Iggy not eatin much...

[whitewolf88]

Ok ive had my ig for about 3 mouths now and he seemed to be pretty fine. I fed him spinach leaves. Now though he doesn't seem do eat anything! And i haven't found out anything wrong with him physically. I've also been feeding him this adult iguana food from the petshop. Is that good for him or should i stop getting it?

[crazybaby]

Hi Whitewolf, welcome to IZ. Sounds to me like you're iggy needs a revamping of his meals. Now I'm not sure what you mean by "I fed him spinach leaves" but if that is the only thing being fed to him aside from store bought iguana food, then there is need for change.
Check out this page : www.anapsid.org/iguana/mksalad.html this is what should be fed to your iguana on a daily basis. You may add the iguana food as a sort of lil extra, but soak them first so your iggy doesn't get dehydrated. Although, there is really no need for the iguana food if the diet is well balanced and he gets all the good veggies and greens he needs Also, if you don't have some already, reptile vitamins are a good thing to help keep calcium levels up and keeps the ig away from MBD (this will naturally only work with the proper UV lighting).

I hope this helps you out a bit, if there are any other questions you know where to go!

P.S. Should get your iggy to see a good reptile vet just to have him checked for parasites or other problems which can cause him to not want to eat.

[prism_wolf]

If you use the diet guide in this forum, you won't go wrong either. Spinach is a food I don't even feed at all. It's extremely high in oxalates which bind calcium which means the ig cannot absorb it. You should have no less than 5 different items in your salad...the more the better. I use no less than 9 items.

The ONLY commercial food I recommend as a SMALL addition to the salad is RepCal adult iguana pellets for adults...juvenile brand for younger igs. It should always be soaked in water until just moistened so it does not cause hydration problems. The pellets will draw moisture from the iguana if not hydrated themselves.

Take a look at the places mentioned for a good diet. There are other places. www.greenigsociety.org has an excellent visual guide for foods. www.iguanaden.org has a good diet guide to follow, too. CB has made a good suggestion, too. A vet visit to check for internal parasites is always a good idea...:-)

[sarahwheeler]

well like crazybaby,and prism-wolf said,its well worth checking out the diet sheet here on IZ.I've actually printed it out so i can check what else Gizmo my baby iguana can eat.It may be nothing but i thought it might help.when i first brought gizz home on the 8/4/06 obviously i knew he/she would take quite a while to settle in to a new environment and new routines as before i had him he had no routine never fed anything more than raspberries and other fruits out of a frozen pack.his lights were on day and night and his temperature was no where near warm enough.He would only eat at night for about the first month,then he would eat abit in the day about a month and a half Later,And now he has started eating in the day and hardly anything at night(he started doing this last week).he used to go mental when i turned his lights off as he was not used to having them switched off,plus his old owner only put one small branch on the floor .I've actually screwed quite a few in his vivarium so he can climb.(he loves climbing).at one stage gizza wouldn't eat anything at-all.this lasted for about a week he wouldn't drink when i sprayed him or from his bowl.but my local reptile vet said he's fine its probably because hes had so many changes in such a short space of time.The only way i could get him to eat was to offer him his juvenile iguana pellets(soaked in pure fruit juice).he wouldn't touch it in water like he usually does,he tried it and he couldn't get enough of it.He loves frozen mixed veg(obviously defrosted) and warmed up,broccoli,strawberries,raspberries,cauliflower,sugar snap peas,dandelion leaves and flowers,nasturtium leaves and flowers,daisies,clover leaves,rocket,kale,spinach,apple,carrot,pepper(veg type),
oranges,banana,peaches and apricots in juice(only as a treat),
grapes(white seedless type only),pear,mango,and alto more.

[sarahwheeler]

is your iggy feeding any better yet.also i was just wondering how old is your iguana,as you say you are feeding adult pellets,rather than juvenile.

[prism_wolf]

HI Sarah...your diet is looking SO much better!!! I would like to make a suggestion though. Rocket (Arugula here) and dandelion parts are excellent greens, but the only real healthy thing you have on the plate. Kale is ok in small amounts, but it's very high in oxalates which bind calcium. I don't feed it at all anymore. Same with spinach. Add some collard greens which are one of the highest in calcium, and replace the carrots with some grated parsnips.

What kind of frozen veggies do you offer? Frozen veggies lose some of their nutrition when frozen, so if you feed a lot of these you need to add some thiamine (vitamin B12). Just ground to a dust and lightly added a couple of times a week will be fine.

You are doing SO much better with him though... ;D. You've already come a looong way!!

[Marie]

Don't mean to be picky but isn't Thiamine B1. That is in vegetables. Bob told me I could use B1 or B-Complex when I thawed my slurry if I froze most of it. Also I thought that one of the "theories" for igs eating dirt is to get B12 since they don't eat meat (or not supposed to) and there isn't much in vegetables. Too many Bs.

[Merlin]

Yes B1 is thaimine. Freezing for any period of time destroys the B1. Thats why you dust with b1 if you feed a lot of frozen food.

[sarahwheeler]

gizmo hates parsnips i have tried him with them quite alot and he wont go any where near them and if i lkeave them on his plate he wont touch any of his food.he does have iguana calcium and vitamin supplements.But at the minute hes very fascinated as i have got 25baby beardies at the moment they are all only a week old this was from one clutch all the eggs laid hatched and i've got another 35due to hatch in the next to months.

[prism_wolf]

empoyner said:

Don't mean to be picky but isn't Thiamine B1.

By all means...BE PICKY! Because you're right. There are definitely TOO many Bs. As a matter of fact...I did a post on another list that covered this.

"BobMac has mentioned several times about the lack of vitamin B in our ig's
diets. I have done some looking into this and feel like a complete idiot....so I
thought I'd pass it along.

Veggies contain no significant levels of vitamin B12 or B complexes. This is a
vitamin found mainly in meat products. There are a couple of veggie foods that
do contain it, and one of those is a food Dot has mentioned...seaweed...very high in salt.
Another is algae. Most of us don't have access to these foods unless we have a
good health food store nearby, so we need to supplement. The vitamin B12 has a
main function which is the formation of red blood cells and maintaining a
healthy nervous system.

When an iguana gets a bad case of MBD and starts going into seizures, it is
often the result of the lack of vitamin B12 that gives them a healthy nervous
system. B12 deficiency has other symptoms such as being excessively tired, being
out of breath, listlessness, poor color, and a lack of resistence to infections.
This is due to the anemia which a chain reaction of events from the lack of
vitamin B12 leads to.

Brewers yeast can add the vitamin B back into the diet. There are also vitamin
B12 capsules with powder in them from a regular pharmacy that can be pulled
apart and a portion of the contents put into the salad. Just a light dusting is
all the diet needs.

Here's a link that goes into the sources of vitamin B:
www.vegsoc.org/info/b12.html

For those of you that already add a small amount of multi vitamins, you don't
need to add a B12 supplement or you can overdose. For the rest of us...add a
little."

[Marie]

Read also that B12 can act as an apetite stimulant too.