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Diet: Green iguanas are omnivorous, so they eat both plants and meat. They tend to eat mostly plants, though, especially leaves and fruits. Sometimes green iguanas (especially young ones) will eat eggs, insects, and small vertebrates.

>>Diet: Green iguanas are omnivorous, so they eat both plants and meat. They tend to eat mostly plants, though, especially leaves and fruits. Sometimes green iguanas (especially young ones) will eat eggs, insects, and small vertebrates.

I know not everyone will go with me on this BUT I wouldnt find it to unussual if a baby green igg would eat some insects.. im sure they dont do it often but i wouldnt think that it happens often... if you look at any igg in captivity they will go after a cricket if it is in the cage.. it is a predatory instinct that every animal has. so i wouldnt be surprised if people didnt intensive studies and found out that some smaller iggs had animal and insect mass in there guts...

This is just my felling on this subject...
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1.0.0 adopted iguana
0.0.2 Hedgehogs
My Email

YOU DONT OWN YOUR IGUANA, YOUR IGUANA OWNS YOU

HAPPINESS IS LIKE PEEING ON YOURSELF, EVERYONE CAN SEE IT BUT ONLY YOU CAN FEEL THE WARMTH

R.I.P INDIAN LARRY

thats old information thats still out there all over the place. I have a lot of old books saying iguanas should be fed crickets

the sad thing is that people new to inguana keeping dont know that. i have a book that i picked up and it shows an iguana eating a cricket..

>>thats old information thats still out there all over the place. I have a lot of old books saying iguanas should be fed crickets

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1.0.0 adopted iguana
0.0.2 Hedgehogs
My Email

YOU DONT OWN YOUR IGUANA, YOUR IGUANA OWNS YOU

HAPPINESS IS LIKE PEEING ON YOURSELF, EVERYONE CAN SEE IT BUT ONLY YOU CAN FEEL THE WARMTH

R.I.P INDIAN LARRY

An idiot carnival midway came through town last summer and gave out caresheets saying iguanas ate mealworms and ham.

I actually have a book from the 70s written by a man who owned 6 iguanas that he let all free roam in his house. He was feeding them some pretty weird things. Like pizza, chicken, hamburgers, and then all the regular iguana food. His oldest iguana actually lived to be 25 according to him, but I'm guessing that was from pure luck. I occasionally give my iggy turkey and chicken, but that is very rare, and that's only on holidays. I also have another book that my parents had bought for me that said that iguanas will grow to adapt to their enclosures. I'm actually finding out that none of the books for leopard geckos are the same either, because right now I'm trying to do some research to breed my pretty leo.
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~*Chibi*~
Sir Iggy ( 1.0.0 El Salvador Blue Iguana), Ryo-ohki, Orion, Bud, & Finnegan (3.1.0 crazy kitties), Rosebud (0.1.0 cockerspaniel), Trixie and Kayko (0.1.1 leopard gecko)

I hate bad information... unfortunately, we're still learning about keeping reptiles and in another 10 years the books we rely on now could be outdated.

When I first started volunteering at the zoo, we were given a manual containing natural history information on every single species in the collection. Out of curiosity, I looked up the information on green iguanas. Under 'diet at the zoo', it listed that iguanas were being fed cat food and monkey biscuits. I questioned this, and ended up arguing with some long-lived volunteers over whether or not iguanas eat meat. After talking with the keepers, I learned that the iguanas diets were updated a long time ago, and the sheet was old. I don't think I ever managed to convince the other volunteers that I knew what I was talking about, though. After all, I'm only 23 and a newcomer to the program... how dare I claim to know anything about iguanas?

As far as out-of-date books, I wish that they would stop printing them and take them off bookstore and library shelves. When we first got Xander, we checked out at least 6 iguana books from the library and read them cover to cover. Not one talked about UVB, and they all recommended feeding insects and cooked egg. I think I read that book written in the 70's, because I distinctly remember seeing pictures of igs eating human food, including hamburgers and macaroni and cheese, and thinking how easy it must be to care for them.

Even some of the newer books are bad. When my husband picked up "Igs for Dummies" about this time last year, he also brought home a book on iguanas from another popular pet series called "A Simple Guide to..." While most of the book isn't bad, it shows a picture of a baby iguana eating a cricket and recommends that young lizards be fed insects. I've seen this book for sell at just about every pet store in the area.

So, the lesson is consumer beware: know what the recommendations are on what you're buying. Boards like this were key to getting me on the right track with my ig care.
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~Alika~
1.0.0 green iguanas
0.1.0 cockatiels
1.0.0 senegal parrots
0.1.0 blue-fronted amazons
0.0.1 red belly piranha