Quote Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents View Post
I have been searching and searching and I can't find anything at all about this. Not one thing that states as fact that an iguana can hibernate. I found some reptile care sheets that say green iguanas are a tropical/sub-tropical species and therefore can't hibernate. Then I see some other stuff where it says they lose the ability to function if they get too cold but if warmed up too fast they die of shock. But it said down to 40 degrees.

I can't believe that any tropical animal can survive below 20 degrees. They say in that report they will come back to life when they warm up. Where are they getting this information?? I do not believe green iguanas can hibernate. Period. They do not experience freezing weather in their native habitat. Even the ones in florida have never experienced it before. Therefor they lack the ability to hibernate.

I firmly believe these idiots are lying out their rear ends. An iguana may be able to survive 40 degrees for a very short time but you will never get me to believe this animal hibernates and can survive 24 hours worth of below freezing temperatures.

Put any cold blooded, tropical reptile outside (other than native turtles & certain frogs which do hibernate underground) and leave it there in 20 degrees for 24 hours. It will be frozen to death the next day. Frozen to DEATH literally. There is no coming back from that. They dont have that natural anifreeze that native frogs & turtles have in their blood which prevents break down and death of cells and the freezing of the blood.
Yeah, I didn't think that made much sense. I've had ball pythons that got down to around 40 degrees that appeared to be dead but then came around when they were warmed up, but they never actually reached freezing temperatures and weren't at those low temps for more then a an hour or so. If these lizards are going to be below 32 degrees and for several days in a row, I'd be very surprised if they just 'snap out of it' once it warms up again.