Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Both my baby similis and my 7 month old cornuta love hibiscus. I find it interesting that so many people say baby similis only eat insects. Mine is just at 9 in. total lenght and loves fresh pink hibiscus leaves.
Anyway, I encourage all of you to try feeding your iggys hibiscus. The bright colors of the petals seem to entice them. The eat the leaves too.

They love the bright red ones better. The leaves provide more nutrition than the flowers. You should feed the the flowers as a treat rather than a meal. They will also eat grapes, papaya, bananas and other fruit as long as you cut it up in tiny enough pieces for them to eat without working too hard at it.

Also, UVB lighting is critical to a baby Ctenosaura.

Good luck,

Manny

Thanks for the info. Mine won't take bananas or grapes, but I'll give papaya a try. I try to feed him more greens than petals, but I can't do that with both in the cage at the same time lol. Coincidentally, I gave him some red pedals right before I read this post. He did seem to go after them quicker. I'm glad to see him thriving. When I first caught him, he was dark and very stressed. He is now light tan with perfect stripes. Those look like some vibrant healthy your Ctenosaura in that pic

The wild caught baby C. Similis do well in captivity. I usually feed them collard greens (finely cut an in the wild with the proper diet.d de-stemed) with grated carrots dusted with calcium powder. I always have veggies available and introduce more crickets in the cage than they can eat at one sitting. The surviving cricket munch on the veggies and these nutrients get passed on to the iggies when the crickets are devoured.

The Ctenosaurs in the picture are wild caught C. Pectinatas, one month after being in captivity. Here are pics of them when first caught. They seem to grow twice to three times faster in captivity than in the wild when given a high nutritive diet that provides increased calcium and inscect protien. I also heard that iguana experts in Mexico have raised C. Pectinatas on fly lavae(maggots) which are a great source of protien.

Manny

Was wondering where the rest of that phrase went. Daaaarn kids jumping on the bed.lol

this is what I meant to say.
"I usually feed them collard greens (finely cut and de-stemed)"

Manny Just wondering if you were still catching Green Iguana's?

They are always available. I realy have'nt had the time to target them lately, but I come across some most every time I'm collecting (Where ever I am.)

Manny

I'm looking for a male with a very tall crest. If you come across one let me know. Thanks