Exotic Pets

Name: Green Iguana

Personality: In the wild, the green iguana is social, according to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. However, males can be territorial and aggressive, making it difficult to keep them in social groups in captivity.

Care: In addition to specific housing requirements (including the enclosure, heating, lighting and humidity), you'll need to trim your iguana's nails regularly, bathe them occasionally and monitor their poop and appearance, says the Iguana Pages.

Common Health Issues: According to ReptileChannel.com, green iguanas can live up to 20 years or so in captivity with proper care, though it's more common for them to live closer to nine or 10 years. Green iguanas are susceptible to parasites (both internal and external), tail loss (not serious -- it's designed to break off, but you still should never grab it), burns (if an improper heat or light source is used), nose abrasions (from repeatedly trying to get out of the enclosure) and other wounds and abscesses from being active, reports The Iguana Pages.

The same source lists common health issues as bladder stones, egg binding, mites, burns and

Training Tips: If your green iguana isn't properly tamed and trained, it can be aggressive and very dangerous, says the Green Iguana Society. The source outlines a number of steps in making your lizard comfortable and stress-free -- both very important when training it to be handled. With patience and consistency, you should be able to train your iguana to be handled and even give it some freedom outside its enclosure!

What would you do if you found a baby kangaroo? If you're Christina Cooper, you'd turn your sweatshirt into a pouch, pick up the joey and step in as surrogate mom. Cooper is co-owner of the nonprofit Global Wildlife Center, a 900-acre preserve near New Orleans with nearly 4,000 animals. Cooper spoke with Paw Nation about raising "Skippy."

Skippy is a great name. How did you come up with it?
"Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" was actually a hugely popular children's television program in the 1960s in Australia. [The character] had all sorts of adventures and always saved the day. I took one look at him and knew he had to be "Skippy."

How did you find him?
At the Global Wildlife Center we have kangaroos in an area we call "Walkabout." We don't know if he fell out of his mother's pouch or if she prematurely expelled him, but he was lying on his side on the ground in the enclosure. We waited to see if any of the kangaroos nearby came to claim him before we picked him up.

How long was he supposed to stay in the pouch?
Red kangaroos are amazing creatures. They're born after a 39-day gestation period, and are about the size of jelly bean. They stay in their mother's pouch and develop for the next eight to 10 months. When we found Skippy in May 2009 he weighed about a pound, and we believe he was about 3 months old.

Families all over the world are enjoying exotic monkeys, birds and reptiles as pets, not realizing that criminal gangs may have taken these animals from Asia illegally -- leaving some forests almost completely empty of natural creatures.

According to a report by the UK newspaper The Observer, countries in Southeast Asia are being drained of their wildlife species to fuel the exotic-pet trade, particularly in Europe and Japan.

'Empty forest syndrome' is what researchers are calling the damaged habitats left behind by the exotic animal business. "There's a lot of forest where there are just no big animals left," Chris Shepherd, of the wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic, told The Observer. "There are some forests where you don't even hear birds."

Criminal gangs control a lot of the wildlife trade, Shepherd said, and the kidnapped creatures often wind up in cages or aquariums in the homes of European families who are unaware of how they were acquired.

While hundreds of millions of these exotic animals may be have been taken illegally, they aren't the only threat to these natural habitats. There is also a brisk legal trade in exotic pets contributing to this empty forest problem. More than 35 million animals who were lawfully exported out of Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries in the last ten years, The Observer reported. Of those, 30 million were taken from the wild.

Turtles, lizards, snakes, birds and macaque monkeys are among the most common species plucked from the forests of Southeast Asia. Seahorses and coral are removed in great numbers from the region's oceans.

In the U.S., responsible pet owners are (rightfully) quick to condemn puppy mills and other unsavory sources of dogs and cats. But few probably realize where their exotic snakes, geckos and aquarium fish may be coming from. It's time to start paying attention.

What do you think Paw Nation? Do you believe exotic animals should be pets? Or should they be left in the wild?

Name: Chameleon

Personality: Like being alone, are easily stressed.

Care: Creating the right environment for chameleons can be a challenge as they have very specific temperature and humidity requirements and trees are their natural habitat. Additionally, they need UV access (natural sunlight is ideal), plenty of privacy and a drip system or consistent mistings. (They don't drink water from a bowl.) A varied diet is best. Gut loading meal worms, crickets, wax worms and the like will help your chameleon get the proper nutrition.

Common Health Issues: Stress is a major problem for chameleons, but the right environment will help avoid this. In addition to proper temperature and humidity, be sure to keep the chameleon's cage clean, as diseases can spread quickly. Metabolic bone disease, parasites and respiratory problems are all common health issues for chameleons. Keeping a close eye on your chameleon and watching for any signs of distress (unusually sleepy, not eating) will help you detect problems before it's too late to treat them.

Training Tips: Some experts say that chameleons are better off with no direct human contact (or as little as possible), while others argue that, by handling your chameleon, you'll help it become less stressed at the sight of you. Try not to force it to do anything it doesn't want to do. Hand-feeding foods it loves is a good way to build trust.

The deaths of two of Michael Jackson's pet giraffes are creating a media circus of their own. PETA is accusing the creatures' caretakers of neglect and asking Arizona police to confiscate two remaining living giraffes that belonged to the late King of Pop, E! Online reports.

Jabbar and Rambo died on Nov. 20 and Jan. 2, respectively, while under the custody of Tom and Freddie Hancock, owners of the Banjoko Wildlife Preserve in Page, Ariz. where all four of Jackson's giraffes had been living since 2006.

PETA claimed on its Web site that Jabbar and Rambo "may have died as a result of improper feeding and/or exposure to cold temperatures." PETA is now asking the Page, Ariz. Chief of Police Charlie Dennis to remove the remaining animals from the Hancocks' care, citing a possible violation of the state's animal cruelty law.

PETA is also offering their services to help find permanent homes for the remaining two giraffes, Princess and Annie Sue, and to arrange wildlife professionals to transport them.

But Freddie Hancock, whose wildlife preserve also acquired Jackson's exotic birds, snakes and crocodile, insists that PETA's accusations of neglect aren't true.

"We've had them for three and a half years, and they are like our children," Freddie Hancock told Salt Lake City's KSL-TV. "We're just absolutely devastated by the death of these giraffes."

As of now, Police Chief Dennis told the Associated Press that there's no reason to remove the other giraffes until police receive conclusive necropsy (animal autopsy) results.