Iguana Husbandry

DIET
Greens: 70-80% of the diet should consist of dark leafy greens such as: Collards, kale, romaine, red/green leaf lettuce, endive, mustard greens, escarole, etc. Be sure to serve the greens very wet in order to increase your iguana’s hydration.

Complete Diets: 20-30% of the diet should consist of a complete iguana diet such as: Rep-cal, Reeds, Zeigler, Scenic, Pretty Pets or Nutri-grow. Be sure to use a pelleted diet and soften it in water before giving it to your iguana.

Water: Keeping your iguana adequately hydrated is very important. Offer fresh water daily. Mist your iguana 3-4 times a day and soak it in shallow warm water for 15-20 minutes 2-3 times a week.

Vitamin Supplements: If you feed your iguana only greens, you will need to supplement it at each feeding. You should use a plain calcium supplement 3-4 times weekly, and a multivitamin (with Vit A in it) 1-2 times weekly. If your iguanas diet consists of 50% complete diet, this is not necessary.

HOUSING
Cage: A 29-30 gallon fish tank is a good starter cage for an iguana, but as it grows you will have to buy or have built a much larger enclosure. An adult iguana will need a cage 4-5 feet tall, 4 feet long and 2-3 feet wide.

Lighting: A basking area with an incandescent bulb should be offered on one side of the cage. The temperature under that light, where the iguana will actually sit should reach 92-95 degrees F. You also need to offer a 5.0 UVB fluorescent light over the basking area. This bulb needs to be 7-15 inches from the animal in order to work well. Make sure there is NO glass or plastic between this bulb and your iguana. Lights should be on 12 hours a day, and UVB fluorescent bulbs need to be replaced every 6 months (even if they still work). **Right now there are several incandescent bulbs that provide heat and UVB such as, Active UVB bulbs and Zoomed’s halogen bulb.

Heating Pad: An under the tank heating pad or red light bulb may be used to provide extra heat at night, but the cage does need to drop into the lower 80’s to upper 70’s.

Substrate: Use newspaper or indoor/outdoor carpet as substrate.

Sunlight: Try to expose your iguana to natural sunlight as much as possible during the summer months. DO NOT leave your iguana outside in a glass tank or an enclosed container because it will overheat. Try building an all screen enclosure and make sure part of it is always shaded. Dogs, cats, raccoons, etc. like to eat iguanas so DO NOT leave your iguana unattended outside unless you are positive the cage is secure.