Kind of odd Iguana question

[frankykeno]

A friend of mine that rescues iggy's wanted me to ask if anyone here has a clue what could be going on with one of her female iguana's.

This is a just matured female iguana that she rescued a few months back. She's quite a nice iggy. Has a lovely setup and is allowed out if she wants to come out every evening. Not a tempermental critter at all really for an iguana. Well just recently for no reason my friend Sherrie can figure out her iggy has taken a severe dislike to anything Sherrie wears if it's the color red....top, sweater, sweatshirt...if it's red Iggy becomes aggressive. Shaking her head, flaring her dewlap and trying to nail Sherrie but it only seems to happen is Sherrie's wearing something red in color.

Is this possible or just a wierd freaky coincidence? Can iguana's even distinguish colors, let alone take a dislike to a color? Other than this new behaviour Iggy is just fine and otherwise her normal fairly calm iggy self.

[mlededee]

aw she's thinks that sherrie is a toreador and she is just playing along!

seriously though, red can be a color that signals aggression or a mating call of sorts. with anoles, the males have a red dewlap that they display either to attract a mate or to warn other males. i'm not totally familiar with how that all works with iguanas but i'd bet something similar is going on and the iguana may associate the red with a male iguana or an aggressor.

[frankykeno]

Thanks Em, that does make sense. I was talking with Sherrie earlier today and she's experimenting with different color and fabrics of clothing. Sure enough if she puts on anything that is a true red (burgundy doesn't trigger) this one particular female iggy goes nuts. Change clothing color (fabric doesn't seem to matter) Iggy is back to her quite nice for an iguana temperment.


I'll let Sherrie know what you figure is going on...thanks!