Iguana care?

Someone we know is leaving for college and needs to get rid of their young iguana and my little brother wants to get it. Only problem is he has no idea how to care for them even though I told him to look at iguana care sheets... I have a few questions, im wondering most about the proper diet, how much UVB light they need, and things that can be used as cages, and sizes that will be needed.

I read that commercial iguana food is bad, and that you need to feed some amount of veggies and fruits... idk how to come up with a good diet though. are there any foods to stay away from?
And im not sure what type of UV light he should get, a "desert" or tropical one... i know iguanas are more tropical but a desert light has more uvb so it might be better...

What should the humidity be? I read its supposed to be like 80%??? How would you keep it that high, and what is the best thing to heat the enclosure with? Basking lights or an under tank heater? Right now we only have an aquarium to put it in with a screen top. With a heat and uvb light there wont be much to cover on the top.., idk if we will make a enclosure or what.... and idk how big it should be...

also is it safe to used inked newspaper as a substrate? this care sheet says that ink can give off fumes that can make your iguana ill???

Before I get into anything, think loooong and hard about taking the lizard. Green iguanas, up until maturity, are extremely flighty animals. Tail whips hurt, bites hurt, and they want absolutely nothing to do with you. But no matter how much they thrash you you need to hold them or you'll have a bitey, whippy giant angry lizard on your hands. They're also fairly expensive to get settled, grow fast on proper diets, and will need a HUGE cage. They need to be fed daily as well - think of it as a scaly dog that will probably hate your guts for the first year or two. If it's "totally tame" right now as a youngster, it's either a one in a million animal or not on a proper diet / kept warm enough.
Males get very aggressive during mating season, and females will produce eggs regardless of a male being present or not. That means you either have a huge angry boy for a few months, or a female who needs an egg box and can become eggbound.

You're right, the iguana pellets are terrible. Avoid any sort of animal proteins - they can't utilize them and it can cause liver complications. This includes bugs, mice, anything alive. For the iguana salad you want about ~45% greens, ~40-45% veggies and less than 10% fruit. I choose to supplement my iguana's weekly meals with fruit snacks in the evening instead of giving it to him along with his meal. It keeps me in his good graces :rolleyes:

Phosphorus / calcium ratios are very important. You'll be learning a lot about the nutritional make up of greens and vegetables. I would recommend calcium supplements up until ~3 years old every day. Older lizards on proper diets shouldn't require anything extra, but it won't hurt if you don't go overboard.

Avoid Romaine, iceberg, etc lettuce. They offer very little in nutrition as they are primarily water. My staples are Collard and Mustard greens, and I mix up between escarole, endives, and dandelion greens (not the flower, just the stalks / leaves) for variety.
Veggie staples are green beans, butternut squash (any soft squash will do), parsnip and any color of bell pepper. I like to switch up with okra, asparagus, etc. Basically, variety is king with iguana diets.

Rhubarb, and acidic fruits (oranges, grapefruit, tomatoes, etc) are best avoided. Some iguanas have bad reactions to the fruits (dibble hates them) and rhubarb is poisonous. Don't go around picking dandelions or anything to feed the iguana either - unless you know for sure no chemicals were used on them, it's just not worth the risk.

For lighting you want a full spectrum UVA / UVB light. Make sure to read the boxes closely - some bulbs will say they're full spectrum, but don't include UVA. I would recommend, and use myself, fluorescent tubes. I believe ours is 10.0 ZooMed tube, but I lost the box, heh. You'll want to replace the UV every ~6 months, as it starts to become less effective after that amount of time.

I kept Dibble on outdoor carpet for a time, but it's a pain in the butt to clean. He's been on newspaper for almost three years now and has had no ill effects. (Other than smearing his poo everywhere, ugh)

65-70% is the ideal humidity. Given how large the cages are, it can be a real challenge keeping it up. Some people use humidifiers, some are able to spritz the iguana and enclosure a few times a day with a water bottle. Big bowls of water always help. Dibble gets a bath every other day to make sure he stays hydrated. Baths also help with taming down (ensures you're interacting with them) and good hygiene.

You want to use heat lamps to create a basking spot for them. You want a basking spot just under ~90F and ambience no lower than 80F. I've had to use Ceramic Heat Emitters (2) and a heat lamp to keep dibble's cage to proper temperature, but his cage is massive. UTHs are pretty useless for iguanas. Ensure there's a day / night cycle (this is why I like CHEs), or you will have a very stressed lizard. Dibble's lights are on 8am-8pm. I keep the ceramics on 24/7 to ensure the nightdrop isn't severe.

Cage size. Green iguanas are arboreal, and need a tall cage. You'll be building one or ordering a (expensive) custom built one. Six feet tall is a minimum height. You want the width to be at least half as long as the iguana (assume a 6ft long lizard). I would recommend at least 4ft long. 6'x6'x6' is even better. 10'x10'x10' is perfect. Have a whole room to give the lizard? By all means!

Tanks are terrible for them and they will outgrow even the largest aquariums very quickly, not to mention they don't have the height required for a green iguana to thrive.

Hope this helps - after you get through the hell years, and get everything set up and going they really are awesome pets! I wouldn't trade Dibble for the world.

http://www.greenigsociety.org/home.html Is very good for info, by the by.

Fillet then BBQ with a spicy sauce.

Just a few minutes per side unless it's a really big one, then you just have to use your best judgment.

Best way in the world to take care of them.

:gj: Thanks for the elaborate response. Ok, is there a way to tell if its a male or female yet. I honestly have no idea how old it is but I guess its "young" so probably smaller... I read somewhere that you cant tell untill they get older.

I just wanted to use a small aquarium untill we can get a better one, maybe this one:

I actually found this nice? home made cage on the local craigslist its 7' high 5' wide and 3' deep theres a water tub in the bottom and it comes with some lights and uv stuff. well. here.

http://cleveland.craigslist.org/pet/1450924963.html

I was telling my brother that its probably a good deal to get because it will cost that much to buy all the stuff to make a cage, and all the lights etc. And im pretty sure thats been on craigslist for a while so if they HAVENT sold it yet, maybe they will sell it for cheaper. Would that cage be good? it looks like it could use more elevated FLAT places...

If that enclosure has UVB light dont they give off UVA light too, or the basking lights would?
Do the compact fluorescent UVB lights work as well as tubes? I think that enclosure had holes for smaller lights not a tube.
I think that enclosure would hold humidity really well plus the tub of water in the bottom.
Comes with a timer for the lights...

Ha. we have an extra bedroom but im pretty sure my parents would NEVER let us use that...

whats a good phosphorus/calcium ratio?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wilomn

Fillet then BBQ with a spicy sauce.

Just a few minutes per side unless it's a really big one, then you just have to use your best judgment.

Best way in the world to take care of them.

---

:colbert:

That cage looks just fine! I'd remove the wire shelves and replace them with flat wood shelves (maybe wrap some indoor / outdoor carpet around for grip, or notch the wood a bit), otherwise toes / claws might get stuck and ripped off. If you really want to get into it you could put some driftwood in place of the... wire wrapped pvc? for a "ramp", which might look nicer. Humidity should be a dream to keep up though!

Tubes are just nice because they cover more of the cage. If the holes are placed so that the UV is also over the basking, or close enough to it, the bulbs should be okay. Some UVB lights also give off UVA, but some don't. Heating / basking bulbs are essentially just high wattage light bulbs, so they won't give anything special. I'd just buy new UV bulbs if you got that cage as you don't know how old his are. Really good price overall, though.

You want a calcium : phosphorus ratio of about 2 : 1.

So far as gender goes... I still have no idea if Dibble is a boy or girl :oops:. Unless you want to try and get it probed or somesuch, you won't really know for sure until it either starts dropping eggs or sperm plugs. If I remember right they aren't sexually mature until about 3 years old, so you have awhile to work out how to handle either gender.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dalishar

That cage looks just fine! I'd remove the wire shelves and replace them with flat wood shelves (maybe wrap some indoor / outdoor carpet around for grip, or notch the wood a bit), otherwise toes / claws might get stuck and ripped off. If you really want to get into it you could put some driftwood in place of the... wire wrapped pvc? for a "ramp", which might look nicer. Humidity should be a dream to keep up though!

Tubes are just nice because they cover more of the cage. If the holes are placed so that the UV is also over the basking, or close enough to it, the bulbs should be okay. Some UVB lights also give off UVA, but some don't. Heating / basking bulbs are essentially just high wattage light bulbs, so they won't give anything special. I'd just buy new UV bulbs if you got that cage as you don't know how old his are. Really good price overall, though.

You want a calcium : phosphorus ratio of about 2 : 1.

So far as gender goes... I still have no idea if Dibble is a boy or girl :oops:. Unless you want to try and get it probed or somesuch, you won't really know for sure until it either starts dropping eggs or sperm plugs. If I remember right they aren't sexually mature until about 3 years old, so you have awhile to work out how to handle either gender.

---

To be honest I didnt even notice the wire shelves. I thought that was just something the fake plants were hanging from lol. Could an iguana climb up there? theres nothing really close to it to get on top of. Idk. Maybe just place some 1/4" plywood or something over the shelf and secure it on there

Yeah wire wrapped pvc lol. Looks like it would work though... Id probably put more like rope or chord around it so its like one of those cat scratch things... I dont know if I would be able to find a big piece of drift wood like that, and the store bought ones are so over priced....

and this is supposed to be my brothers :rolleyes: yet im doing all the work... Im waiting for a response from the person with the cage.

Ha, get the boy on the computer and reading then!

It looks like the tube on the right goes right up to the top. Depending on how small he is he could probably climb up the decorations. I had a green yearling escape and climb right up some blinds (still have no bloody idea how he managed), and my supposedly-terrestrial fatty cuban can jump up a good ~2 feet if he really wants up somewhere. So don't be surprised where the guy ends up, lol.

I don't know if you have any vendors that sell it at reptile shows, but if you can track down one of those I usually get big grapevine "branches" for $40-$60, depending on size. Store bought is a little ridiculous, yes. Mostly cosmetics though, so if your brother doesn't really care about the decor it shouldn't matter.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dalishar

Ha, get the boy on the computer and reading then!

It looks like the tube on the right goes right up to the top. Depending on how small he is he could probably climb up the decorations. I had a green yearling escape and climb right up some blinds (still have no bloody idea how he managed), and my supposedly-terrestrial fatty cuban can jump up a good ~2 feet if he really wants up somewhere. So don't be surprised where the guy ends up, lol.

I don't know if you have any vendors that sell it at reptile shows, but if you can track down one of those I usually get big grapevine "branches" for $40-$60, depending on size. Store bought is a little ridiculous, yes. Mostly cosmetics though, so if your brother doesn't really care about the decor it shouldn't matter.

---

Kids these days, he wont listen... Ive told him when he was on the computer doing nothing... ahh well.
I didnt know how good of climbers they were, do you mean those like bendable grape vine things that have wire in them i think? Ive seen them at local reptile shows and pet stores... I might tell him to get some at the show, since im trying to go on the 15th to get a boa. :)

Nah, it's actual grapevine wood, but those would probably work until he got too heavy to climb around on them. Maybe even then... I've never used the bendable wire vines so not sure how much weight they can handle.

oh yeah. a pretty important question... how much do they need fed??? lol. Thats healthy. Is there a way to tell when theyve had enough? and do you leave the food in the cage all the time for the day or just put it in and take it out?

You can't really overfeed iguanas, so just give him as much as he'll eat then take away what's leftover. You don't want to leave it in there all day or the veggies and such can start to rot and get all gross.

A good way to save up on food costs, that I've found... if you have a food processor (or a looot of time the old fashioned way), you can "dice up" all the veggies together and the greens together. Even just buying one "thing" of collard a week you'll be wasting a lot of food. So I take all of that "mash", separate them into a week's worth of food (lasts a lot longer if you can get the bags airtight) and throw them in the freezer. One $25-$30 trip usually lasts about 4 months vs ~$15-$20 a week before we started freezing it.

Also ensures they can't be picky buggers and have to eat everything you offer. Win / win!

I just got him/her today!!! like 10 minutes ago. It was from a family friends, relative. Came with a heat light, uv light, each with their own shade, drift wood decor, a hot rock, and a waterdish type deal with a tank and screen top. im not sure what size id guess around 20. seems not so tall but wide. He looks skinny to me. He seemed sluggish when we got him but it could be becuase he was cold. When i turned on the light he seemed to be a bit more active. im about to go take pictures. Can i feed him some of these orangish/yellow peppers. we have red too. What about stuff like broccoli? and any other fruits. he told us that it can eat lettuce just not ice burg? idk why, he said like only romaine lettuce... ? Maybe we can provide it with a better home. idk how im going to keep the humidity up so high with this screen top though, paper substrate.

I just put in some small diced red pepper and 6 grape halves.

heres some pics

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...03/iggy004.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...03/iggy003.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...03/iggy005.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...03/iggy006.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...03/iggy007.jpg



is it normal to be that skinny? when i went in to put the food in there he was on the wood and just kind of fell off. he seems really weak like the way he walks too. and just looks really skinny!!! i just sprayed the news paper with water.... might help humidity but also made the paper warp a bunch lol...

Get him off the romaine lettuce asap. Pretty much anything that has the word "lettuce" attached is completely useless and they can get addicted to it. (think of it like junk food) You want him on collards, mustard greens, etc. I primarily use bell peppers to make the meal more colorful and appetizing, but it's not bad for now until you can get the real diet going. Broccoli is fine occasionally.

http://www.greenigsociety.org/foodchart.htm Is an excellent food chart you can just quickly skim over to get a good idea what to feed him.

He does look skinny, but his jaw looks good and his hips aren't puffy so he shouldn't have MBD. Does he seem to use his hind legs okay? No dragging, etc. You could have just spooked him when he fell off the branch.

For humidity you can try wrapping tinfoil over the screen top and cut holes out for the lights - similar to how you'd set up a Ball python tank.

Get rid of the hot rock! Those things were okay on paper but terrible in practice. They short out very easily and skyrocket in temperature and can cause some very bad burns.

He's a cutie though! Two or three weeks on the right diet should get him nice and plump in no time!

Allmooostt forgot. Do you have any log hides hanging around anything? Putting one of those in the tank for now could help keep his stress level down.

I havent fed him lettuce thats what the last owner did though. maybe thats why he wont touch any of his food i gave him.

sort of, like i said they look weak and in the last pic i think it is he like just bent his foot backwards and stepped on it when he was walking. i guess thats dragging.

Right now i just have the hot rock in there as a decoration its not plugged in, nor did i plan on using it.

actually yes i do have a log hide lol. he was laying under the uv light today when i came in.

So long as he's using his hind legs there shouldn't be too much to be concerned about. They can be lazy buggers and that sounds like it's fitting the bill for him.

http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/t...har/sheri1.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/t...har/sheri2.jpg

Those are the best pictures I can find to demonstrate my point, but that's basically the goal you want (sans the funky jaw line, no idea what happened with him there). If it makes you feel any better I got that boy as a grossly emaciated cricket eater from Petco, and he looked like that within ~3 weeks.

Given all the loose skin he looks a little dehydrated too, so once he's settled I'd consider giving him (or making your brother give him!) some baths. It takes awhile for them to realize they're enjoyable, but the only times I could hold that lizard without him destroying my hands was right after baths :rolleyes:.

And yea, he might not recognize what you're offering as food if all he's eaten is romaine. Worst case scenario you can try finely chopping up some romaine with the rest of the meal so he'll get something in him, but add in less and less so you can slowly wean him off it. I had best luck pulverizing strawberries and bananas and coating what I wanted him to eat with them at first. Just watch out for too many bananas as they can cause constipation.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dalishar

Given all the loose skin he looks a little dehydrated too, so once he's settled I'd consider giving him (or making your brother give him!) some baths. It takes awhile for them to realize they're enjoyable, but the only times I could hold that lizard without him destroying my hands was right after baths :rolleyes:.

And yea, he might not recognize what you're offering as food if all he's eaten is romaine. Worst case scenario you can try finely chopping up some romaine with the rest of the meal so he'll get something in him, but add in less and less so you can slowly wean him off it. I had best luck pulverizing strawberries and bananas and coating what I wanted him to eat with them at first. Just watch out for too many bananas as they can cause constipation.

---

Yeah i tried getting some water on him ill give him a bath right now. I thought he was dehydrated too because his skin feels really dry and papery. like you can see and feel his ribs too... weird. I thought about the whole lettuce deal with adding it then taking it away, im not sure what will work. He still hasnt eaten anything. I grated up some carrot and red pepper but that didnt work either.

gave him a bath. idk if it did anything. he seemed more responsive though since he had enough energy to try to bite me :D not really he just kinda opened his mouth up and stuff. didnt like try to attack me haha. idk. its weird. when you hold him hes fine but when your above him he freaks out. he like tilts his whole body and head.... i saw one do that in a vid on youtube though. had my brother buy an acurite for the tank, the humidity is still low but i put even more foil on it...

- the hot spots like 90º though i think. cool side is much cooler i could space out the lamps but i think it would be better to have the UV and heat in the same spot so he gets the uv he needs when basking... plus i cant imagine ANOTHER light being good for the humidity, but i have a red heat light and shade if its needed. would a CHE do the same as a regular heat lamp? humidity wise... that might work.

also would the red light be bad at night or no? my brother and his never ending knowledge decided to put some athletic shorts over the lamp shade and the front of the tank so he didnt have to see the light..... luckly i went in his room to see if he turned off the UV light... :colbert: :rage:

How low is the cool side? The UV really won't do much for temperature so it's useless to move it off the basking tbh. CHE's are extremely hot and not really safe to use with tanks.

Red lights I'm not sure of. I personally don't like using any sort of visible light at night as it just doesn't seem like it'd be best, but iguanas supposedly can't see certain colors / rays so that's up to you.

The overhead freak out is perfectly natural! If you want it a little "easier" you can try coming at them from the side instead of over and they won't have a complete tantrum, but it takes a lot longer to catch the buggers :rolleyes:.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dalishar

How low is the cool side? The UV really won't do much for temperature so it's useless to move it off the basking tbh. CHE's are extremely hot and not really safe to use with tanks.

Red lights I'm not sure of. I personally don't like using any sort of visible light at night as it just doesn't seem like it'd be best, but iguanas supposedly can't see certain colors / rays so that's up to you.

The overhead freak out is perfectly natural! If you want it a little "easier" you can try coming at them from the side instead of over and they won't have a complete tantrum, but it takes a lot longer to catch the buggers :rolleyes:.

---

well i think the cool side was around 75 or something, theres really no heat to it. still having a hard time with the humidity... i put paper towels on the news paper to hold water better.

is there places they dont like to be touched or does it just depend on the iguana? he doesnt seem to like me around his head. mostly only around the top though. its kinda weird. lol. maybe its the same as the thing with picking him up... I think he might have eaten some of the shredded carrots i gave him, its hard to tell. still trying to get real food for him.

That's pretty natural. They have a... "sensor" I guess (you can see it, it's a funky looking scale on their head) that enables them to tell if a predator is above them. The youngsters are pretty low on the food chain up until full growth, so they tend to be a bit more nervous about anything above them (and everything else...) than an adult would.

Once he's more comfortable though, he probably won't mind the head. Mine used to go into complete sleepy-bliss mode if I rubbed between his eyes. But they're all different, so that depends entirely on him.

Do you have the water bowl on the hot side? That could help humidity a tad. Otherwise I'd just spray him 2-3 times a day. I'm not really sure what you can do about the heat without destroying what humidity you have, I was a sucker and just kept my room at 80 for them (it was miserable) :\. Maybe a low wattage bulb? Like a regular house light, and just go up in watts until it settles. Assuming your family is crazy like mine and keeps like 20 different lightbulbs in the cupboards.

I put the waterbowl on the cool side. along with the food, so the food doesnt get dried out. lol, my room used to be really hot i dont know why, but it was good for my snake... i didnt even do anything to increase the heat it just got hot.a low wattage blub might work, but wouldnt help at night... i have a feeling it would do the same as a red light but not as bad. ill see what i can do, also idk i guess the temp is changing a bit but last time i checked the cool side was like 85. i dont know whats going on :oops:
the basking spot is good though so atleast he has some where to go if he needs heat...

and i wouldnt bother with the waterbowl on the hot side, i tried that with my snake with a large water dish and it hardly did anything, the iguana one is much smaller so it probably wouldnt have any effect.

I actually thing he ate some of the shredded carrots i put in the dish. my moms supposed to picking up some of the foods iguanas eat today, i gave her a sheet of the foods they eat from that website you posted. I also have a drinking water dish and a large black plastic thing that i put in for him to soak in if he wants too.

He actually seems to be doing better now, his skin feels alot softer and i think hes been eating, at least some because the leaves are missing peices. He doesnt LOOK as skinny anymore, his ribs cant be seen as much and he is alot more alert... :D now he trys to run away when you want to pick him up. Before he didnt.

Yeap, being a brat is a sure sign of good health! :D

Glad he's doing better! Did you ever get the humidity sorted out, or just resorting to baths to keep him hydrated?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dalishar

Yeap, being a brat is a sure sign of good health! :D

Glad he's doing better! Did you ever get the humidity sorted out, or just resorting to baths to keep him hydrated?

---

Humidity is doing its own thing lol. Some times its good sometimes its low, i still spray it a few times a day and he has a water bowl along with the bigger dish of water that he could soak in. Hes been eating thuogh which is good. What about calcium suppliments? how much/ often should i use it if at all?

For Dibble I use ReptiCal (I think you can pick it up at pretty much any pet store). Usually just get a pinch and mix it up really good with the food. I've been doing it every day of the week, and will probably drop off to about ~3-4 times a week once he's 4 years old (as Cubans seem to grow a little slower than Greens do). You could probably drop it down to fewer days at ~2-2 1/2 years old.

You may also want to supplement a multivitamin. I crushed up Centrum tablets and just add another pinch in along with the calcium supplements about ~4 times a week. This will drop down to ~2 times a week at 4 years.

Just be careful about over doing it, as too much calcium is just as bad as not enough.

I just got my 2 year old iguana from a friend his name is Buddha, and I was always asking him what to feed him and things this really helped me with what to feed him I know he loves Banana's and his water bowl is where he likes to poo :) but all and all I love this little guy because he is so smart:banana:

X2 for the green iguana society. There is a sub adult/adult rescue in the house who has needed some special care and is now growing like an overstuffed suitcase. I'm no expert but have managed to meet it's needs.

Be careful giving iguana sweet food they get "addicted" to stuff like that and start refusing the greens they need.

Personally I use a little Zoo Med (I know right) dry food every 2 days in addition to his fresh offering.

Two water sources, since one will likely become a toilet. He uses either his big water tub or the eco earth container (giant boa corner water dish from LLL Reptile).