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Green Iguana's
Wild green iguanas are found naturally in southern Mexico, Central America, and most of South America. In their native habitats, green iguanas are found mostly in the rainforests, although some do live in drier, costal areas. They tend to limit themselves to lower altitudinal regions, where temperatures are warm enough for their ectothermic lifesyle. Green iguanas are generally arboreal, meaning that they live in trees. Their long claws are superb adaptations for this lifestyle. Although they may appear to be quite clumsy as they tip over your furniture, knock things off shelves and fall off of perches, they are quite good climbers. They spend the majority of the day high in the forest canopy, and venture to the ground only to move from tree to tree, to mate, and to lay eggs. They are also good swimmers and jumpers. Keeping an iguana in a too-small enclosure at any age intensifies their reaction to their territory being invaded, even when the "invader" is your hand and arm putting in fresh food and water. Start with at least a 60-gallon US tank with a secure lid. While a 60 gallon tank may seem huge for a baby iguana, a properly cared for hatchling will outgrow that enclosure by the end of its first year. Enclosures not suitable for iguanas are those that are primarily mesh, as mesh does not hold in the heat. Place enclosures where iguanas can look out of a window when there are no humans around and they can watch people doing relatively quiet things when they are home. Choose a suitable substrate that is safe for the iguana and easy for you to clean. Hemmed or well-trimmed artificial grass, indoor/outdoor carpeting, butchers paper or paper towels can all be used. If using the artificial grass or carpeting, always have one or two pieces cut to fit in reserve. Be sure to trim any frayed edges and strings. Newspapers should be avoided: the inks gets into the reptile's skin and the out-gassed fumes, undetectable by most people, when inhaled at close range by the iguana, may cause health problems. Provide a hiding place, such as a half-log or an empty cardboard box. The box or log should be big enough for the iguana to hide its entire body inside; it does not have to cover the entire length of the outstretched tail. Iguanas love to climb, so provide one or more branches, ropes and/or towels for the iguana to climb and bask on. Make sure they are anchored securely so they don't fall with your iguana clinging to them. The width of the branches is important for two reasons: your iguana is going to keep growing wider as well as longer and taller, and he will need to turn around when he wants to move to the other side of the enclosure. If you use branches collected from the wild, you will need to treat them first to assure that you do not introduce into your home any critters that belong outdoors. First, clean off any dirt and loose bark. If the branches are small enough to put in your oven, bake them at 200° to 250° F (94° to 120° C) for 2 to 3 hours. Let them cool completely. If the branches are too big for the oven, place them in a tub of bleach-water solution (1/2 cup [118 ml] household bleach per gallon [3.8 l] of water), and soak for 24 hours. Safely dispose of the solution, then refill the tub with fresh water, and soak again for a day. Let them dry in the sun for 2 to 3 days before use. The iguana environment needs to be functioning independently of your own environment when it comes to temperatures and humidity. It must be 75° to 88° F (24°-31° C), with a basking area of 88° to 95° F (35° C) during the day, and 70° to 84° F (21-28° C) at night, in the iguana's environment. Iguanas operate on a daily cycle that includes a distinct dark period, night and light period, Since our iguanas are tropical lizards, they should be on a 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark cycle. If the lighting is incorrect, it will affect the iguanas stress levels, immune and endocrine function, digestion, growth and development, and more. If we cannot get iguanas exposed to natural (not filtered through glass or plastic) sunlight throughout the year to enable them to develop the D3 they require, then you need to supply the UVB through safe artificial means. To be effective, UVB-producing fluorescent lights must be no farther than 18 inches from the iguana; 10-15 inches is better. The UVB-producing fluorescent light should be on a 12-hour on/12-hour off period. The UV radiation emitted by the UVB-producing fluorescents eventually degrades to the point of uselessness long before the fluorescent tube burns out and stops emitting visible light. These tubes should be changed whenever black bands appear around the ends of the tubes, about every nine to twelve months. To properly stimulate appetite and digest their food, iguanas must have access to a basking area that remains between 88° to 95° F (31°-35° C) for at least 12 hours a day. The rest of their enclosure must sustain a thermal gradient, that is, a specific temperature range from cool to warm. Owners rely mostly on providing the required temperatures by use of regular household incandescent bulbs or properly installed ceramic heating elements for daytime heating. Iguanas need supplemental heating at night with no light. Examples include an infrared heating device such as a ceramic heating element (CHE), an infrared panel, or a nocturnal/nighttime light bulb made for reptiles. Ceramic heating elements produce heat by emitting infrared wavelengths. They produce no visible light (which can make it difficult to tell if they are turned on or not). They are very useful in smaller enclosures because the bouncing wavelengths ultimately warm up the tank and you can establish your thermal gradient. In large enclosures, they are only useful to provide the basking area heat. You must use porcelain light sockets if you are going to use a CHE. Hot rocks and sizzle stones do not heat up anything but themselves and what ever happens to be plastered to them. All too often, their internal temperature regulator fails, and the rock becomes hot enough to severely burn, sometimes fatally, the iguana. Iguanas in warm-to-hot climates generally do well with a heating pad made for humans. Placed under one-half of the tank or in the basking area of a larger enclosure. Don’t guess about the temperature inside the enclosure. Any regular thermometer can be securely taped to the enclosure; these are often found at reduced prices at biological supply houses and inexpensive ones at hardware stores. Make sure the iguana cannot get at glass thermometers as they may be knocked or clawed down and broken. Get at least two - one for the cool side and one for the warm. Ideally, you need a third one at the basking area. Feeding your Iguana It had been thought for many years that Iguanas are omnivores, eating both fruits, vegetables and meat, but new research has shown that Iguanas are strictly herbivores and more correctly, folivores, leaf eaters. What this means is that Iguanas should not be getting any animal protein in their diets. Green Iguanas are herbivorous from their very first meal because their digestive system is structured to process a high-fiber diet, and to extract much, but not all of their water needs form the foods they eat. While Iguanas know instinctively which foods to eat in their natural habitat, in captivity it is up to the owner to choose a proper diet for them. The best foods to feed your Iguana are fresh vegetables with lots of variety. Your Iguanas basic menu should consist of one green and one orange vegetable, parsnip and alfalfa (for protein and color), and a fruit. a calcium and multivitamin supplements should be added. Served with this basic diet your Iguana should also be eating green leafy vegetables. If at first your iguana ignores the Basic Salad and eats only the greens, try withholding the greens until he starts eating the Basic Salad. Once he is eating the salad without hesitation, then you can reintroduce the greens. Green Vegetable: For the green vegetable, use whole fresh green beans, snap peas or snow peas, that is, the peas and their edible pods. Wash the pods well then chop them by steel-knifing them in the processor or chop by hand. Remember to process or hand-chop until the pieces are small enough to be easily swallowed by a lizard who gulps food rather than chews it. To vary the flavor and smell, you can occasionally throw in a small amount of broccoli, bok choy, brussels sprouts. Orange Vegetable: For the orange vegetable, concentrate on the winter squashes. Winter squashes include acorn, banana, delicata, Hubbard, kabocha, pumpkin, spaghetti and turban. These squashes are called "winter" squashes because, when kept in dark, cool, dry places, they will stay fresh for several months. Those harvested during the mid- to late summer will stay fresh throughout the winter months when kept this way. This makes it easy for most of us to stock up on fresh pumpkins when their price falls just before Halloween and feed fresh pumpkin throughout the winter to our iguanas (and baked pumpkin for ourselves!). If you need to, microwave the harder squashes until they are just soft enough for you to peel and cut into lengths that will fit through the feed tube of the food processor or other shredder, or comfortably hold while you chop or grate by hand. Some owners have reported that kabocha squash brings out blue accent skin colors on some iguanas, more so than other winter squashes. All squashes are high in carotenoids which in other species, are known to bring out some latent coloring. Crookneck and scallop, both summer squashes, are fine to use in season. They have the soft skins that are cooked and eaten along with the flesh and seeds. The two squashes that are not suitable for use as anything other than an occasional treat are cucumbers and zucchini. Both are poor, nutritionally speaking. Carrots and sweet potatoes can also be fed, but they do contain oxalates, so use them occasionally, sticking to winter squashes as your primary orange vegetable. Yams are okay occasionally; they contain oxalates as well as saponins, so should be used less frequently than the carrots or squash. These vegetables should be shredded. If you are also using a parsnip, the parsnip can be shredded at the same time as the orange vegetable. Other Vegetables: Your iguana may enjoy some of the following vegetables that may be used in small amounts. These should be considered as flavorful additions to the Basic Salad, not a replacement for the more nutritious vegetables. Try mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, green onions, other root vegetables, cactus pad, star fruit, asparagus, okra, and just about anything you see in the produce department that looks interesting. Some of these vegetables have oxalates and other chemicals that you don't want too highly represented in your herbivore's diet, so do go easy on them. Fruit: Fruit is used more for color and moisture than it is for its nutritional contribution to the overall salad. Just as some vegetables are more nutritious than others, so too are some fruits better than others in this regard. Many types of fruit are suitable for the salad. Listed in descending order in terms of nutritional contribution: raspberries, blueberries, mulberries, strawberries, pears, plums, mangos, papayas, cherries, apricots, cantaloupe, dates, prickly pear cactus and kiwi (both skinned) are all good fruits. As you may have noticed, most of these represent the most expensive fruits found in the market, or are only available seasonally. Fortunately, most markets keep a year round stock of frozen blueberries, strawberries and cherries, and you can sometimes find frozen mango at specialty stores such as Trader Joe's. Figs are the highest in calcium, with dried figs highest of all. Unfortunately, fresh figs are rather expensive unless you are lucky enough to have a tree. Dried figs are available in grocery stores during the November-December holidays, but can often be found throughout the year at health food stores. Dried figs must be soaked in water (either cold water overnight in the refrigerator, or about one-half hour in hot water) to rehydrate them before feeding them out. Fruits should be steel-knifed or finely chopped, then mixed in with the vegetables. Fruits suitable for occasional treats include banana (high in phosphorous), carambola (star fruit - high in oxalates), melons, berries, and grapes and soaked raisins. Hard fruits should be shredded. Berries, melons, grapes and reconstituted raisins should be chopped into smaller pieces. Do not feed the melon skin, banana skin (unless you buy organically grown bananas - all others are treated with a fungicide to retard mold growth on skin). Do not feed papaya, pear, apple, plum, peach, nectarine, or other seeds. The tiny seeds in berries, grapes, and banana are fine. Some iguana keepers have reported that their hatchlings became impacted after several weeks of eating fruits with lots of tiny seeds, such as figs and raspberries. Along with making sure that all dried fruits are thoroughly reconstituted, alternate these seeded fruits with ones from which you can easily remove the seeds. Alfalfa: Additional protein, fiber and calcium is provided by alfalfa. The best forms to use are the powders or leaf teas packaged for human consumption. These are preferable to the small mammal alfalfa food pellets and crumbled alfalfa hay, as discussed above. If you are using pellets or tablets, they can be ground in the food processor (use the steel knife), nut grinder or coffee grinder--if your ears can stand the noise. The pellets may also be left whole and mixed with the vegetables where they should be broken down rapidly by the moisture in the salad. If they are not, add some water to the salad, or soak the pellets briefly before mixing into the salad. If they still don't soften enough to fall apart on their own, stop using that product and switch to another brand or, better, a powder or leaf product made for humans. Health Care All new iguanas, whether they are hatchlings you bought from a store, or someone else's pet you've taken in, should be seen by a reptile veterinarian. It can take a long time for iguana owners to recognize signs of illness and disease in their lizards. Iguanas, even long-term captives, are still wild animals and will hide, as long as possible, any signs of weakness. Don't bet on your new iguana's life by skipping the veterinarian visit. An initial visit that includes fecal tests and treatment for worms and dehydration should be included as part of the total cost of your iguana. If you can't afford the veterinarian, you can't afford the iguana. Pet trade iguanas are always highly stressed, usually dehydrated, have high levels of internal parasites, and sometimes external parasites (reptile mites or ticks). Since they haven't been fed properly, or maintained at proper temperatures, they are also malnourished. When you bring them home, their stress levels increase for several weeks until they start getting used to you and their new home. Getting them treated for dehydration, parasites and any infections will help enable them to better deal with all the new things in their life. The first thing your veterinarian will do will be to check your iguana out from head to tail-tip. The iguana's nutritional status and hydration will also be checked to see if he is dehydrated or too thin. The inside of his mouth, his eyes, the folds of skin along his neck, each of the limbs and toes and the abdominal cavity...all will be felt carefully to check for lumps, bumps, cuts and breaks. The lumps and bumps found could be related to infections or calcium deficiencies. Be prepared to answer questions about diet, environment, and any possible injuries. While we're on the subject of questions, be prepared to answer a lot of them. Your veterinarian will want to know where and when you got the iguana, how old he (or she) is purported to be, what you are feeding him (be specific!), how you are housing him, what you are using for heating and lighting, the temperatures and photoperiods. You should also be prepared to describe the iguana's general behavior and any physical problems you have noted:
Iguanas should be alert and move with
smooth motions, whether they are speeding across the room or checking out a new object. If your iguana spends most of its
time sleeping and is relatively non-responsive, then tell the veterinarian this; lethargy is a symptom of several disorders. Iguanas should be alert and move with smooth motions, whether they are speeding across the room or checking out a new object. If your iguana spends most of its time sleeping and is relatively non-responsive, then tell the veterinarian this; lethargy is a symptom of several disorders. Iguanas should be alert and move with smooth motions, whether they are speeding across the room or checking out a new object. If your iguana spends most of its time sleeping and is relatively non-responsive, then tell the veterinarian this; lethargy is a symptom of several disorders. Basic Tests: The first test to be done is a fecal flotation. This test is used to examine the feces for the presence of worm ova. Worms live out their adult life cycle inside the host animal, releasing their eggs to be deposited wherever the animal defecates. Other animals coming into contact with the feces may eat or tongue-flick the feces, thus ingesting the eggs (referred to as oral-fecal transmission), thus giving the ova a nice place to hatch and set up housekeeping. Veterinarians cannot dispense medication without actually examining the patient. Drug dosages for reptiles are based on actual and metabolic size, and may be different depending on what species of reptile. This means you can't just take a fecal sample from your new iguana to the veterinarian and expect them to run the test and give you medication if your iguana needs it without your bringing in your iguana for an examination. All too often, pet owners fail to follow through in giving their pets each of the treatments prescribed by their veterinarian. Just as it is critical for humans to take the full course of prescribed antibiotics, so, too, it is critical that you make sure your iguana gets every dose of medication prescribed to knock down or out the worm or protozoan mediation. The same holds true for any antibiotics and antifungals your veterinarian may prescribe when needed. To better enable the veterinarian to spot problems, have a blood test done every year. Having blood work done when the iguana is healthy provides baseline information against which changes can be compared and assessed. Iguanas are a lot like humans: the "norms" for all the different things tested has a range that is considered "normal" for the species. Emergency Veterinary Care Any condition that would cause you to get a human being to the emergency room as fast as possible should trigger the same response. The emergency conditions include but are not necessarily limited to:
Non-Emergency Veterinary Care There are conditions for which you need to get to the veterinarian much sooner than waiting for your iguana's annual appointment, but for which you don't need to go racing out of your house in your pajamas at midnight on Saturday night. You do need to call your veterinarian's office the first day after it is open and make an appointment to get in to see the veterinarian within the next day or so.
Another health problem affects both the iguanas and their humans. Several years ago, there were only scattered reports of Salmonella-infected people who picked up the Salmonella organism from their iguana. Again, due to the increasing numbers and correspondingly poor conditions in which the pet trade maintains these lizards, Salmonella has risen dramatically. Salmonella is of especial concern to pregnant women, newborn babies, infants and toddlers, the elderly, and anyone with a compromised immune system, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. Strict disinfection must be done, and contact with new animals limited to persons not vulnerable to infection until such time as the new iguana has stabilized and is healthy (a healthy reptile can still have Salmonella but may be less likely to excessive numbers of the organism). Since iguanas (or other pets) that have Salmonella may not shed the organisms every time they defecate, a fecal exam to test for Salmonella may give false negatives. Talk to your veterinarian about doing blood tests for Salmonella detection. If your iguana is otherwise healthy but tests positive for Salmonella, knowledgeable veterinarians and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that they not be treated with drugs to try to eradicate or reduce the level of Salmonella. Treating iguanas that are not actually sick from the Salmonella will lead to antibiotic-resistant strains of Salmonella. That will increase the health risk to humans as the same or similar antibiotics are used in humans as are used an iguanas. |
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