go in the cat litter pans with shallow water but chooses not to. She can get in and out of the pans easily as I see her do with some frequency.

Our enclsoure is leaky and humidity control is an issue.

The otter lady is on the right track. I'm looking for specifics, for ex: what kind of pump do i need? How do I control flow rate? That kind of thing.

Thanks!
posted by pupus at 8:28 PM on January 3

I have a pet water fountain made by a company called Drinkwell. I think they sell them at stores like Petco or Petsmart. I bought mine on Amazon. It can be used with a charcoal filter or not. I love mine! It is plug and play and you can adjust the flow on the model I have.
posted by dottiechang at 11:45 PM on January 3

I understand I'm off track here in regards to your specific question. I would ask the mods for a little wiggle room. Our guy wouldn't poop in litter boxes of water either. the temperature is probably too low.

A flowing fountain would be nice but the overriding concern is for the skin of the iguana, it can drink water all day and still have dry skin. This is why humidity is important because chances are it will not drink enough water to replace ambient humidity which directly affects the skin.

Warm water baths everyday, day in day out, are essential in cases of low humidity. 80-90 degrees. Our guy eventually equated baths with pooping and actually will wait for a bath to poop (even iguanas don't like the smell of their poop sitting there in the bottom of their enclosure.)

How old is your gal? What is the length head to vent? Vent being it's business end. Is it mature yet? Do you have a place for her to lay eggs when she does mature...

In other words there are more pressing concerns.
posted by Max Power at 6:41 PM on January 4