Iguanas!? :D Tell me what you know, people!

Question

I'm just being really lazy, what do they eat sides the pre-packed food? And what type of lamp for heat is best recommended?

Also, anybody know about the health facts of one? I wonder if this guy is chill.

Answer 1

Not only are you being lazy as you admit, but you are also being incredibly irresponsible.  The time to learn what type of heating/lighting your reptile requires and what it eats is ***before*** you get the pet.

Iguana are diurnal vegetarians.  This means they require UVB/UVA/heat lighting, and should have daily salads consisting of dark leafy greens and shredded squash, carrot, cucumber and other such veggies.  You will need to provide a basking area in the 95F - 110F range, plenty of height and climbing opportunities in its enclosure, humidity and a temperature gradient of 75F - 80F in the cool portion of the enclosure.

You will need a fairly large enclosure as you are the owner of a reptile that will grow to be 3-4 feet long.

Answer 2

they eat kale, mustard greens, fruits, veggies. I didn't have much luck with mine eating anything but the kale and greens. in pet stores they feed them green peppers and broccoli and cauliflower.

I had 3 different types of lamps. I had a ceramic one that produces no light only heat, a regular day time light, and a night time light. The ceramic one seemed to work best, although it was more expensive, but had a 1 year warranty. and since I kept it in my room, it didnt keep me up at night

Answer 3

If you are being lazy now, just think how lazy you are when you have to deal w/ your iguana. Are you going to be lazy and not give him/her his/her food daily, more then once a day? Are you up to giving him/her his/her bath daily or every other day?

There is NO pre-packed food for iguanas. Iguanas need daily fresh greens daily, more then once a day. No skipping a meal, even if you have to wake up 1hr before school, work.

Daily food should have 5-7 good staple greens (2-3 cups a day if not more younger igs may eat 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 ... adding basil for young igs sometimes helps them eat ... romaine is mostly water no nutrience, you can add small amount and occasionally in w/ the good staple greens (collard, mustard, etc) but do not make 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 now 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 thing fruits are like junk food to iguanas ... some fruits to try papay, kiwi, mango, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, honeydew (great water source), canalope (great water source), 12 grain wheat bread ... if anything has seeds make sure you remove seed before you give it to your iguana anything w/ small seeds like strawberries wait like 3 days before giving anymore ... watermelon (seedless) can be frozen and then shaved onto your iguanas food helps 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 high 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 in the kidneys causing kidney damage/failure ... some ig owners do give there ig spinach but in very small amounts and only once a month ... corn igs can not digest ... carrots can block calcium absorption ... bananas are low in calcium best to give another type of fruit ... apples too much acid - appetite suppressant ... food should be cut/chopped/diced no bigger then the iguanas head, if they are small having a chopper chop them up, or slice them into very small pieces ... spray/mist food to help w/ water/hydration

Animal protein:

Iguanas are plant eaters, they should not be feed any animal protein. No bugs, no meat, no dairy, no tofu. If you ever give your ig iguana diet dried food, please read the ingredients there are so many products on the market today that clearly puts meat protein in there ingredients, usually w/ in the first 10 ingredients. Some that I am aware of that do MonsterDiet, TRex, Zilla, Wardley. RepCal Iguana pellets is one that is safe to use. Soak pellets before offering to help w/ hydration, only give a few pellets for you want the greens to be main diet.

Heat, well besides heat iguanas need UVB, and there are some that actually are harmful for them. House bulb depending on enclosure size will help produce heat, wattage will depend on enclosure size. You can also use the basking bulbs that are at pet stores. CHE (ceramic heat emitters) work best at night because they produce only heat no light, which iguanas sleep at night.

UVB: (12 hrs on during day - 12 hrs off during night no light)

US: ReptiSun 10.0 distance 8-10 inches from your igs body

Repti Glo 8.0 distance 6-8 inches from your igs body

ReptiSun 5.0 distance 6-8 inches from your igs body

UK: Arkadia distance 6-8 inches from your igs body

- You will need to adjust the distance as your ig grows

- Using a shop light from a home improvement store works the best, get one that has 2 tube plugs and using 2 UVB tubes

- The UVB listed are in tube form, using the 36-48inch tubes are the best more length for your ig

- Surface under the UVB tube lights need to be a flat surface if at an angle your igs body will not get the proper UVB threw out

- There are UVB's out there on the market now that can cause eye damange to your ig

- W/out UVB your ig may end up w/ MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease)

- UVB information that you may find interesting:

http://www.uvguide.co.uk/index.htm - http://www.uvguide.co.uk/fluorescenttube... - http://www.uvguide.co.uk/whatreptilesnee...

Temps:

never let drop below 70F ...

basking 92-96F if temp is too low digestion is slowed too high food digests too fast and nutrition is lost

medium/middle (overall) 88-92F

cool 75-84F

at night 73-84F ... having a temp gun works the best to know what your igs body temp truly is.

Iguanas can get many health issues, I am not going to list them because there is a few, and well it's time for you to read and learn what they are. You can read on all the health issues that iguanas can get w/ the 3 sites that you should read. Don't forget you may end up w/ needing stitches.

You as the iguanas slave have a lot to read and learn. I or nobody else will be taking care of the iguana, only YOU! Step up and be an owner, and learn what is good, bad for them.

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 hand:

Iguanas for Dummies by Melissa Kaplan

Yahoo has some great sites for Iguana owners... these groups helped me and still help w/ questions .. if you'd like to join:

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/BabyI... - http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Iguan...

Answer 4

I don't think you're lazy. :) It's good to know what people think about the lizards, though don't take what you read here for granted. Buy a manual and do a lot of google searches to learn what you can.

I know Iguanas do sometimes bite, and they also tail whip, so you might want to look up behavior, and figure out how to get them to be sociable and not aggressive.

I used to want an iguana (still do) but I decided to go with a bearded dragon as my first lizard pet. They're moderately easy to care for (as far as lizard care goes) and they rarely bite, and are pretty hardy. They've also got a lot of personality.

All I know about iguanas is that you should never feed them iceberg lettuce. It's got almost no nutritional value as a food. All it is to a lizard, really, is crunchy water.