One of the major limiting factors of your placement choice is going to be how much space you actually have for your pet’s home. In a perfect world though, there are some basic features of an ideal location.

Natural External Light: You want your pet’s home to be located somewhere that is well lit (beyond just it’s basking lamps) during the regular daylight hours. This means that a room with open windows, free flowing sunlight, and exposure to the natural cycles of daylight is ideal. You want the ig’s home to get darker as the sun sets, so that the lighting mimics that of nature.

Visual Stimuli: Giving your iguana enough to look at is important. The lizards can get bored if they don’t have a variety of things to look at during the day, so placing them in an isolated, visually dull area is definitely not recommended. They love looking at birds, insects and other things that flitter by during the day. If you can, place the enclosure next to an open window that is facing the back of the house. Street traffic can be a little overwhelming so you want to have them facing nature if at all possible.

Human Contact: Your pet’s home should be somewhere that is not too loud, but that still gets attention from humans. They need to be used to and friendly with their owners, and enjoy a little bit of attention and contact. A basement that is never visited is exactly the place NOT to place your pet. Remember though, if you are hosting frequent parties or anything like that, the main congregation room is not an ideal place to keep their cage. Like the rest of us, a little alone time is good for your iguana too!

Your pet reptile has very specific lighting needs that their home should be built to accommodate. In the wild, iguanas have access to a wide spectrum of light that helps them stay healthy. For more information on the subject, check out our in-depth post on iguana cage lighting. Here’s a quick overview though:

UVA Light: This is a specific type of light that reptiles can see and humans can’t. This is important to provide because it helps your pet’s appetite, and carries other psychological benefits. It needs to be provided. This can usually be achieved through good sun exposure, but supplementary lighting is available as well.

UVB Light: This kind of light is crucial to keeping your pet healthy as well. Without UVB light, iguanas cannot digest and utilize the calcium that they get through their diet. It also regulates their immune system and usually needs to be provided artificially, because glass windows filter most of it out.

Remember, Iguanas are exothermic creatures and that means that it’s your job to provide a heat source to keep them alive. Seriously – if your pet doesn’t have enough outside heating, it won’t be able to survive. For an in-depth discussion on different choices for heating sources, check out our post on iguana cage heating. Here’s a quick overview of what they’ll need though:

Primary heat source: Incandescent lights are often used to regulate the temperature of the enclosure. Night time temperature also needs to be regulated – this can be done with nighttime bulbs and other non-light heat sources.

Secondary heat source: These are used to heat specific cage areas. Basking lights are often used as well as smaller incandescent lights. The secondary lighting is perfect for defining your enclosure’s temperature gradient and usually comes from outside of the habitat.

NO HEATING PADS: Iguanas are known to burn themselves when there are heating rocks or heating pads on the base of their enclosures. They can’t tell that the heat source is dangerous, and will decide to bask on top of it. This can lead to serious burns and death in some cases.

The features you include in your pet’s enclosure are also very important. This is where you get to start to have some fun though, and exercise your creative muscles! You want to design your iguana’s home so that it is visually appealing to you (and it’s easy to create iguana cage eye-candy, just check out Pinterest for some inspiration), but more importantly, so that it gives your reptile plenty of opportunity to be mobile. Vertical diversity is the word here. There are also some functional accessories that are very important. We have an entire post on the subject of iguana cage accessories, but here are the basics that you need to include.

Plants: These are included in your pet’s home for a few different reasons. The most obvious is that they make the enclosure feel more like home for the pet. The lizards are used to an endless sea of foliage in their natural habitat and seeing live plants in their home gives them a sense of security and belonging. Plants also help with the humidity inside of the cage. The plants will also give your pet shade when it gets tired of sitting in direct light. It is very important that the ones you choose are nontoxic, have never been treated with chemicals, and should use organic materials when being grown.

Branches: These fall into a category of their own because of how important they are. Iguanas need to be able to climb, and because of this, need sturdy, dedicated branches throughout their homes to do so. Giving them branches to climb on but then using a system of shelves for them to bask on is a perfect setup. You want to set the branches up so your pet can move through different temperature gradients easily and reach the basking shelves that you have set up.

Rocks: Another feature that will help your pet feel like it is at home in the wild. These should be placed lower in the enclosure, just like they would in a real rainforest.

Hideaways: Iguanas, like most reptiles (and us humans!), will occasionally need a place to escape to where they feel hidden. You are going to want to place this near the top of the cage. Some great choices for these are logs, hollowed out fake rocks or even an appropriately sized box. The hiding place should be large enough that the iguana can fit it’s whole body inside snugly. The tail doesn’t have to make it all the way in though.

Food and Water Containers: Make sure to provide dishes for your pet to get it’s food and water from. Having fresh water is very important for the reptiles. Keep a close eye though, since iguanas love pooping in water.

Monitoring Equipment: You are going to need to have a system in place to accurately monitor your cage temperature and humidity at all times. This needs to be set up to measure the different temperature gradients inside of the habitat.

Some great cage decoration ideas

A substrate is kind of like the flooring of your reptile’s enclosure. For igs, it’s important not to use anything like wood chips, vermiculite or anything else that is composed of lots of tiny pieces. This is because of how often the lizards examine their surroundings with their tongue. When the ground is made up of lots of tiny pieces, the reptile invariably swallows a lot of them!

One of the most popular choices for a substrate is vinyl because of how easy it is to clean. If you are going to go with something that you can more easily change out, use something that is easily digested and completely nontoxic. Some other common choices include paper towels, carpet that has had it’s edges taped down, and even astro-turf!

Ultimately, you want something that will not be difficult to clean, will not irritate the lizard’s feet or catch on it’s limbs and that can’t be accidentally eaten or harm your pet’s insides if it is.

Really quickly, let’s take a look at some of the commonly offered options that are actually terrible choices for any of the large species of iguanas. While many of these are advertised as suitable homes, none of them fit the criteria or dimensions that we outlined above. Remember, even if you follow all of our criteria, your reptile’s home is still going to infinitely smaller than it’s natural habitat in the wild! This doesn’t mean that it is impossible to responsibly and loving own the lizard, but it does mean that cage space and size are things that you can’t skimp on!

Telephone Booth Enclosures: These are commonly sold as iguana homes. They are 6 feet tall, 3 feet wide and 3 feet long. Their height makes them seem spacious, but this is very deceptive. A fully grown green iguana won’t have any space to move around at all in this kind of home, except for up. Even when they get to the top of their enclosure though, they won’t be able to stretch out. Keep this one off your list.

Aquariums: 20 gallon aquariums are great for baby iguanas in their first year. After that though, they don’t work at all. No matter how large your aquarium, it is not going to be high enough for the pet to climb vertically in a satisfying way. Remember how many times we’ve brought up the arboreal thing? Well, aquariums are the opposite of that and they should be avoided as a result. Get one when your ig is still a baby, but be prepared to upgrade pretty quickly.

Coffin Style Enclosures: Like the name suggests, these habitats are extremely stifling for igs. These are often 6 feet wide, 3 or less feet tall and can sometimes be around 6 feet long. Notice the inconsistency? Just like an aquarium, this kind of enclosure is nowhere near tall enough for the pet to climb comfortably.

Converted Dog Crates: Heavily ventilated, little habitat variety and limited climbing space make these another poor choice for your pet. The reptiles need adequate humidity to thrive, and having one kept inside of an enclosure where air is flowing freely is not at all conducive to their good health.