Iguana care?

[I<3Dreamsicles]

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?

[Dalishar]

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<3Dreamsicles]

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<3Dreamsicles]

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

heres some pics













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...

[Dalishar]

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<3Dreamsicles]

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.

[Dalishar]

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.




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 .

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.

[I<3Dreamsicles]

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 .

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.

[I<3Dreamsicles]

gave him a bath. idk if it did anything. he seemed more responsive though since he had enough energy to try to bite me 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...

[I<3Dreamsicles]

- 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...