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I just came home from doing my normal weekly ig grocery shopping.

I had stopped the produce clerk there to ask him a question about a veggie & I had the entire food list with pictures from the Green Iguana Site with me so I was able to show him a picture.

I told him I was shopping for my ig & needed to know a specific answer to a question. He looked at me kinda funny & pointed to the lettuces, then said that THAT was what all the other ig owner who shopped there would get most of the time!

Needless to say, I enlightened him about an ig diet & left him with my food list from the green ig site.

He was happy to learn & wondered why people would feed their ig lettuces & wondered if the local pet stores suggested such things.

He said he'd "suggest" other veggies when other ig owners shopped.

How sad for the other igs.......my newly enlightened produce clerk may help a couple....

Sorry for my rant....I live in a realtively small town in FL & was just surprised.....more ig owners??? Not feeding their igs right??? Does that mean no calcium either??? No UVB lights?

Grrrrrrrr

Stupid pet stores (although I know they could have gotten them from other places)...Grrrrr(again)

I wish that there was a pet store that sold food just for iguanas and other animals. i know i know i'm as weird as heck, but i wish that there was a place where they sold the really dark leaves off greens ( the ones other grocery stores pitch cause people don't like them ) and that sold all the other veggies that iguanas and other reptiles and animals eat * sighs*

Right now our grocery stores are on the lean season for veggies and its driving me bonkers !!

That is a really great idea. We would like to open a pet store one day and that would be a great thing to do. It would be really convienant for people.

*G* That is the same thing i had in mind .. if only i had the money.

I even had the idea of having small batches of veggie salads with vitamins that people could come and get how ever much their lizard or turtle ate in a day or so. Pre-cut and package-able so there would be no work on their parts (i think people would be better able to take good care of their reptiles then and give them a heck of a lot more variety) .

I think the one thing i would love most to find would be dandilions in a grocery store or pet store.

Of course that type of pet store would have to have other specialities to make it though.

That wouldn't be so tough, if the store already had a fridge it could buy the greens for cheap and make the employees package them. That would work for bearded dragons too. The downside is that it would have such a short shelf life. I'm thinking about pitching the idea to the petstore I work for but I don't think there's much of a demand. We get mainly an anole and ball python sort of clientele. (The schools give anoles away to school children, who promptly buy them sand and heat rocks. Lots of education going on there).
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

Actually, if you ask the produce manager, you could probably get all those "cast away" greens, for *free*... A lot of grocery stores also sell packaged pre-washed and chopped greens, herb salads, spring mixes, etc. that include a wonderful variety of greens. This is probably a more viable solution compared to creating a product just for igs, as you will inevitably end up paying a fortune, given how narrow the market is.

We get these bags of greens for $2.99 each and because we mix them in with other greens (full heads that we rinse and chop ourselves) and vegetables, they easily last two feedings, and that's for two adult iguanas. Often times, they go on sale (2 bags for $5) when they get close to their expiration date. Here is an example of a mix, this one is called Baby Greens Mix:

This particular mix contains: baby red romaine, royal red oak, lollo rossa, new red fire, red leaf, tango, little gem, green romaine, green oak, green leaf, mizuna, tat soi, red mustard, green mustard, red chard, green chard, arugula, spinach radicchio, frisée.

As you can see, a lot of variety. Most of those greens I have never even heard of. At any rate, the igs love them. LOL There are several other kinds that have different types of greens, herbs, and even edible flowers. So all you'd have to do is add veggies to that mix, which is actually the easy part.

Hope this is useful!

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Julie Williams
www.baskingwonders.com

I think something like that would definately work. The hardest part would be keeping fresh veggies for them.

you would really have to know the demand and follow it close so you could buy just enough to sell and get fresh in often.. expecially if you were growing it ... i bet a green house would be perfect *LOL*

Nice picture. What a ham. Forrest is too cool. I know what you mean about the pet stores who don'tgive any info. or the wrong info.. When I bought my first iggy at the one here they never offered any information. They only answered what questions I asked. Hopefully the produce guy will offer the information you gave him. Where in Florida do you live. I live in Melbourne,Fl. we love it here.

Forest is quite the ham alright.

Every morning when I get home from taking my son to school I put Forest out on his outdoor furniture loveseat which is on my front porch, to soak up the sun.

My mail man is an early bird & hits my house between 9:30-10am. He always stops to look at Forest but won't touch him & Forest sees him & sticks that big bad dulop out. I think he does it just to look pretty, but the mail man always stands about 4 feet away as if he's not quite sure what to think.

I think that Forest wants some lovin & the mail man is scared. LOL, talk about "lost in translation"........

We live in Spring Hill, about 30 miles north of Tampa with the most spoiled lizard I've ever seen .

Thank you for the compliments on Forest. We're so happy to have him.

As tame as my iguana is, he would shoot away like a streak if I put him down to roam in a back yard like that!

In the picture of him out in the back yard on the wood pile, my boyfriend & I were working on the new flower bed around that weather vain. We were just a few feet from Forest. That wood pile was also the highest (safest spot for an ig) to be so that's where he was.

Plus, he is over 4 & 1/2 feet long & pretty hefty so he moves slowly unles he's scared.

He will wander around the back yard on his own & we keep an eye on him.

The front yard...if I lay him on his lawn furniture loveseat, which is in the morning sun, for whatever reason, he'll stay there indefinately until he potties. Then I hear him squirt, go rince him & cushion off & THEN he my wander.

If he doesn't go, he'll lay there for hours. Long-LONG hours as I check on him every 5 minutes or so. Makes for a long time outside but, when I see him crawl down from his couch, I usually sit outside & watch him.

He bangs against the front door to be let in most times when he is over being "out" & I let him in & he crawls right to his spot & crashes.

When I see him start wandering...I'm on him, other than that, I've been blessed with a well behaved ig.

Forest is 7 & 1/2 years old & his former owners had put him on a leash when he was a baby. He broke one of his legs after he got startled & tried to bolt. (Wrapped his leg in the leash & twisted it) So no leash for him. I'd rather watch him & know he's safe than restrain him.

He's been a great boy since we adopted him. Although tonight he bit & I mean BIT my boyfriend's toe for [bleep]s & giggles. Forest was wandering next to Mike & flicking his tongue as usual. Forest doesn't head-bob much, but he likes to flick that tongue & test things like a snake. Since we have & are used to snakes, we didn't think much of it. But he got closes to Mike & nabbed his big toe.

Mike started yelling & I see Forest with Mike's entire big toe in his mouth. I laughed til I cried. He was taste testing & apparently Mike didn't think anything about it beings our snakes do it all the time with no bites. Poor Mike.

Bad lizard, but comical....hehe. Funny thing is, I do EVERYTHING for Forest & Mike doesn't really have time but when Mike walks by, Forest LEANS toward Mike for a rub. He kinda gives me a look like "what does she want now?". I had to laugh but forest loves Mike.

Mike & Forest....

Snoopy has a leash. We are using it with hand training, since he likes to fly still *rme and smacks myself in the head*. He doesn't seem to care how high he is when he takes his dare devil leap either. Usually if im holding him he will stay calm, because i spend the most time with him, but if one of the girls has him sitting on their arm or my fiance has him on his shoulder or head( he likes to climb high *lol* ) then he has a tendancy to take to flying.

We got him a little harness type that has a leather peice that goes around his chest and then tightens in the back. I hate that the leash part is made from weaved something or other, because his little toes get all tangled in it.

But i want to keep him safe because he's just about 16 inches maybe, and we have cats so if he would fly and crawl somewhere we couldn't get to him ( which has happened once before when he tricked me by being super calm, i had been walking all over the house cleaning his tank with him on my shoulder .. then all of the sudden he goes a flying!! luckily i was able to slowly wiggle things to get him out from behind the desk with out him getting hurt or running off.. scared the crap out of me !! Needless to say i put the leash on him no matter where i take him now unless hes going in the bathtub for a swim and soak.) and then the cats get him or the dog accidentally squish him.

I also use it out side since he's little and jumpy still.. i sit him out side on the portch in a nice container of water to soak, which in the nice warm sun he loves it cause he will sit there for ever and just lounge. i clip his leash to the bowl of waters edge and if he would try to fly for some reason he wouldn't hurt himself.

*lol* the person who sold us our iguana ( it wasnt the store manager but an employee) Lordy what misinformation of course i knew better so i ignored most of it..

The lady actually tried to tell me that iguanas eat crickets and that this reptile topical spray would allow the iguana to get its vitamins by letting them soak into the skin!!!

It actually got so rediculious to where she was comparing iguanas to water dragons and how much they ate and acted the same that i started to laugh, of course my finace was with me and was like whats so funny .. i had to tell him later cause i about busted a gut..

but before i left i did inform the lady that Iguanas do not eat crickets... even though we had bought some for our turtle at the same time we bought the Iguana * laughs a little at the memory *

We live about an hour away from one reptile pet store we usually visit. When we started going in there over two years ago the owner was very misinformed on the care of MOST of the animals she sold. After correcting her to several customers when she was saying to feed iguanas lettuce and crickets and on a few other reptiles also she was a little peeved. We almost had her store closed down by reporting her. She finally decided it was better to learn than to fight with us. She now is very well versed on the care of iguanas (and others) and she is so willing to help us out she carries our business cards and donates lighting on a monthly basis!! (UVB of course which she at first didn't know about) We got a distributor to go talk to her about the lighting and he has even donated lighting as a thank you for a new customer!!

Stephanie
It shows you can help once in a while!!

Standing Applauds!! Thats one for the animals NP