MASSIVE Lost opportunity! :(

So today my girl friend tells me she seen two adult albino iguanas near the road. When she told me this I started looking them up and they seem to be expensive around 3000-3500 dollars. They lay around 50 eggs... I could be wrong but I think if she caught them and started breeding we could have been millionaires in ten years. Any thoughts?

Is it even legal to grab WC and breed them?

Is it normal for iguanas to be roaming around Canada???

I'm thinking snatching two wild lizards to breed and make a supposed fortune from is NOT the smartest idea.

By the time you figure in the actual "cost" of housing, food, vet care, breeding, incubating, raising young and then hopefully selling, you aren't going to be as rich as you thought.

Gale

That seems a bit far fetched... And how would you know if they were a sexed pair it could of been two males, then you would have to breed to normal produce hets, raise them up and breed back to the parent or each other. It's expensive to keep up one ig much less multiple

Just to clairfy, my girl friend is carribean. I could literally build a chicken coup for them.

and yes, we dont knwo the sex. But your right in saying if they were the same sex that you could go about getting a breeding pair eventually.

You are assuming they were 1:1

I like turtles.

Sounds like a snipe hunt to me. You hold the bag.

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Originally Posted by TimmyG

Any thoughts?

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If I had a nickel for every ill conceived, haphazard scheme I've devised to become wealthy that I poorly planned/thought out in less than a day's time, I'd have about $1.25...:rofl:.

Right, because we are talking about walking money bags, not living breathing animals here right?

Plain and simple there is no get rich quick schemes in the reptile industry. not only would you have to be luckily enough to get a breeding pair, you would have to get them to adapt to captivity, deal with parasites, get them to eat, check for any other illnesses, then on top of all of that get them to breed and produce offspring... Simply sticking them together doesn't make babies. conditions have to be precise. And unless you are planning on selling all of the offspring locally then you will have to export them... a long and expensive process for every single baby. (if it is even legal) plus what happens when you don't sell all of them? how do you plan to take care of them?

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Originally Posted by TimmyG

So today my girl friend tells me she seen two adult albino iguanas near the road. When she told me this I started looking them up and they seem to be expensive around 3000-3500 dollars. They lay around 50 eggs... I could be wrong but I think if she caught them and started breeding we could have been millionaires in ten years. Any thoughts?

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My first thought after seeing the OP was from Canada and that there were two Albino Iguanas on the road was:

Must have been Albino Beavers.

But for real, no... not a good idea.

Canada...where wild albino Iguana couples roam free...who knew???

Millionaires in years? They aren't going to stay that price forever. And you more than likely did not see albino Iguanas, considering you're in Canada.

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Originally Posted by TimmyG

Just to clairfy, my girl friend is carribean. I could literally build a chicken coup for them.

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Um.....an I the only I've completely lost by this comment....?



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Originally Posted by Coleslaw007

Um.....an I the only I've completely lost by this comment....?



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No...but I was afraid to ask...

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Originally Posted by Coleslaw007

Um.....an I the only I've completely lost by this comment....?



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Makes perfect sense... girlfriend is on a tropical island, this guy is in Canada (pretty much the same place right?) So he will build a cage and either ship it to said island or they will smuggle the reptile into Canada.

:rolleye2: Sounds like a plan :gj: :rolleye2:

All the Canadian iguana jokes are hillarious! I mean that, I actually get a chuckle from them. No ones even questioned how I seen two albino iguanas with all the May snow we have!

But seriously, they were foung by my GF on her island, not the sunny shores of Canada (clone high ftw). Also, I am aware of the work that goes into breeding, thats why I dont do it, even after maybe 5 years of hobby experience. But I think since they would be kept in the carribean, housing would be relativly inexpensive. For instance by gfs cousins sometimes keep iguanas in outdoor pens. Feeding would be relativly easy since iguanas are herbivors and it wouldnt be too hard to ask the friendly people at the blue iguana reserve what the green ones eat that occurs naturally (assuming I didnt want to just go with produce from the store.

But someone addressed the issue of legally exporting them. That could be a potential stumbling block since I dont knwo the local laws or laws in places like the US where most would go and reptile laws change daily.

thsi is all hypothetical though. she never did catch them But I would like to knwo how Canadian iguanas made their way to her island in the first place!

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Originally Posted by TimmyG

I would like to knwo how Canadian iguanas made their way to her island in the first place!

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I might not be reading that right, but there is no such thing as a Canadian Iguana... ??

Regarding the Importing and Exporting of reptiles into or out of Canada is HUGE money. Cross border shipping to the US is very expensive also and requires all proper documentation and CITES etc...

EDIT: Would you really consider capturing these wild iguanas? If they were an invasive species, I may side with you but otherwise I would say that removing these animals from their natural habitat would be irresponsible. That being said, I do understand that this is ultimately what happened to get the CB animals we have in our collections... Where in the Caribbean were these animals spotted?

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Originally Posted by Coleslaw007

Um.....an I the only I've completely lost by this comment ....?

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Ugh stupid autocorrect on my phone

*Am I the only one completely lost by this comment....?*

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Lets say you found 1.1 albino iguanas, feed, house and breed them, you will be in a hole at least $400-$1000. Who's going to be buying a $3000 iguana:confused:, Esp since males are known to become aggressive after they hit sexual maturity. So to me a $3000 dollar eating machine that hates me is not worth it, esp. since i can buy a few bps and a Ackie trio or a argus monitor that will be more interesting to watch. Maybe its just mean but i don't know anyone who would spend $3000 on a iguana, albino or not:confused:.
Tom

The green iguanas are definatly an invasive species on the island and one of the main reasons blue iguanas may go extinct (you should knwo the island I mean by now). And the 3000 price tag was a quick internet search, I imagine iguana people like them despite the temperment.

BTW I am not doign this or plannign on doing this. I think it would have possibly been agood idea, but the opportunity has passed. It would have been nice just to see them, I mean what are the odds you would find 2 in the same place? She also says they were massive!

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Originally Posted by TimmyG

The green iguanas are definatly an invasive species on the island and one of the main reasons blue iguanas may go extinct (you should knwo the island I mean by now).

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Ah didn't see the Blue Iguana comment earlier in the post. Went to 'Stingray Bay' when I was there, quite the experience.

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Originally Posted by 1nstinct

Lets say you found 1.1 albino iguanas, feed, house and breed them, you will be in a hole at least $400-$1000. Who's going to be buying a $3000 iguana:confused:, Esp since males are known to become aggressive after they hit sexual maturity. So to me a $3000 dollar eating machine that hates me is not worth it, esp. since i can buy a few bps and a Ackie trio or a argus monitor that will be more interesting to watch. Maybe its just mean but i don't know anyone who would spend $3000 on a iguana, albino or not:confused:.
Tom

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I've seen my fair share of adult male iguanas that aren't the least bit aggressive...and if anything, meaner ones I have seen are temperamental far more than aggressive.

I'd also be willing to bet that true iguana enthusiasts wouldn't mind spending $3,000 on a well bred, well cared for iguana of whatever special characteristic. And they are probably snickering and giggling about the ball python keepers that would spend $5,000-$10,000 and up on a single snake, especially since our ball pythons aren't exactly know to be a bundle of excitement.

Are we sure she didn't just see a couple of ugly pale tourists laying on the beach?

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Originally Posted by sho220

No...but I was afraid to ask...

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lol.. me too :rolleye2:

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Originally Posted by TimmyG

The green iguanas are definatly an invasive species on the island and one of the main reasons blue iguanas may go extinct (you should knwo the island I mean by now). And the 3000 price tag was a quick internet search, I imagine iguana people like them despite the temperment.

BTW I am not doign this or plannign on doing this. I think it would have possibly been agood idea, but the opportunity has passed. It would have been nice just to see them, I mean what are the odds you would find 2 in the same place? She also says they were massive!

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My sister has been living in GC for a couple years now and does her fair share of exploring/photography yet has never seen an albino green iguana. I'm not saying they aren't there but pictures would really be nice. I've made a few trips down in the last couple years and saw nothing out of the normal as far as the greens iguanas go. They can range in color from shades of red, to blue, to yellow, to (obviously) green. I'd almost bet your girlfriend saw some normal yellow adults though pictures would definitely help in solidifying the claim. As for the GC blue iguanas, head over to the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park if you want to see how far the breeding efforts have gone in the last few years - they're everywhere on that side of the island where the breeding program is located and the greens are vigorously removed.

Here's a picture from the park, we must have spotted at least 20 in a couple hours of casual exploring. They had their breeding enclosures fenced off so all of the iguanas we spotted were wild(most formerly released offspring from the program).
http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/z...n/100E1245.jpg

Here's an adult green iguana from the other side of the island with a bit of yellow. I've seen normal green iguanas where the entire body is the color of this ones forelegs.
http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/z...n/100_1264.jpg

There are two albino green iguanas at the pet store down the street from me. They're pretty sweet looking.

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Originally Posted by TimmyG

They lay around 50 eggs... I could be wrong but I think if she caught them and started breeding we could have been millionaires in ten years. Any thoughts?

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:rofl: Really

Even if everything was lining up right, you friend indeed saw 2 albino iguanas, they are male and female etc I cannot think of many people that WANT an iguana but I guess you would need to have one or have done rescue work to know that.

Paint job won't be a factor either iguanas are SERIOUS commitment and no what some might try to make you believe they not all puppy tame waking around on a leash. :cool:

They are 6 feet long lizard with RAZOR sharp teeth and CLAWS, and so much fun during mating season :rolleyes:

Good luck with your millionaire plan let me know how it work for you in 10 years.

Did you know that most rescues no longer take iguanas.

The cute little $15 green iguana or $3000 albino green iguana is not all that cute to most of their owner after they grow.

Iguanas can be really nasty. When I was little I had one and one day it decided to get very aggressive and start whipping me wildly with its tail (I'm like 10 years old). Then it peaced out into a hole in the wall.

R.I.P Lancelot.

I lived in the Caribbean for 6 months in a tent. There's not a spit's chance in hell I'd ever tangle with a wild iguana without a whole lot of gear and preparation. Absolute beasts.

This thread has officially hurt my brain.:confused:

I think you should do it. Start a blog because I know it will be an entertaining read.