Red Iguana won't put away?
I have a 6-8 month red iguana and I'm not quite sure whether he's eating. I don't think he is. I have just had him for about 2 days. Is this normal? His diet is collards, mustards, turnips, grapes and carrot. Any suggestions?
Listen to evanescence_fr3ak, other good accurate info, the resident iguana expert here.
it is run of the mill. You have only had him for 2 days. he is probably tremendously nervous/ scared of his new home. Make certain he has a big enough cage, beside a warm spot for basking. Make sure he have a 100 watt or more basking lamp, and a good UVB buoyant such as Reptosun 10.0. Dust his veggies with a calcium+ vitamin supplement twice weekly such as Rep-cal. Your iguana will eat eventually, just hold the right setup if you just got him.
more info: http://www.iguanaden.org/diet/gallery.ht...
http://www.iguanaden.org/care/checklist.
Answers: Because it is new to you, the iguana may not eat for a few days, you may want to try different ways of cutting up the food, contained by a food processor/blender make almost to a slush form, finely chopped ... you may also want to switch to like a plastic lid instead of a bowl.
Daily food should hold 5-7 good staple greens (2-3 cups a day if not more younger igs may drink less then 1/4 cup) ... collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion greens (if you can find), endive, radicchio, arugula, mache (if you can find), watercress ... some greens to give occasionally kale, bok choy, escarole ... totalling basil for young igs sometimes helps them eat ... romaine is mostly hose down no nutrience, you can add small amount and occasionally in w/ the good staple greens (collard, mustard, etc) but do not engender romaine just your iguanas choice of greens (or any other type of lettuce most of us humans eat) ... some things to add (small amounts) snap peas, bell peppers (every in a minute and then), parsnip, sweet potato/yam, acorn squash, butternut squash, buttercup squash ... fruits should only be given every now and then once or twice a week type of entity fruits are like junk food to iguanas ... some fruits to try papay, kiwi, mango, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, honeydew (great water source), canalope (great wet source), 12 grain wheat bread ... if anything has seed make sure you remove seed up to that time you give it to your iguana anything w/ small seeds like strawberries keep on like 3 days before giving anymore ... watermelon (seedless) can be frozen and then shaved onto your iguanas food help w/ hydration everyday ... there are some foods that aren't good for your iguana: spinach has oxalate acids bind to the calcium, so even though spinach is illustrious in calcium, almost none is actually available for the iguana to use, also the oxalate acids can form oxalate crystals which can and do build up within the kidneys causing kidney damage/failure ... some ig owners do give there ig spinach but contained by very small amounts and only once a month ... corn igs can not digest ... carrots can block calcium digestion ... bananas are low in calcium best to give another type of fruit ... apples too much acid - appetite suppressant ... rhubarb is toxic ... food should be cut/chopped/diced no bigger then the iguanas head, if they are small have a chopper chop them up, or slice them into very small pieces ... spray/mist food to help w/ water/hydration
Sites for you to read:
http://www.greenigsociety.org/ - http://www.iguanaden.org/ - http://www.anapsid.org/iguana/index.html
A great book to read and have on mitt:
Iguanas for Dummies by Melissa Kaplan
Yahoo has some great sites for Iguana owners... these groups helped me and still help w/ question .. if you'd like to join:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/BabyI... - http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Iguan...
