Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am a new iguana owner. I owned snakes in the past. Anyway, my iguana is still little only about 14-16 inches long. I am using Melissa Kaplans salad reciple along with feeding greens (collard, dandelion, mustard). Anyway, how much does one this little eat. It doesn't seem like he eats a whole lot and and sometimes I cannot even tell if he has touched the food all day. I am particularly unsure if he is eating the salad which has the alfalfa and vits in it. I have seen him eat the greens and looking at his food sometimes it looks like all he has eaten is the greens. I have tried putting out only the salad in the morning and then putting the greens out later in the afternoon evening time, but I really think he holds out until the greens are out, cuz like I said it doesn't look like he even touches it. I have used variations of the salad every couple of weeks, I guess trying to see what he likes as well as to vary his intake but I really am not sure what to do. His current salad has pumpkin, snowpeas, asparagus, mangos, and a couple of blackberries for color mostly. I have in the past used yellow squash, banana squash, greenbeans, parsnip, strawberries, etc. Im not sure what to do, but I am not sure he is getting the nutrition he needs when he isn't eating the salad not to mention not getting the vits since I am adding them to the salad also. Please Help!

Angelus

my iguana wont eat the salad mixes and stuff. the only thing that he really eats is kale and the pre mixed DOLE salads. he is 5 years old and really healthy approx. 5' long andstill has his whole tail. my vet said he is about the healthiest iguana he has seen.

It's normal for a new iguana to refuse food for as long as a week. After that, they tend not to eat in front of people. There's one way to tell for sure: If something's coming out the back end, something must have gone in the front end at one point... I'd just keep offering, but don't worry about him not eating salad until you've had him a few weeks and he's used to his new environment.

My little one LOVES greens, can't get enough of them. I try to feed them only in the evening, but I also put them chopped up on top of and in the salad, which seems to trick him sometimes.

I would really, really avoid the kale-and-Dole-fruit-cup diet mentioned in the other post; kale isn't good to feed your iguana on a daily basis, and fruit is kind of junk food for them- maybe only 10- 20% of the diet should be fruit.

Good luck! Keep us posted!

Thanks, everyone, Ive gotten alot of good tips, and over the last week, Ive noticed he is eating the salad. I think he just doesn't eat as much as I expected at this age.