Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My cuban rock loves crickets and wax worms,problem is ......its hard to get him to eat veggies,fruits ect.

He will nibble on mazuri,and monkey chow,and the occasional greens.....but he wants cix and wax worms,he loves them.

I know some people say baby rock iguanas need animal protien and david blair says the nubili relish it.BUT will he eventually switch to a more veg diet?

Also I find it hard to find an accurate posting about basking temps? some say 95 -100 others say 110-125.
What really is a good temp for a baby?

Thanks for the help

Let your iguana starve a bit untill he starts to eat correctly. By giving him so much animal protein your risking its long term health both at its bonne growth ( thouse bugs have both too much protein and phosphorus, wich can creat a unbalance that leads to metabolic bonne desiase) and at the kidney level wich can become stressed. Remenbar this guys only need a very small amount of animal protein, if any at all. Also if your already using bugs you dont need monkey show wich has the same probs as bugs. You should base the diet as much as you can in fiber rich leafy greens and weeds(mustard, turnip, collard and chycory greens, dandilions, water cress, Malva silvestris, Hibiscus, spineless Opuncia,etc) complemented with some vegetables (carrots, squash, zuchini, green beans) and stuff like mazuri. As for the basking temps I would go for 100 F max because its only a baby.

So just take his food away for a couple days?Cut the bugs completly out?
And hopefully he will start eating the vegs.
His basking is at 97 right now.
I was about to move it up to 110 but I will follow your advice and keep it lower.
I will also cut the bugs.NO MORE
Hopefully he comes around

The reason it likes the bugs is because they are oppurtunistic feeders and genetically programed to eat bugs whenever encountered which in situ where they live is rare. Therefore if you offer bugs it will accept them instead of regular food. IT IS NOT GOOD FOR THEM TO EAT HIGH PROTEIN FOODS REGULARLY. Also as the post above states it can screw up the calcium-phospherous balance which is exceedingly important and in fact if too out of whack for too long will cause death among other serious maladies [death being the worst]....LOL..A good analogy is if you offer water consistently to desert Crotalus they will constantly drink it as it's seldom available and their genetically programed to do so. Ultimately it will cause their death as well because of too much of a good thing...Just don't offer it anything but good Cyclura food and I assure you it will eat it. Then offer bugs as a rare treat. I only allow myself crickets about once a week as I'm sure if I ate them every day the chitin would build up and give me digestive problems [just kidding]..Anyway stick with the greens...
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Thank you both very much for your help,I will follow your advice.
And a basking temp of 95-100 is ok right?

So when I see others on this forum putting their temps at 120 ,is it safe to assume those are temps for adults?

The plan is,this guy will live outside here in phoenix az,and then he will have more control over basking temps then I can give him in a 4X2 enclosure.

But thats when he grows,and if he doesnt start eating his greens he wont grow
Thanks again!!!

Mine are in the sun 247 and a basking spot of 120 degrees is just fine if you want. THE LIZARD HAS TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO PICK THE TEMPERATURE IT WANTS TO BE AT AND NOT YOU. Give it choices and let it make the decision. A 4' X 2' CAGE IS WOEFULLY SMALL FOR A CYLCURA UNLESS IT'S A VERY SMALL ONE...
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Well he is only 2 months old,so he is tiny.
At that age they do know to leave a spot if its too hot correct?

I know with my chuckwallas ....too hot and they hide.

With the cuban,he will bask go wander about and then bask again.But 90% of the time hes basking,which makes me wonder if he is getting enough heat.
I am tempted to put another "level" of rock that goes closer to basking spot and see if he wants more heat,and if that will change his eating also.
I cant thank you enough for your help.

The lizard is BORN with a parietal eye and genetically programed to thermoregulate. OBSERVE your lizards behaviour and act accordingly. If you think he needs a rock higher do so and observe behaviours [feeding, basking, etc]for a few days. If you "listen to the lizard" it will tell you what to do.....thanks
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

True however Ive seen some circundances in wich a baby iguana by lack of experience (?) allowed himself to get way to hot during sun bathe and was unable to react fast enough to cool himself, that resposability falling to its care giver (me). Later the now young iguana would go away by himself when felt it was to hot. I would recomend that in the first times you put your ig outside you keep it under a close watch and react if you see signs of overheating. Baby igs overheat very fast! later you can ease it up. I also think that you should go for 100f but not beond that, your ig will grow and digest food just fine and you dont risk overheating it. However dont forget what Tom just said, you must allow the lizard to pick the temp of its liking wich means a termal gradient in a big enough cage. Also dont forget its better 2 weaker heat sources then one stronger, that is insted of a 100w bulb go for 2 60w ones for example.

THEY ARE HATCHED WITH THE ABILITY TO THERMOREGULATE CORRECTLY PROVIDING THE HAVE THE OPTION TO DO SO....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Yup weird isnt it? I think it may be lack of experience, since it then learned to react by himself but ho knows, go figure

"listen to the lizard" it will tell you what to do..."

"Really officer, the lizard told me to rob the "7 eleven"

Sorry Tom, that just sounded funny to me

Frank Retes used to use that phrase all over the monitor forum and I thought it was silly then, and his way of non-contributing anything useful. Later it made perfect sense. If you are a concientious watcher of your animals they will let you know what they need. Sometimes it's not so obvious but as you grow to know the animal it gets easier.

I meant that I have spent decades watching the behaviours of all kinds of herps. As soon as you as you begin to understand what is actually going on in the life of the herp subject the better able you will be to successfully keep and breed them. This is much easier said than done and takes many years and I even now learn new things constantly. I always hear arguments here and other places on basking light temps. This is ridiculous as all you have to do is look or "listen" to the lizards behaviour. If he NEVER leaves the spot it is not hot enough. If he never gets directly under the light it's likely too hot. Whatever happened to just plain common sense. Another thing I see often which is retarded is seeing people keeping an Iguanid or Varanid in a vision cage with one hot light dropped into the slot. Then even after seeing a round burnt place on the back of the lizard they have a failure to understand their failure. Six months ago a biology teacher who is now retired rushed a lg Rhino Iguana to me saying he must have cancer on the entire right side of it's body. I was amazed at the scarring, seeping sores in some areas, etc. I asked him to describe his setup precisely. It seems he heated it by putting an infrared HOT bulb attached to the side of the cage as the cage was 6' tall. The idea of the lizard having a parietal eye and it's function as well as the idea of a single bulb versus a bank of bulbs for an adult lizard never dawned on him. Even as I'm writing this because I haven't explained exactly the why's there will be some here who keep Cyclura that will not have a clue as to what I mean. "Listening to the lizards" means first understanding the morphology, ethology, etc of the species kept. Then you must observe and have the ability to understand based on the lizards behaviour what is required to maintain the lizard successfully. A lot of it is COMMON SENSE which is not so common sometimes. Anyway my guess is that this explanation will be confusing to many...Thanks
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

I totaly agree Tom. I will complement by saying that I also see ALOT of stuff that makes me wonder what the heck are people thinking?! A classic error I see all the time is the unprotected or unsafe distance heat bulb. One thing would be a suspending but not covered by metalic mesh bulb in a room size enclosure safely away from the lizard, a completly diferent matter would be that on a "normal" size cage. lol

Hey Tom, I completely understood what you were saying the first time. I was just being funny.

I know you did Mark and it was funny. What I wrote was not directed to anyone on this forum and what I said was way too harsh in the first place. It stemmed from someone bringing over here on Thanksgiving a GORGEOUS 2' Rhino Iguana with a round third degree burn on it's back from a SINGLE hot bulb in a vision cage and he basically cooked the small part of the poor lizard trying to bask. I got so upset with this guy for being that stupid that I felt like slapping him. Then when I was going to explain a little more clear on this forum I thought about the poor lizard and got carried away with the post. I apologize for it and it had little to do with this forum. It is true however that many folks buy lizards on a whim without understanding even basic lizard husbandry and then the poor lizard suffers. A little research before buying something as complex to keep as a Cyclura would be a smart thing to do but many times isn't done. After I read what I posted I was sorry I did and certainly meant no harm.. All I'd really like to do is to assist anyone needing any help of any kind.
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Just an update........ I have not offered any bugs. The only thing hes touched is bannana and a little mazuri.
I am worried,but I am holding out on him hoping his hunger will finally win and he will eat stuff hes supposed to.

Wow Im sorry for that litle lizard Tom, poor thing, hope he makes a full recovery. And I dont felt you were the sligthest bit harsh or anything to anyone, I really like reading your posts. As for the bulb thing, I also feal people tend to really overdue on bulb wattage. On my cages and Ive have some big ones, Ive tryed allmost every single bulb and bulb combo you can think of and Ive come to the conclusion you dont really need like 150w bulbs on most cages, all you need is 3 40w-60w ones, good isolation and thats it. Here there are people with really nice big igs but most of them lack the tips of their spines because of overdue bulbs. I also have the habbit of experimenting by my own toch the heating devices, I know heat for me isnt the same as for lizards but if I feal its really to much I do something about it before putting the animal in.
Going back a bit Im amazed how people witch apear to have NONE lizard keeping experience or good sence by that matter jump rigth up to keeping Cyclura, just like any other hobby you must learn to crawl before you walk! This are NOT lizards for begginers, if that was realized before maybe that ig would be spared of that burn. By the way Tom, did you took the lizard in? Gave it to a new more caring owner?

Unfortunately, some of the smartest people I know don't have a lick of common sense. I, too, have seen my share of lizards with full thickness burns that are less than 2 inches in circumference and you know exactly how it happened the instant you see it. The same with animals that have oozing burn wounds on their belly and tail, just above and below the vent. You just know these animals spent hours laying on a heat rock, probably the only source of heat available to them. I agree completely with you, Tom. "Observe, and they will educate."

I feal sincerely that hot rocks as we know them should be banned! That would be good. Even heat pads need to be wached closely. With my leopard geckos I only use low wattage ones and very well protected. By the way very cool Ctenosaura hemilopha, are you breeding them?

He ate some mazuri today,a little strawberry and think he had some greens......since they were scattered all over his enclosure.
Then he decided to poo in his food dish as if to say"wheres my crickets I crap on this food!!"

Ha ha tipical ig behavior, but he is on the rigth way. You can also hand feed him a bit of greens to encorage eating