A FORFAR man has amazed animal experts by becoming one of the first people in Scotland to breed iguanas at his home.

Mr Nigel Etheridge, 28, was shocked when two of the giant South American lizards produced 45 eggs between them, then, using an old fish tank and polystyrene, he built an incubator to hatch them.

After an incubation period of 72-days, the welder, who also keeps snakes, was amazed when four tiny iguanas - worth around #50 each - were born. He now plans to start his own breeding programme next year.

The iguana has proved extremely difficult to breed in captivity as many females do not survive the brutal mating rituals, and those that do are extremely selective about where they lay their eggs.

Glasgow Zoo has succeeded in breeding iguanas, but reports of the reptiles being bred privately are extremely rare.

Under constant supervision, both mothers and the four-inch arrivals are doing well and are being fed a diet of fruit and vegetables with a calcium supplement.

Mr Etheridge owns two adult male iguanas which successfully mated with females owned by friends Thomas Sinclair and Chris Smeaton.

He said: ''We never thought we would succeed but put a male and female in together for about two weeks.''

But he said yesterday he was astounded when one of the females laid eggs after it had been thought she was ill.

''The big female did not eat anything for a month and her belly had swollen up, so we took her to a vet in Dundee. He was worried and said he thought she had some kind of kidney problem, and we were told that it would cost a lot of money to get it explored. But then she laid 30 eggs the next day.''

Scotland's leading iguana expert, Mr Dave Blatchford, said: ''They are among the first private collectors to breed these in Scotland. It is still a rare event, so they have done extremely well.''