A rehomed iguana judges your home in its first hours, by whether it can bask, climb, hide, and eat without anything being adjusted around it. Building the enclosure after collection condemns the animal to days of drilling, rearranging, and unstable temperatures at exactly the moment it needs calm. Finish everything first, run it, prove it works, and only then go and collect the animal.
Build the enclosure for the iguana that exists, not a juvenile
Ask the previous keeper for the iguana's length and weight, and size the enclosure for that animal, remembering that an adult iguana is a large, strong, arboreal lizard that needs height to climb, a broad basking shelf that supports its whole body, and branches thick enough to grip without flexing. Fit branches and the shelf so they cannot shift under the animal's weight, because a falling branch can injure the iguana and will certainly teach it that the new home is unsafe.
Provide a hide or screened retreat at the cooler end, where the iguana can be out of sight. A rehomed animal that can withdraw usually settles faster than one that is permanently on display, because control over exposure is how this species manages stress. Line the floor with a substrate or covering you can clean daily, since a large iguana produces a large amount of waste and a new keeper's hygiene routine needs to be easy from the first day.
Run the climate for two days before collection
Set a basking spot at roughly 95 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (35 to 38 degrees Celsius), a warm ambient zone in the mid-80s Fahrenheit (around 29 to 31 degrees Celsius), and a cooler end that falls no lower than the mid-70s Fahrenheit (around 24 degrees Celsius) during the day. Verify every zone with thermometers placed where the iguana will actually sit, not where the dial happens to be mounted, and run the whole system for at least two days so you catch a thermostat that drifts or a lamp that underperforms before the animal is depending on them.
Fit UVB lighting over the basking shelf on a timer that gives a consistent day length, positioned at the distance the fitting requires to be effective, and raise humidity with misting or a fogger on a routine you have already tested. A rehomed iguana should not spend its first week as the test subject for your climate experiments.
Prepare food, water, and the room itself
Stock a week of food before collection: chopped leafy greens as the bulk of the diet, with vegetables prepared the way the previous keeper served them, because matching the familiar presentation helps a suspicious iguana start eating sooner. Ask what the iguana reliably eats and what it refuses, and buy the reliable list first, however plain it looks. Set up a heavy, stable water dish for drinking and a separate shallow arrangement for soaking if the keeper says the iguana uses one.
Prepare the room as carefully as the enclosure. Block gaps behind furniture and around pipes, move loose cables out of reach, and agree with the household that the first days are for settling, with no handling sessions, no visitors admiring the new arrival, and no other pets introduced at the glass.
Collect the history with the animal
Ask the previous keeper, in writing, for the iguana's feeding preferences and schedule, its shedding pattern, its usual temperatures, its behaviour notes, including how it signals displeasure, and any vet records they hold. A rehomed iguana's tail-whipping or stillness means more when you know its normal temperament. Bring a secure, dark transport box lined with a towel for the journey, and keep the trip direct. KinsLe's Transferrable Profiles lets the previous keeper pass the iguana's profile to you with that feeding history and those behaviour notes attached, so the knowledge arrives with the animal.