It’s not uncommon for people to think iguanas kill rats since many reptiles and lizards in the wild will do just that. Some might think that having an iguana in their household will solve their rodent issues. I have studied a lot about iguanas, gotten it as a pet for many years, and here is what I found.
Iguanas do kill rats if they are put in the same enclosure. The most common reason is the competition for space or food within the enclosure. Other than that, there are very few reasons for iguanas to kill rats unless you are starving them.
If you are thinking of getting an iguana to solve rodent issues in your house, it will most likely not work. Even if it does, it will be very inefficient. Iguanas will only kill rats under certain circumstances.
Reasons for Iguanas to Kill Rats
Iguanas are mainly herbivores, it’s very rare for them to kill other living things if they have enough food to eat. However, iguanas are very territorial. They will attack anything that is inside their enclosure if they think they are competition and especially if they are smaller in size.
If you were to put a rat in the enclosure with an iguana, there is a pretty high chance that the iguana will kill it. Iguanas are more than capable to do that. Also, don’t be surprised if you see your iguana eating the rat that it killed.
Iguanas can be very curious animals and love to try new food when they are given a chance. In the wild, iguanas will kill and eat almost anything smaller than them, including rats, if their natural source of food (eg. foilage) is scarce.
Reasons for Iguanas Not to Kill Rats
There are way more reasons for iguanas to ignore rats rather than to kill it. First of all, iguanas and rats don’t usually share the same habitat in the wild.
Most common iguanas live in the rainforest and it is very rare to have rats there. Even if the area iguanas live in has rats, there is no real reason to kill them since rats usually do not go close to iguanas anyways.
Moreover, rats are small and agile. They are able to fit through small spaces where iguanas can’t. This makes the iguanas’ job of killing them much harder. If food is really scarce in the wild, there are better, easier options for food than rats.
Training Iguanas to Go After Rats: Is It Possible?
It could be possible to train iguanas to go after and kill rats since they are pretty smart animals. However, from my experience, I’ve never heard anyone that trains their iguana to kill rats.
Even if you are successful in training your iguana to kill rats, it would be a very inefficient way of solving your rodent issues. There is very little motivation for iguanas to kill rats unless they are put in the enclosure or extremely hungry.
Risk of Rats On Iguanas’ Health
A lot of rats carry diseases and poison from rat baits. So, if your iguana kills it, the diseases or poison could be passed onto your iguana. This is even riskier if your iguana eats the rat. In small amounts, it will probably not affect your iguana.
Disease such as rabies can’t be transmitted to iguanas, which I learned from my iguana’s vet, so there are no worries about that. However, there is no guarantee that iguanas are immune to other diseases or poison rats might carry.
Other than that, eating animal protein can cause a lot of stress in iguanas’ kidneys as they can’t efficiently process them. You should never let your iguana eat meat as it can significantly shorten their lifespan due to early kidney failure.
Conclusion
To conclude, iguanas do kill rats but only under certain circumstances such as being territorial or if there is a lack of food. However, iguanas killing rats is a very rare occurrence since they are mostly herbivores.
Even if there is food scarcity in the wild, there are always better options for food other than rats. Some people might think it’s a good idea to train their iguanas to kill rats but it really isn’t. You might be able to do that but it’s way too inefficient and puts too much risk on your iguana’s health.
