I finished building a new perch for Cookie. It was *very* stressful for the BOTH of us. He was a really good sport about all the power tool noise though...

When I tried to move him from his perch on my couch, he wanted NOTHING to do with that idea, latched on for dear life, and took another snap at me. I looked at his thermometer, and he was comfy at around 90 degrees or so.

I shut off his lights and opened the windows, quickly cooling the room down to around 65 degrees. After this, I simply moved him, couch and all, out of my way so I could work. He didn't seem to mind much, since I drained the charge on his little iguana batteries somewhat. He was quite curious as to what I was doing though, and watched with interest as I was wielding large, scary, and noisy tools. Eventually, he went to sleep. I warmed the room back up before I went to bed so he'd be nice and toasty...

I hung the shelf, lights, thermometer and ladder in short order. I figured that instinct would take over, and I'd see him up there when I awoke in the morning, especially since his lights were up there now. This was not to be, in fact, he looked quite stressed since I moved his lights. This upset me, as he had become VERY settled here. The next day he did not eat or go to the bathroom. He was sporting his "mad" color for most of the next day.

In the morning, I picked him up and put his little front feet on the ladder to see if he'd get the message. He didn't. Instead he took another little snap at me (I should point out here that when Cookie snaps at me, his snaps aren't all that threatening. They are more like "annoyance indicators" than anything else. He has yet to get me. At the time, we were still working out our mutual understanding of coexistence).

I reevaluated my setup, and decided that the ladder was no good. Besides, it looked to me like he could hurt himself on it, and I didn't want to take the chance. The ladder was made out of closet racking, and maybe he could get an ankle twisted in it or something.

So I moved the couch again, and removed the ladder. After much searching outside, I found the PERFECT big branches, and fashioned a new ladder out of them. I was MUCH happier with this setup, as it was more "natural," and, I think, safer for him as well. I didn't think he'll have any problem going up and down it once he figured it out.

*My* stress had been about the melamine shelving I used. All though I liked it visually, I had been very worried about how slippery it was. If he fell from it, I figured there would be a 99% chance he would hit the couch, and not get hurt. From the floor to the top of the perch is approximately 5 feet. I feared him getting to the top of the ladder, and because of the slipperiness of the shelving, falling down since there was nothing for him to grab on to.

That was all different . I thought the branches I put up as a ladder would foot the bill. There were many things for him to hold on to at the top now, so him getting on or off his new perch was no longer a concern of mine. I thought about putting some type of "grab bars" around the edge of his perch just to be sure, but I liked the idea that since the shelves were slippery, I would have an easier time picking him up. I *knew* that if I installed "grab bars," he would be VERY difficult to pick up when he was up there.

I still planned on keeping his food in the same place (on the couch), so he would get lots of exercise going up and down. At least, that was the plan anyway. It would also make it easier for me to clean his food area, since I expected him to spend a good deal of time up there sunning himself. He is around 4 feet long, and the shelf is 3 feet, so I didn't expect him to outgrow it right away. I made the shelf 16 inches wide to give him adequate room to comfortably turn around.

You know, I have to say that I really didn't want to build him a higher perch. He had been extremely content sitting on the arm of my couch and watching me. I enjoyed that greatly. I just felt he'd be happier further off the ground than the arm of my couch. Also, he had to WORK more to get to his food and tray, so he would be more physically active.

I HOPED I didn't screw up his little "iguana routine" too much...