There will be a time when you have the urge to just let your iguana run free in your house or just a single room or two. This is called free roaming. I don’t recommend this unless your willing to do what’s necessary to create the right setup for this. It is not as simple as throwing down a heat mat and telling your ig to go for it. It takes careful planning to do it right. The major problems with this are that most people don’t want to keep their house at 80 degrees so an iguana can stay warm. It could also mean putting holes in your walls to set up shelves. There are many steps to take to ensure that your iguana will be safe and warm in a free roaming setup.

First, Make a sweep of the room or rooms your iguana will be able to roam in. Pick up anything smaller than the iguana’s head to ensure that he will not try to eat them. Make sure there are no holes or any other places were the iguana could escape from the room. Another thing to keep in mind it that you should vacuum the areas frequently. This will help to keep little things that are edible away from your ig. Any houseplants that are in the area, unless you know they are safely eaten by iguanas, should be taken out of the room.

Next, install a shelf or shelves about 5-6 feet up from the ground. Put towels or paper towels up there for a substrate. Make sure the shelve is long and wide enough for you ig. It is best to plan ahead and make one much bigger than is needed by your ig now as your ig will grow out off them leaving you with having to go through the trouble of putting up new shelves. Next install a basking light so that it is pointing at the basking station on the shelve. After the basking light, put a heat pad on the other side of the shelf. Next, install a uvb florescent tube lamp above the shelf, no higher than 18 inches away from the shelf. This is very important as it gets hard with a free roaming iguana to give them enough uvb light.

Before the iguana is allowed on the shelf, monitor the temps of the room, and shelf for a couple of days. You may find it necessary to have to buy a ceramic space heater. I would recommend not keeping the room any lower than 75 degrees for an adult iguana as long as there shelve space remains in the right tamp. And now lower than 78-80 for younger iguanas. I have found an easy way to keep the shelf area warmer than the room temp. I started doing this winter because kazzys set up wasn’t keeping his temp high enough. I bought some inexpensive clear plastic vinyl and hung it from the ceiling to the bottom of the shelve so that it made a "heat cove". This works to keep heat in. You may find that you only need to do this in the winter like I do but some may need to keep this a permanent setup.

The subject of pooping all over the room is a definite concern. If you don’t have a potty trained and don’t want poop being spread around the room, DON’T LET YOUR IG FREE ROAM. I have found that it is quite easy potty train igs in your tub. (This may sound gross but get over it) In the morning I put kazzy in the tub while I’m getting ready for school. After he poops I take him out dry em off wipe his vent and put him back in his room. I’ll drain the tub rinse out the nasties and disinfect it. I do this again when I get home from school. I am proud to say that Kazzy hasn’t pooped in my room for over 5 months now, using this method. If your iguana likes a certain place to poop, try putting paper down and see if he is faithful to this one spot. This will often work well.

If you are not willing to take all of the steps mentioned in this page and spend quite a bit of money then DO NOT LET YOUR IGUANA FREE ROAM. It will benefit you and your ig if you set this up properly. But I do not recommend this if you don’t want to spend the time and money in this.