Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My iguana Randi is now 2.5 years old and has a SVL of about 11.5 inches. He gets only the best food and large salads of collard, escarole, endive and assorted fruits and vegetables. Earlier this year he began to turn orange, especially on his front legs, but now he is a kind of muted green/brown color. Is this normal (he has been eating very little recently)? Will his bright green ever return? My sister moved out with her iguana and now he can free roam, and he is growing like crazy. They were in separate cages, but is his growth normal also? I'd attach a picture, but the post only has a URL address and my pic isn't on any website. There's probably a way around this, but I have little computer savvy, rrar.

For posting a picture you can go to the photo gallery listed above and download a picture from your computer or disk and then you will be able to access it on posts. As far as the coloring has it been taken to a vet and is it healthy?? Many or most adult iguanas will change colors and can be anywhere from brownish, orange, blue and of course green. A lot of it depends on where there origin is. Sometimes a drastic change to a muddy brown color can mean a sickness like parasites or something. If nothing else seems to be wrong with him then he is probably okay and growth is very good! Growing usually means they are healthy but not always! Either way if you are worried about him for some reason the vet is the best answer. Our female got very brown after she had laid eggs before we adopted her. She had become very low on calcium and also had parasites she is doing better now and has really greened up although not as green as a healthy baby. We are sure she is healthy now even with the brownish/green color as she has been checked by a vet again and her calcium is excellent, lighting is correct and she is really growing!!

Stephanie

Aie, the only reptile vet around is an idiot when it comes to iguanas. To go in to more detail might send me off the deep end into a just-out-of-college-vet-killing-spree. Bah! Anyhow, here's my iguana. He lost the very end of his tail when he was young, but when he's angry that thing can sure whip!

His coloring really doesn't look out of the ordinary as far as meaning sickness or anything. He does look on the skinny side but good food, UVB and heat lights should take care of that. As far as the vet thing I'm sure that anyone on here will tell you if you are not happy with your current vet do not take your ig to him but you do need to find a competent vet. Even a not so good vet can usually do a fecal test or send one off for you to test for parasites. There is a link listed in one of the posts below on finding reptile vets in your area. Up until recently we had to travel almost 4 hours to get to a good vet but we have finally found one that is only a little over an hour away. Our vets around here can be awful to so I trained myself with helf from a doctor relative to do fecal tests and have a book showing the different types of parasites etc. If I take our fecal results to the local vets and show them what is suggested as use for that type parasite they can just about handle that but that is all!! Usually we just skip the locals and go out of town to get it all done!!

Stephanie