Green Iguana

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aromaster;580525; said:
I do have a UV tube in reserve.
On cloudy days i'll just use it then.
so the best diet is a mixture of veggies?
Read somewhere that lettuce shouldn't be fed
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the best diet is a comination of vegetables, leafy greens and fruit.

40%-45% leafy greens- Make your primary selection from collards, dandilions, mustard and escarole.

40-45% leafy vegetables- good vegetables include green beans, pole beans, or snap peas; yellow/orange vegetables such as squash, sweet potato, yams or carrots:and some alfalfa. Other additions to these include turnips, cassava nopales (cactus) and other cactus pads and fruit.

10% fruit- bananas, grapes, peaches, necatrines berries, melon and citrus fruits

fyi- if you want to feed your ig bananas, buy the organically grown ones.


nurtitionally speaking lettuces have too little nutrition but they are in no way harmful and can be used in combination with more nutritious greens
 
Thanks to everybody
You helped me a lot.
 
If you get in a bind with the veggies and lettuce is all you can get (it can happen in some places i'm sure) do not use iceberg lettuce. Romain is ok when it's all you can get.
 
" I believe Iguanas should only get a little animal protein in the first year of life. This held build their muscle mass. After this they should be 99.99999% vegetarian. The animal protein is too high in nitrogen. This makes too much uric acid and what is called _____ (Tofu, tofi ?) crystals in the kidney. These get bigger & bigger & squeeze out the normal kidney cells.
Fat is paramount in the diet. This can be vegetable or animal in orientation. This allows for the fat soluble vitamins A, D3 , E & K to be absorbed. "


That was a direct quote from my favorite vet.
 
Z Trip;581248; said:
" I believe Iguanas should only get a little animal protein in the first year of life. This held build their muscle mass. After this they should be 99.99999% vegetarian. The animal protein is too high in nitrogen. This makes too much uric acid and what is called _____ (Tofu, tofi ?) crystals in the kidney. These get bigger & bigger & squeeze out the normal kidney cells.
Fat is paramount in the diet. This can be vegetable or animal in orientation. This allows for the fat soluble vitamins A, D3 , E & K to be absorbed. "


That was a direct quote from my favorite vet.
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he is incorrect

your vet is a tard, get a new one.

information must be based on fact not belief

it is not known how much animal protein is too much, every iguanas system is different, therefore it should be eliminated from the diet completely.


Uric acid crystals do not form in the kidneys and they certainly dont squeeze out normal kidney cells :ROFL:. Uric acid cystals form in the tissues of the iguanas ,usually they are visible or can be felt as hard lumpy clusters around the joints of the legs and feet. Urates are thicker and yellowish and small crystals may be seen in them.

EVERYTHING LIVING contains nitrogen, its not what is the problem, the problem is the amino acid composititon of the animal matter. again, as i said in an earlier post, how those aminos are deconstructed and utilized by the body differs depending upon whether the source of the amino acids was a plant or an animal. Plants form pyramidines, animal protein forms purines. The more purines in the diet, the higher the strain on the kidneys, and the faster they will fail.
 
Z Trip;581248; said:
Fat is paramount in the diet. This can be vegetable or animal in orientation. This allows for the fat soluble vitamins A, D3 , E & K to be absorbed. "
.
Click to expand...

incorrect

fat is of little importance in the diet, animal fat is of NO importance.

a balanced diet of fruit, veggies, leafy greens along with a multi and calcium suppliment will be everything an iguana will ever need.

fat soluble simply means that these nutrients are stored in the fat cells of the iguana, a healthy iguana well fed on a blanced diet will have plenty of fat in its body.
 
Well I think I am going to believe my vet b4 some randome guy on the internet...
 
Feed him'her good greens things like Kale , Collard greens , Swiss Chard broccili ets don't give him lettuse of any knid it really no good vitamins also on nice Hot days take him out side so he he get real rays from the sun (they sell leashes for iggy's ) a good protine source u could use is monkey chow how ever the greens are more inportant ..keep him warm asl if u intend on feeding him things that r meat based only feed this when he is young as they grow older they prefer to b a Vegan
 
Del,

I am going to agree with you 100%

Kale, Iceberg, and Spinach really shouldn't be fed to reptiles, stick to mustard greens, collard greens, dandilion leaves and vary the diet with fruits and veggies. I never knew about the yogurt, but it makes sense and I will keep that in mind. I got into an argument with someone at work (that I worked with) who said she would never recommend frozen feeders for any reptile because they killed her brother's ig, but it ate live mice without a problem. She is dumb, never feed live, and never feed animals to igs. People that don't know should shut up. Purine and pyramidine structure is differnt. Pyramidine, if I remember from class last year, has a much simpler structure and evolution has given Igs the job of using plant proteins, not animal proteins. The way we get from plant proteins to animal proteins is something like this DNA -> mRNA -> ribosomes, this is when amino acids are translated from mRNA.

Get a powersun bulb, UVB heat bulb and buy vitamin D3 calcium dust. D3 is synthesised by organisms through the help of UVB. Give them the dust and they are consuming it already.
 
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