Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Next month, my igauana will become 10 years YOUNG ( ). Any tips/suggestions on how to make it a special birthday for her?

Here's a pic of her on top of my car taken 2 years ago (she looks the same now):

That is awsome.
10 years old is pretty amazing!

A tart of mashed veggies and fruits would be cool.

Keep up the good work!

-IJ

Congratulations to you! You should give us tips and teach us how to treat our igs if we want them to live 10 + years!)

How long do Iguanas usually live for anyway? I always was under the impression that if things go well, they can get into their teens but I heard one poster on this forum saying his dad had one that lived to 24.

As for my Iguana: everyday we feed her lettuce (we vary the kinds--sometimes green leaf, red leaf, etc), carrots, and a fruit (strawberries or bananas usually--sometimes honeydew melon--she doesn't eat grapes at all for some reason). We always put a pinch or two of powdered vitamins and calcium in her food. And maybe once a week, give her a slice of fat free cheese. I know the cheese isn't that great but she goes crazy over it.

We mist her several times a day and she's out of her habitat (cage is such a derrogatory term haha!) most of the day--when I'm home from college at least.

She eats tons of food during the summer--almost a head of lettuce a day sometimes and less in the winter.

She has been potty-trained at a young age--we keep a tupperware of water in her habitat during the colder months and she rarely 'misses'. During the warmer months, she goes outside and always makes her business in the same area of the lawn.

Green iguanas in captivity SHOULD be living to 20-25 years if they are care for properly. The oldest was 29 and reported in Green Iguana: The Ultimate Owner's Manual by James W. Hatfield. Due to lack and of information and outdated misinformation most have not received proper care. Therefore most vets and most people think 10-15 years is old and the life expectancy. I have two 13-14 year old iguanas--Baby & Dragon. I got them 11 years ago. Dragon had already had MBD and was severly deformed. I have made many mistakes myself but I have continually tried to learn, learn and relearn. Even now I keep researching and learning. Iceburg lettuce has no nutition other than water. Other lettuces have very little nutition. Yes some do survive on it with supplements but they haven't lived long due to it but "inspite" of it. Like many of us humans sometime live long inspite of our bad health practices. Some iguanas (as well as some humans) are more genetically more able to resist illness and diseases. But how much longer those individuals could have lived under good condition we will not know. Dragon has not lived to 13-14 because of her MBD but in spite of it. Other have but many iguanas never would have lived long enough to be deformed with the MBD she survived. She IMO had a very good genetic makeup. She also had a strong will to live along with it. I don't mean to criticize you but I can not let others who read this thread think feeding mainly lettuce is good.
A good diet is the following:

DIET :
An iguana's diet should contain the following each day:
70-80% calcium rich greens: Collards, mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelions, arugula, watercress are the better ones. Kale, beet greens, chicory greens and escarole used in combination with the better greens are also good. Stay away from lettuces (except for a very occasional treat) because they have very very little nutrition if at all and the iguana will fill up on it and not eat the nutritional food--in other words it is junk food. Spinach should only be used occasionally because it is way too high in oxalates and phosphorous. The oxalates bind with the calcium making it indigestible and the phosphorous binds with calcium in the blood making the calcium there useless. But spinach is high in iron so it is good if only used very occasionally (1-2x a month maybe).
20-30% vegetables: Winter squash (acorn, butternut, kabocha, ect..), green beans, snap peas, okra, parsnip, yucca root. Summer squash (zucchini, yellow, Mexican or white, ect...) occasionally is good too. Red, yellow, and orange bell peppers are good color enhancers.
No more than 10% fruit: Blueberries, figs, mango, papaya, and prickly pear (cactus) are the better fruits. Strawberries, raspberries, black berries and melons are good. Flowers should be considered a fruit

percentages based on volume

ABSOLUTELY NO ANIMAL PROTEIN OR BY PRODUCTS

Rep-Cal Iguana food soaked is a recommended supplement that helps
**appetite--the color and smell seems to increase their appetite
**hydration--the pellets act as sponges, they soak up twice their volume of water
**regularity--the increase hydration help keep things moving
**mineral/vitamin supplements--no other supplements are needed other than a probiotic

Use 1-2 tablespoons for an adult iguana. Soak it in water for about 5 minutes--it will be about twice the size after soaking. Sprinkle this over the greens/vegetable diet.

Link: Food Information Chart

DRAGON

BABY

-----
Marie
Baby, Dragon, VLS-Huff, Miss Kitty

I ordered her a $1000 habitat from Cages by Design for her birthday. The habitat she lives in now is so-so in design--it's the Iguana Kingdom habitat.

I hope she'll enjoy the change.

id like to see your ig in his new cage! Must be awesome if you paid 1000 USD for it!

Flavia

$1200. I broke down and bought one of the background pictures too.

It'll probably look something like this: http://www.cagesbydesign.com/graphics/testimonials/Mc Arther 1.jpg

But I'll post up pics when I get the habitat in a few weeks.

Very very nice! Wow!

Flavia

Hey Flavia! How have you been?
Haven't seen you post here in quite a bit!

-IJ

Im fine, my babies are fine learning to survive in India. The weather is very bad for rain forests reptiles and the air VERY polluted so i have to be VERY careful.I still have TREX and almost all of the babies i brought from Malaysia but i cannot take any of them for granted because surviving in India is not easy. I took some new photos of TREX (he is 6 years now)but i dont know in which of the boxes we brought from Malaysia is my scanner so i keep repeating the same photo taken 2 months before our departure from Malaysia to India.

And you? Everything is fine? How many igs do you have now? How old are they?

Hey!
Glad to hear all is well.
Here's all good, but no iguanas for now. Too busy, and I wouldn't have the proper amount of time to care for it.

Maybe when things quiet down... I miss having one.

Take care,

-IJ

My ig is 10 years old as well (I've had her since she was a hatchling). I always expected her to live into her twenties. Unfortunetly, this past weekend she ate a headband(she was living at my parents house, because I moved and had to build her a new enclosure...she used to have a whole bathroom to herself) and while attempting to poop it out she had quite the prolapse. Everything is put back in and we have a bandage around her cloaca to prevent her from pooping. We allowed her to go to the bathroom today and the prolapse occured again! Vet said that she could have her cloacca stiched closed for several days to see if that helps blah! Here she is though....

-----
---------
3.12 Normal ball pythons
1.0 Pastel ball python
1.0 Plains Garter
0.1 Rosy boa
0.1 Normal Kenyan Sand Boa
1.1 Anery Kenyan Sand Boa
0.1 Leucistic Texas Rat
1.2 Dumeril's Boa
-----My list is too long, so I'll stop here!
*Amy*