South American iguanas are large pet reptiles. Increasingly, people are interested in keeping them as pets due to their beauty and rarity.
The South American iguana is known in English as the Iguana, but people are more familiar with calling them the Green Iguana. This is because these iguanas are usually green when they are young. With their exotic beauty and docile nature, South American iguanas are becoming increasingly popular as pets.
Due to their popularity, in recent years, breeders around the world have produced many new and unique color variations of South American iguanas. Let’s admire these adorable “color shades”!
Green Iguana
The green iguana is the original form of this reptile species. They are healthy, beautiful, approachable, easy to care for, and reasonably priced.
When young, Green Iguanas have a characteristic green color, which helps them blend into the foliage to avoid predators. The green color gradually changes to gray with black streaks as the iguanas mature. Additionally, during the breeding season, the males can turn a beautiful orange color.
Red Iguana
Red is also a basic color of South American iguanas. This variety is highly favored because their entire body becomes a bright red when they reach adulthood. However, when they are young, they still retain a significant amount of green, especially on their belly, mixed with dark brown stripes.
During the development and shedding process, the green color gradually fades, replaced by an eye-catching deep red, especially during the mating season.
Red Hypo Iguana
Though also red, the Red Hypo Iguana is special because the melanin (black pigment) on their body is significantly reduced. Thus, compared to the Red Iguana, the red of the Red Hypo Iguana is brighter and leans towards an impressive orange tone.
This is an artificial mutation carrying the Hypomelanistic recessive gene. Breeding this variety takes a lot of time and effort. Additionally, due to their stunning color, they are quite expensive.
Blue Iguana
The blue iguana is an artificial mutation product. They carry recessive genes that cause differences in body color. Breeders use breeding methods to eliminate the yellow pigment in the green iguana’s body.
Young iguanas will have a predominantly blue color. Because of their unique and beautiful color, Blue Iguanas are highly sought after by iguana enthusiasts despite their high price.
Albino Iguana
Unlike the Blue Iguana, the Albino Iguana is a naturally mutated variety. Instead of the usual green, albino iguanas have a beautiful bright yellow color. Their eyes are also more orange, sometimes even red.
In Albino Iguanas, the loss of most body pigments results in very poor eyesight, making them vulnerable and less likely to survive in the wild. Nonetheless, due to their beautiful color, albino iguanas are quite expensive.
Snow Iguana (Blizzard)
At the top of the list of rare and beautiful South American iguanas is the Snow Iguana, also known as the Blizzard Iguana. They have a snow-white color and extremely attractive pink eyes.
This is the result of special breeding, requiring a lot of time due to the very low success rate. For this reason, they are considered high-end and are very expensive in today’s market.
Rhino Iguana
While basic South American iguanas only differ in color, they are identical in shape and care requirements. However, endemic varieties of South American iguanas have significant differences in appearance. The Rhino Iguana is an example.
They are an endemic South American iguana species living on Hispaniola Island in the Caribbean, part of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Rhino Iguana has an impressive appearance, with a length of about 1 to 1.3 meters, gray skin, and many small horns on the nose, resembling a rhinoceros.
Cuban Rock Iguana
This beautiful iguana species lives on the rocky coasts of Cuba and surrounding islands. The Cuban Rock Iguana is quite large, reaching up to 1.5 meters in length and weighing nearly 7 kg.
The Cuban Rock Iguana has a grayish-brown color with black stripes on its body. They have a row of spines running from the head to nearly the end of the tail, a long slender head, and a large hump with many spiny bumps on the face. Notably, they have very beautiful red eyes.
Spiny Tailed Iguana
The Spiny Tailed Iguana is an endemic iguana species living in Mexico, from central Sinaloa to southern Chiapas. They are smaller than other varieties. Adult males are about 1.3 meters long, females about 1 meter, with a lifespan of 15 to 25 years.
The unique feature of the Spiny Tailed Iguana lies not in the dewlap, spines, or hump, but in its slender tail with many spines. They have small heads, slender bodies, and are very agile. Note that this species is quite aggressive and difficult to tame if not raised from a young age.
Tobago Iguana
This variety is also known by many other names such as Zebra or White Rhino. It is a species of Green Iguana but distributed in Trinidad and Tobago, a country south of the Caribbean Sea.
Tobago Iguanas closely resemble common Green Iguanas but have a longer face, more small horns on the nose, and high, erect spines. When young, they have the characteristic green color, but as they mature, they bear a very impressive white-gray color with black stripes.
These 10 different-colored South American iguanas are truly fascinating for those who want an iguana as a pet. Be sure to research the care process and how to raise them if you love this pet reptile.
