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Diet adequate?

ladyball Jul 17, 2003 09:46 AM

This is going to be RC's new diet. Is this adequate?

4 c. ALfalfa Rabbit Pellets
1 Cantalope (minus the seeds)
2 pears
1 bag each:
Gr. Beans
Collard Greens
Turnip Greens
5 reg. human multivitamin pills (fortified with iron)
5 reg. Clacium only pills
5 Brewers yeast pills
Grind pills seperately
Combine the ingredients in a blender till paste, add ground pills to mixture then freeze till needed.

How does this sound? I will also add powdered Vit. D3 to the mixture with some different fruits and veggies for texture. Here is a picture of RC. How does he look to you guys?

Replies (12)

girlzilla Jul 17, 2003 12:16 PM

Hey, that sounds pretty good, my only suggestions would be:

1) Drop the D3 vitamin out. Iguanas cannot absorb D3 directly from a supplement; it is produced when they are fed a diet with adequate calcium and then exposed to sufficient UVA/B light.

2) I think you're adding brewer's yeast as a thiamine (B1)supplement? That's the use I've read for it for iguanas. You really don't need it unless most of the food you're using to make the salad is frozen. Freezing and thawing leeches B1 from foods, and if you are going to use a lot of frozen veggies and fruits (I do) it's a lot better to add ground up B1 tablets to replace it. The yeast isn't very good for iguanas. You can find B1 tablets by themselves and not included in a "B-group" vitamin, it just takes some looking.

3) I used to make huge batches of food for Bud (my ig). This was before I knew that freezing only staves off rotting, it doesn't stop it completely. Bud wouldn't eat the salad that had been frozen too long and was wilty. I guess it depends on how much RC eats- if he's an eating machine, it's probably a good idea. But WHOA that's a lot of food!

4)I'd add some yellow/orange squash in there, and feed fresh greens. And I'd vary the greens in the salad- Collards have their drawbacks, like everything else. But that's just me.

Hope this helps!

ladyball Jul 17, 2003 12:27 PM

Thank you girlzilla! Adding the greens and yellow squash was also suggested by the person who made up the diet. I will take and use the suggestions you gave me about the vitamins too. I have an "Nature's Pharmacy" here in my town. They probably carry what you suggested for the B vitamin.
Yes this makes up a three month "batch". I will have to make it a couple of times to see how long it lasts, how much he eats, etc. He will always get fresh fruit (it is a good excuse to by for me too!)
I have a Hibiscus plant out front. He seems to LOVE the leaves! I LOVE my RC. I am excited and happy I decided to get him.
Another question, do iggys like to "go" places? RC seems to like to be handled. He actually touched my mouth with his tounge and looked at my face as if to study me so he knows who "mom" is. Is this normal? Should I be careful? Is he really studying me to see where a good place to bite me is?
Thanks!

mommyof2greenigs Jul 17, 2003 02:27 PM

Personally, I think the fresher the better. My igs will not eat anything frozen. I have tried. Its also healthier because like another post says things get slimy and wilty and most igs wont eat it. I also would not freeze greens into my fruits. Those go bad faster
-----
Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish

girlzilla Jul 18, 2003 03:42 PM

-to enjoy seeing new things, and to know who their owners are. I know Bud knows who I am; he is a lot easier to handle for me than for other people. They can be affectionate in their own way- sometimes he nudges his nose up against my face, and when I move, he moves to lean on my face again. I know he likes to hang out on me because I'm a big warm tree to him, but I like to think it's also because I'm the Big Warm Tree he sees everyday, and he knows it.

I also know that he doesn't like sirens, toddlers, and things flying overhead, so I try to plan accordingly when I take him out. I've taken him on walks to pick up pizza and to the shaved ice stand (my boyfriend would go inside, I don't take Bud into restaurants and grocery stores), to drop off books at the library, and just on walks in general. He also loves to look out the window when we're driving- he generally protests when it's just me and him and there's no one to hold him up to the window while I drive. Then he has to go in the back in the kennel, which has much less of a view.

Be prepared for the attention you may get- you may not like it as much as your lizard does! I have started looking for more remote sunny places to walk; I don't really like having a lot of attention attracted to me. I always wear sunglasses, too.

ladyball Jul 18, 2003 04:00 PM

Thanks. He is really settling in much better than I thought he would. He is eating well, and LOVES climbing up on my lamp to see EVERYTHING!
I gave him a bath yesterday. HE HATED IT! When I got him out, that was the first snub. He actually turned his back on me when he crawled on my shoulder! I had to laugh! Unfortunately he was grumpy all the rest of the day! GOSH he was only in there for FIVE MINUTES! Silly iggy!
I figured that was his first bath, so I was perpared to take him out right away.
I will take him outside on my shoulder tomorrow. I am planning on making him a small outside cage. I live under live oaks and can place it in shade/sun right outside my livingroom window. We live out in the country, and there are not many predators out here for an iggy RC's size.
I have been reading and absorbing all the information I can. I hope to get this job at Pizza Hut so I can upgrade his tank and get the materials to build his inside enclosure.
Thank you for all the help and answers to my questions. I am confident with all the information, the help of the local herp club, and all of you to answer questions, RC is going to have a long and happy life!

girlzilla Jul 18, 2003 04:08 PM

Hey, do you have a leash for him? Search the forums for "hip leash" for directions on how to make a leash that won't damage his spines or injure him like the ones in the petstores. It's saved me from losing Bud quite a few times.

ladyball Jul 18, 2003 08:02 PM

I did a search. I found one set of instructions, but they were pretty vague and suggested a search as well. Maybe the other instructions were to old and deleted. Is there a URL for hip leashes for iggys?
I won't let RC down without a leash, Iggys can run faster than humans and I don't want to lose him. I live on three acres and we are up against the Ocala National Forest. That is 30,000 acres for him to get lost in!

LinsZoo Jul 18, 2003 10:47 PM

>>I did a search. I found one set of instructions, but they were pretty vague and suggested a search as well. Maybe the other instructions were to old and deleted. Is there a URL for hip leashes for iggys?
_________________
I haven't a clue how to link to this so I did a copy & paste. Instructions here are a bit fuzzy too, but maybe this will help?
*****************
Posted by Merlin on March 18, 2003 at 23:09:40:

In Reply to: Hip Leash posted by Georgia on March 18, 2003 at 21:40:57:

You make them. Barrel clasps I get at the fabric/sewing store for 25 cents each and they have the cord by the foot or you can go get a pair of long boot laces. Just get something that is soft but has a pretty tight weave as the looser weaved stuff tends to snag on the spikes on their tails. pull a loop through the hole in the center of the barrel and tie a knot in one end. This leaves you with a sliding loop when the clasp is squeexzed together. I have two styes I use. One has a loop in the other end Like a regular leash. The other has a snap swivel on the end that can be clipped to belt loop to keep both hands free.
Merlin

Kate Jul 17, 2003 02:14 PM

Before you make all that stuff, you should probably try it out on him! I can tell you that my ig is not interested in anything that's been chopped up really finely, and certainly not ground to a paste. They're natural foliovores, and are attracted to eating leaves. As a paste, it's not recognizable as leaf-food any more, and it may not look appealing to RC. Paste would be good if you had to force feed, I guess. I don't think my ig would eat it. He likes his greens in bite-size pieces, or a little larger. I've heard from other owners that their igs also prefer their food this way, although I'm sure not all igs agree exactly. Also, igs like variety. If it's a homogenized paste, every single bite will taste alike, for 3 whole months. Iguanas can and will get bored of their food if there's no variation. I try to use a bunch of different greens, and rotate some in and out of his diet. I use collards, mustards, dandelions, turnip greens, and escarole on a regular basis, though only 3 at once.

It sounds like maybe the diet could be heavier on the greens, lighter on the alfalfa. Alfalfa is good, but 4 cups?! Remember that these pellets are a lot denser than greens are. Diet should be about 60-65% fresh greens. Fruit should only be about 5-10% of the diet. Use the brewer's yeast if you plan on freezing, but if you have a good balanced diet you probably won't need all those supplements.

The way I do it, and of course you don't have to do it the same way, is to make up only a few meals worth of salad at a time. (Lizard eats 2x per day.) I take 3 types of greens, such as collards, mustards and turnips, and rip them into pieces. (Smaller than what I would use for a human salad, but not tiny.) Then I add some other veggies. He loves butternut squash, so I usually use that and then maybe snow peas, green beans, or green/red pepper. I use fresh fruit as a treat or "dessert" - if I mix it into his salad, he only wants to eat that! He's very fond of strawberry and apple. Lots of igs like berries a lot. He gets a salad plate full of salad. (That sounds obvious, doesn't it? By that I mean a regular sized salad plate that comes in a dish set.) After I described his diet, my vet recommended that once or twice a week I sprinkle some reptile vitamin supplement on top, just to make sure he's getting all the vitamins he needs.

I hope this helped a bit.

Kate

ladyball Jul 17, 2003 02:46 PM

Thanks Kate. That does sound a LOT easier and my friend IS having trouble getting her Emmy to eat it everyday. Thanks for the heads up on 2x a day as well. I haven't seen that info anywhere in my research, but I could easily have missed it.
I gave him a hibisus leaf today, along with his Collard Greens (which he ate more of today). I was expecting him to be off his feeding since we are a LOT noisier household than the one he came from, but he seems to be eating very well.
I will purchase more friuts and veggies for variety tomorrow. I appreciate the help with the diet!

Kate Jul 17, 2003 03:00 PM

Feeding 2x a day is not a rule or anything. That's what I found worked best for me and Lizard. I could give him about twice as much in the morning and leave it all day, but I found that it gets dried out and less appetizing after several hours. This may be due to the placement of his food somewhat near a basking light... but he likes to eat as or after he basks, so I leave it there. Anyway, the important thing is simply that they get to eat as much as they want, whether its presented all at once or several times a day. Glad to hear that he's eating pretty well for you already. Some igs adjust more easily than others, and it sounds like you got lucky! I'm sure that all your efforts to make him feel comfortable have helped a lot, too. Oh, and try feeding him the hibiscus flower. The flowers are nutritious and apparently quite delicious. (Or so say the iguanas.) Dandelion flowers are good too, if you've got those hanging around your yard. Assuming that there are no pesticides on them, that is.

Kate

ladyball Jul 18, 2003 04:05 PM

My poor Hibiscus was going to be trashed because I didn't want to trim it or put any work into it (my roses take up enough time)! I don't have any flowers on it yet, but I will soon! I am going to put one in his enclosure when I get it built. Then he can eat till his heart is content!
I will buy a couple more since I know he is going to grow and will be able to eat more. I don't want to over tax the only bush I have!
Thanks for the heads up on the feeding schedule. RC is eating at least one hibiscus leaf, some collard greens and pieces of apple each morning. He drinks, but hates his bath. I am going to get a spray bottle so I can mist him throughout the day.
I will post more pictures of RC and his tank when I get them. Thanks all!

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