Best foods for desert iguana or chuckwalla?

[Experiment397]

What would you consider some good foods for a desert ig? I'm going to try some desert tortoise cactus blend stuff today and have been giving mine, Mr. Ed, a lettuce blend with chopped tomatoes, grapes, peaches and a little watermelon even. He also munches on some beardie pellets i had left over from when my beardie was a baby. Any ideas on good foods to try? He is eating I just want to make sure I give him the best diet possible.


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[coreyweinkoetz]

romain lettuce,yellow squash,green zuc.,carrots, danilions,clover,hibiscus,mariglod,roses

 

[coreyweinkoetz]

chopped tomatoes, grapes, peaches and a little watermelon even

a little to watery it will get the runs these are not good foods for a staple diet

 

[crayfishguy]

yomato is toxic to many animals, as are grapes

 

[Juxtaroberto]

I'm not sure about chuckwallas, but I'm pretty sure most iguanas are almost exclusively herbivorous. Considering the effects of animal protein on green iguanas (liver and kidney disease), I would be very wary of feeding any animal protein to any iguana. You want dark leafy greens. NO LETTUCE. Lettuce has very little nutritional value, but the iguanas love it when you give it to them, and will eat little else. Tomato fruit is fine if the iguana even likes it, it depends on the individual, although some believe it's hard to digest. Tomato plant is toxic. Your iguana will let you know if it likes the tomato fruit or not. Grapes aren't toxic at all, and are routinely used to give the iguana medication. Fruits should make up less than 10% of the overall diet anyways. What you really want is dark, leafy greens, but no spinach. anapsid.org and greenigsociety.org/feedingigs.htm have an extensive list of which foods to feed, which foods not to feed, and which to feed in moderation. You should check it out, highest on the feed-list are dandelion greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, watercress, stuff like that.

 

[syddakyd]

kale is very healthy

 

[Experiment397]

He has been munching romaine lettuce, tomatoes and sliced carrots for the last few weeks with no problems. He ate some pelleted grassland tortoise food and he really liked that but id prefer not to give him processed foods as a majority of his diet.


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[Juxtaroberto]

I hope you can see how such a limited diet would be detrimental in the long run, and the fact that lettuce has such low nutrient value compounds the issue even more.

 

[Experiment397]

I'm sorry but the lettuce argument is bs. I have talked to keepers from the san diego zoo and my local hogle zoo and both agree romaine and red leaf lettuce is great for herbivorous lizards. The issue comes in when people feed iceberg lettuce. Romaine is fine. Also he eats tomatoes, carrots and occasionally some pelleted food and some fruit.


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[snakeguy101]

OP, I would stop feeding the bearded dragon pellets- some brands have ground up bugs (protein) and can be bad if fed in large amounts. Tortoise diet is fine as a supplement too and it contains a lot of good vitamins that your lizard might not get otherwise. Are you using Mazuri or some other brand? I feed my green iggy mazuri tortoise diet about once a week.

I hope you can see how such a limited diet would be detrimental in the long run, and the fact that lettuce has such low nutrient value compounds the issue even more.

What the heck are you talking about? The diet is fine and plenty varied.