The Iguana Spot on Nutrition

    When trying to figure out what and how to feed your pet iguana there are many schools of thought and even more "diets" and "salad" recipes than one person could wade through in a year. It's enough to drive any ig owner crazy! Instead of following a diet, which may or may not be suitable for your iguana based on a number of factors (like size, age, health conditions, etc.) it's a better idea to follow nutritional guidelines very similar to the way we feed ourselves and our human children. The following basic information is given to get you started down the right road to raise a healthy iguana and avoid ending up with a picky eater!

     Please note that the nutritional guidelines given here are all based on raw, fresh food unless otherwise noted. The idea behind the chart is to pick one or more items from each column to add to a salad each day. The foods can be changed each week and it is desirable to do so, not only to promote good health but to avoid turning your ig into a picky eater by having him/her try new things each week. While frozen vegetables may seem more convenient, the freezing process depletes them of thiamin (vitamin B1) and if used it has been suggested by many that brewer's yeast or vitamin B1 must be added prior to feeding.

     If your veterinarian thinks you need to add a vitamin or calcium supplement to your iguana's diet, they will be able to advise you on what you should be using. It is a common and widely accepted belief that most of the vitamin and calcium supplements available at the pet store are unnecessary and inappropriate for iguanas. Again, asking your veterinarian is the best course of action, especially when you consider that most of the vitamin and calcium supplements available for iguanas do not list the ingredients on their labels. While calcium is important to an iguana, it is a tricky topic to decipher for the average person. Calcium to phosphorus ratios are available at many places on the Internet and should you desire to learn more about it a link to the USDA can be found on our links page. Watch out for calcium supplements that have D3 in them. D3 occurs naturally in iguanas that are being exposed to the proper light (UVB) or natural sunlight and adding it to their food in a supplement can lead to toxicity issues. The bottom line is, as long as you are feeding your iguana a well rounded nutritional program and exposing them to the proper lights, there should be no need to supplement with anything.

     Greens should be washed and torn into managable pieces. Vegetables should be washed, de-stemmed (winter squashes should be peeled) and shredded. Fruits should be washed and seeded then shredded. Each day the salad should consist of at least one leafy green and two or more other vegetables. Fruit should be added (in addition to the greens and vegetables) no more than two or three days a week. Additionally, it is a good idea to add alfalfa pellets (NOT sprouts) or a good alfalfa based commercial iguana food every day.
          *Dried figs can be placed in a small amount of very hot water or hot fruit juice for a few minutes to soften and then placed in a food processor (including water) to be chopped. Dried figs tend to be very sticky and this is one of the easier ways to deal with them.

Nutritional Guidelines For Feeding Captive Iguanas

These lists are comprised of foods found easily in grocery stores in New England.

Greens and Flowers collard greens
turnip greens
mustard greens
dandelion greens
water cress
escarole
broccoli leaves only
flat leaf parsley
cilantro
untreated rose petals
untreated hybiscus flowers and leaves
untreated nasturtium flowers and leaves
untreated petunia flowers
untreated dandelion flowers
untreated clover

Vegetables
green or wax beans
orange fleshed quashes**
snap peas
carrots
parsnip
asparagus
okra
bell peppers
sweet potato
zucchini
snow peas
yellow squash
kabocha squash**
butternut squash**
cactus paddles
eggplant
yucca

Fruits
fresh or dried figs
peaches
pear
apple
watermelon
honeydew melon
cantaloupe
mango
grapes (seedless)
raspberries
strawberries
blackberries
strawberries
prickly pear
dried apricots
cherries

Some foods should only be fed in moderation as too much of them can lead to serious medical problems for your iguana. The following is a list of those foods. It's okay to feed them every once in a while, for instance if you're making them for your family that day, but should not be included as a staple in their diet. There are many websites that provide more detail on why these foods should only be fed occasionally and a list of those is available elsewhere on our website.

spinach
beets
beet greens
swiss chard
dock
sorrel
celery
kale
carrot tops

broccoli
cabbage
bok-choi
turnip
Brussel sprouts
cauliflower
rutabaga
tofu
banana

Some foods should NEVER be fed to an iguana for any reason! Iguanas are STRICT vegans, meaning they need only plant life to sustain them, no animal or animal bi-products. Despite what many sources will tell people, iguanas DO NOT need animal protein (please see section titled "Animal Protein and other related topics"). You will notice that lettuce is on the list also, lettuce is VERY low in nutritional value. The following is a list of foods that should never be fed to an iguana.

insects
worms
mice
dairy products
lettuce
yogurt*

eggs
dog food
cat food
primate food (Monkey Chow, etc.)
meat
food intended for other animals

*Yogurt should not be fed to an iguana as part of their diet. However, it is used by many veterinarians when an iguana has diarrhea or has been placed on antibiotics to help replace some of the good bacteria either condition can deplete. Only feed yogurt under the advice of a qualified veterinarian.

Certain flowers and plants (such as Ficus, rose petals, hibiscus and dandelion flowers) are a great treat as long as you are 100% sure that they have not been treated with any chemicals (such as plant food or pesticides). Whole grain bread is another good treat. Remember as long as they are just occasional treats and not part of the normal diet it is okay to try something different.

Animal Protein and other related topics

     One of the most hotly debated topics among serious iguana keepers is whether or not iguanas need animal protein in order to thrive. I have come across more than one person who claims that in the wild iguana are not vegans. To dispel this opinion once and for all, let us approach it from a common sense point of view.

     First of all, we are discussing captive iguanas, not wild iguanas. What an iguana may or may not eat in the wild has no baring on what they will need to eat if they are living in a cage in your house. Yes, it is true that in the wild iguanas do not take vitamin supplements. Yes, is true that over 25 years ago some scientist thinks they might have observed a juvenile iguana in the wild eat a bug. However, a wild iguana living in the tropic climates of Costa Rica is going to have much different nutritional needs and food availability than one living in a cage, in a house in New Hampshire or any place in the United States.

     Secondly, a captive iguana does not have the same resources that a wild iguana has. Natural sunlight is either minimal or replaced with artificial lighting. Most of the leaves available to wild iguanas can not be found in our grocery stores. Therefore, we as their human care takers must do the best we can to replicate their natural surroundings. Sometimes that will mean supplementing with vitamins, offering as many different foods as possible and basing our decisions on the research of qualified and well respected experts in the field of iguana care and husbandry.

     Will an iguana eat meat? I have heard many people claim that if you put a mouse in the cage of an adult iguana they will eat it. I think the more important question to ask is it good for them? An iguana uses their tongue to check out their environment, many times objects will get stuck to their tongue and they will ingest it (I'm sure you've heard the stories of pennies, rubber balls, staples, hair clips, etc. in the stomach of an iguana). Ingesting and eating are not the same thing! One of the most popular statements I hear that makes me cringe "of course it's good for them, they wouldn't eat it otherwise". An iguana may ingest a paper clip from the floor. Does that mean that because they ate it, it is good for them? The answer is obviously no. Again, we are talking about captive iguanas, not wild ones. An excellent example if this is that one day, while clipping claws, one of our igs actually attempted to eat the nail clippers. I immediately determined that since she tried to eat them, they must be good for her.....Right ? As with all things, a fair amount of common sense needs to be applied.

Research sources

http://www.exoticpetvet.net/nutrition.html

Green Iguanas: The Ultimate Owner's Manual by James W. Hatfield