Green Iguana Help

[latshki]

I would take her to the vet personally, and if she poops make sure you take it to get a fecal exam, good chance that she has parasites by the sound of it

 

[Mike D]

its a tough call on what to do. i have had igg before that have gone off feeding and it can last a while. and some can be very very picky when it comes to eating. so thats another challege you have to over come. sometimes the one thing they will eat is right in front of you and you dont know it until they finally eat it.


try things with alot of color carrots, squash, strawberries, grapes, kiwi and such. i know my big guy goes nuts for banannas.


dont give up yet. try the soaking and such for a few days and see whats going on then.

 

[mdo135]

well I gave him a good warm soak in the bathtub, He seemed quite happy with that. Then I held him for awhile and he was actualy quite fine with me holding him too. I tried to hand feed him some bits of collared greens but with no luck. He did taste them though so thats a start I guess. I'll try again tomorow and il let you guys know what happens
Thank you all for your help I'm gonna get this little guy to eat one way or another!
also I'll post some pics of him tomorow maby that will help some. Also maby somebody can tell me what gender they think it is, I think its too young to tell but as I said this is my first Iguana so I could be wrong

 

[coura]

How do you hand feed him? In my experience with igs with eating probs what works is you holding your ig in a firm but gentle way, grab some small chunk of a leafy green and gently coax it between the ig´s lips, the ig will chew on it and probly try to spit it out but you must try to keep the chunk of food in place, eventualy the chewing motion will begin and your ig will eat it, actualy often it only takes you to do this one or 2 times, if the igs is starving it can start to eat voluntarily just there. Im going to contradict a bit what Mike just said because in my experience young igs dont often are big fans of fruit, what they mainly recognize as food is leafy greens. My young igs never eated fruit on its own, only if it was among the rest of the food, and they only start to eat and apreciate it as half growns. As adults hell yes they love fruit, specialy figs, grapes and banana. Here is a list of food that should be its main diet: green beans, butter nut squash, turnip greens, collard greens, chycory greens, dandilions, water cress, mustard greens and rukula.

 

[Mike D]

Well if he tasted it that's a good start. Keep it up. As far as fruit goes I've had some young iggs that will eat them right away and I've had some that won't. My rhino igg has loved fruit from day one lol. Try mixing some in with finely chopped greens and see what happens
Its way to early to tell what sex the igg will be.

 

[mdo135]

Success! After another warm soak, and two more attempts to hand feed he finaly did. He ate two small pieces of collard green! I couldnt get him to eat anymore and he started gettng antsy so I put him back. Hopefully this will bring back his appetite and feeding wont be so difficult. I will continue hand feeding like this it seems to work best. Thank you all for your help and I will continue to keep you posted. Hopefully this little hunger strike is over but who knows just getting him to eat this little bit was a struggle. Any more suggestions please let me know. Yoshi and I thank you all!

 

[coura]

Great Dont forget the ultimate iguana booster: direct sun ligth. Get a small bird cage and expose your ig to sun ligth, a bit at the time (like 5 minutes) and making shure he is not overheating or anything. If you could do a few 10 minute expossures a day that would be great!

 

[mdo135]

I would love to, but right now theres snow on the ground outside haha! but summer is comming and he will deffenitly be outside then. Thanks for the advise tho I will keep it in mind

 

[mdo135]

Well Yoshi ate two more tiny pieces of collard green today, but it is still not easy. I have tried many foods over the past two days but collard green is all I have managed to get into him so far. He is having a really hard time with it I still have to litarly force the food agenst his lip until after 20 minutes or so he usualy gives up and opens his mouth for me. When he finaly does he chews and swallows with no problems. But then that is it I cant get him to eat anymore and I have to put him back in the tank. He hasnt 'willingly' ate anything yet. Is there anything else I should be doing to make this process easier I dont like forcing him to eat like this. How long should it take before he begins to eat normaly?

 

[Mike D]

just be persistant, and dont give in.

at least he will go for the collard. could be alot worse. you could try some toehr greens escarole, endive and the like.