Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an iguana that keeps eating and eating all day long!

I remember a cat that ate and ate fish until he puke and after that he continued eating.

I'm giving my iguana(Chole) several vegetables, fruits, flowers and juvenile food but she doestn't stop. Is it safe for her?

BTW, she walks freely inside my house looking for sunlight during the day but is trained to use her sandbox(Below and outside her terrrarium) when she needs it, so she exercise a lot.

You can't overfeed reptiles, especially green iguanas since it's a herbivores. Reptiles will stop eating when they are full... It's really hard to make them obese if you give them the right food. Note: the word obese not fat or robust. Even in humans, who tends to overeat quite often given the chance, are not necessarily unhealthy if they are chubby or robust. Look at the football players for example. These guys can run and do a lot of strenuous activities that even a lot of skinny people find difficult to do. Some skinny people are down right unhealthy. All these health problems that are associated with overeating in humans are from genetics and a lot of the time exascerbated by bad habits like smoking and drinking. Having said that hard veggies and leafy greens hardly have any nutritional values compared to prey animals that carnivores eat. You need to feed them as much as it will eat so they can extract enough nutrient necessary for healthy, vibrant, and alert animals. You will find that herbivorous animals like cattle will spend much of its waking time eating, grazing on the pasture grass, and most of the grass that comes out of the animals when they deficate is not fully digested. So if she is eating, then give as much as she will eat.

I've had several Ig's that lived over 25 yrs and 3rd. generation C.B.offspring.You just recieved a bunch of useless advise. Football players! Please! very bad example of a health. How do they fair later in life. Iguanas can have over eating problems. Like horses that will eat to much commercial food if they have an opertunity, it will kill them. Same as your "juvie diet". that stuff EXSPANDS in the gut. Over feed Ig's will stop climbing and lay on the floor all the time. This causes skin infections. They can get Gout. They become deformed and lose the proper movement of their legs from lack of exersize, become stiff and start falling when they do climb. They will most of all STOP acting like Iguanas. So,you can forget about breeding,if thats your plan. They will live over 25 years old if you keep them healthy, if fat, only half that or less. Vic Morgan

I'm sorry! I must have miss the commercial, juvenile, iguana food. Yeah, that stuff is really bad. I've never fed my iguana that. But really, if you give the food that they are supposed to eat, there is no such thing as overfeeding. Give them the recommended hard veggies, leafy green veggies, and fruits, and your ig should thrive for many years. My iguana is huge! And he has only been eating a lot of leafy greens, veggies, and some fruits. When he was very young, I use to put some alfalfa in his salad all the time; it's a good source of protein--the highest in any plants. Parsnips is good for protein, too, and then green beans and other beans in the edible pods.

I recommend you getting a book "Iguanas for Dummies"! It is very informative and has a lot of good scientific facts. Another book written by James Hatfield is also an excellent choice. I can't remember the name. I guess you can look that up for yourself if you want to keep your iguana alive for many years. That book has a lot of facts given by many iguana keepers across the country. You can look through and see why your iguana is acting the way he is. That's why it's so useful! I recommend you get both if you can. Hope this help!

So,your saying I need some books on Iguanas because I raised the 25-27 year old and three cb generations WRONG! You opened with "you cant over feed REPTILES" that was my first clue you might not be the best person to give this person advice. Think before you type. VM

OK, dude! I was just speaking from experience. My iguana never got fat when I fed him all the salad his hind guts desired. He has always been active and alert. Poop a lot though...

I don't believe you can overfeed Iguanas either as long as it is a natural diet. Forget about the prepared pet store food and feed mostly greens such as collard, turnip, mustard, escarole dandelion, etc. mixed with some spring mix. Add a topping of vegs. such as squash, beans, okra, etc. and then just a little fruit.

In the wild Iguana's can eat whenever and as much as they want. What makes people people fat and unhealthy is eating the wrong foods not too much food.

The books mentioned have good food suggestions. You can also check out Melissa Kaplan's site at http://anapsid.org/

Thanks both of you for your useful answers and tips.

I suspect that the problem was the "Zoomed Natural Juvenile Iguana food" which made her to eat a lot of vegetables, very active and aggresive.

I stopped that food and she looks very calm(almost lazy), less aggresive and eat a little bit less.

Instead of giving that food in a daily basis I'm going to change it to a weekly and reduced portion becuase it contains several minerals required for healthy growing.

Oh, BTW I already read the Iguanas for dummies book but I'll try the other suggested.

A huge green thank you from "Chole" and me.

You don't need the iguana food to add vitamins and minerals to her diet. You can use multivitamins and calcium supplement just like I do. My iguana is now huge and have very dense bones. In the book it tells you how much to add supplements. Hope this helps!