Mr Whipper's life started out like most iguana's (Green Iguana to be exact), in a pet store aquarium in Rancho San Diego. That typical life ended and his extraordinary life begin on valentines day 1994, when he was purchased by Robby, and his mom Brenda. At this time, the baby iguana was a few weeks old, and around 10 inches long. In his youth, Mr Whipper enjoyed whipping everyone with his tail, so we adopted that name for him. It's hard to believe that this little iguana has grown in to Mr Whipper, a 20 pound, 5’5” lizard (about 2 feet from snout to vent)

The first few months we had him, as he begin to become comfortable with us, he grew very tame. When he was closer to 6 months old, he gained our trust, and we gained his, and since then, Mr Whipper has never been in a cage.

He has free reign of our house and back yard. Sleeps inside on top of a china cabinet with his heat blanket (although he usually does not like it on, as you will learn later on, Mr Whipper challenges many mainstream beliefs about how iguanas live). Every morning, Mr Whipper comes down from his bed and goes out the door on to the deck to soak up some sun. He then moves off in to one of our trees, stays there most of the day (sometimes comes down for a swim in the pool), then in the afternoon he comes back up on the deck to eat a huge salad (he loves grapes). And finely he will walk back in to the house, and back up on top of his cabinet to watch everyone for a while, and then he goes to sleep.

For being a reptile, he is very intelligent. We have him potty trained, he only goes out side. When he's in his tree, if we call his name, he will come on to the deck. Mr Whipper is very friendly, and loves the attention of anyone willing to give it to him.

Here you can see where Whipper sleeps. It on top of a chine cabinet, equipped with an extended back (2 extra feet to the wall), heating pad, and heating lamp, and a ladder to the ground. Most days around 3-4pm Whipper comes in from the deck, and crawls up his latter to watch everyone in the house until he decides to go to sleep... Although some days, Mr Whipper prefers to stay outside in his tree. Contrary to popular belief Mr Whipper enjoys staying outside when it is cold... He is very strange in this way, some days, usually when it’s going to be a cold night (in to the 40’s and 50’s at night) he prefers to stay out in his tree. At night, his body gets very cold, but when the sun comes out in the morning, he begins to thaws out he returns to normal when he warms up. He has exhibited this behavior for many years. We have done extensive reading on the subject of environmental living requirements for an iguana, and Mr whipper seems to defy them all.