My son was give a poorly cared for iguana. I feel so sorry for the poor thing! I had no clue what he/she needed when the man showed up with him/her. The man said " I only feed him regular lettuce." Well, the first thing I read when I came online to read up was NOT to feed too much lettuce, and diet should be varied. So I promtly went out to the store and got the stuff listed. I fed him/her first thing this morning, he/she hasn't eatten though.
Also for this year they have handled the poor thing very much at all the man said. They have been feeding him/her in the late evening too.
Also he/she seems pretty scrawny to me. They have had him/her for over a year apparently and another of their family members owned him/her before them. He/she is 13 inches long.
Is it possible that the poor diet has stunted the growth? Or will it grow now if I can get it healthy?

Also his tail is a solid dark brown from tip up four inches. Could this be normal coloration, or is something wrong?

I am trying my best to figure out what to do for him/her. Please help!
THANKS in advance,
Apex

Hi there, and welcome to the forum!
It's been kinda slow around here lately, but I still check in to see if anything's new. It's good to hear the ig is FINALLY in good responsible hands. Yes the diet was horrible... I don't have a green ig, but I do have a 2+ year old spiny tail ig and a baby rhino ig. Their diet is basically the same (especially for the rhino, the spiny gets occasional mealworms). We feed 2 of either mustard, collard, or turnip greens (sometimes watercress) and add in "spring mix" greens as well as 2 types of squash daily and sweet potato often, which was recommended to fatten up the baby rhino. They also get fruit a few times a week, mainly berries, but sometimes mango or papaya. You didn't specify the new diet, but I must say our igs are both fat little lizards! You may also want to try misting him several times a day to rehydrate him incase he is dehydrated (this will also make him look thin). I would recommend daily baths, but not untill he has acclimated to his new home, as the handling may cause too much stress on him right now. Just make sure his humidity and temps are correct for now, and the misting and new diet should help. Spraying the food with water is also a good way to ensure hydration.

As far as the tail goes, it was probably dropped at some point in the igs sad past. New growth is often darker in color as you described. It is nothing to worry about if this is the case, but will probably never be the same color as the rest of him. It may also be shorter, and therefore reduce his total length a bit. A more reliable way to determine if he is the proper size would be to measure snout-vent length. Considering his past and the estimated size you describe, he sounds very small for his age, unless you were saying he was 13" snout-vent. Like I said, I don't own any greens, but our rhino is only 5 months old (we have the hatch date) and already 15" total length, and rhino's are typically not as long as green iguanas when full grown. Poor care will decrease full grown size, but I would not worry about that. The most important thing is that you now provide him with everything he needs to be happy, healthy, and grow to his potential given his past.

You didn't say the size of his enclosure, but it is important to note that bigger is better, and green igs need a lot of height. No, they do not grow to the size of their enclosure, but will grow faster and be happier/healthier given more space and the proper dimensions.

I highly recommend you schedule a vet visit once he has had some time to adapt to his new loving home. Blood work and a fecal exam will tell you if you have any parasites to worry about.

Good Luck, and let us know how it's going!
P.S.-Here's my little fat rhino today...she is such a little sweetie!

What I am feeding him is a mixture I found on the web, It is Blended cantaloupe, pears, green beens, and okra mixed with moistened rabbit food, fresh coursely chopped turnips, collards, mustards, and dandilion greens sprinkled with a cal. suppliment, and brewer's yeast all mixed together. Is this ok? I sure hope so.

As far as the cage size, they gave it to us with him. It is roughly a 2x2 square that is around 4ft tall. As I mentioned, he is 13 inches from nose to tail.

I haven't seen him eat any of the mix, but he has taken a couple of dandilion leaves from my son's hand.

We are working today on getting the heating and UV lighting rofht for him. The previous ower only had 1 regular 100 watt household buld in the cage.

We are doing the best we can to get him on the right track.

How's he/she doing? I think that your enclosure is a decent size considering how small the ig is (that still is a concern if it is well over a year old). I am a little concerned by the diet you took on, though it is MUCH better than the previous diet of just lettuce. Why are you feeding rabbit pellets? I am not trying to be too critical, and am actually curious as to where you got your feeding advice from. I would suggest you get some squashes on your next trip to the market...the greens you are feeding look good. The colors of orange and yellow squashes entice the ig to eat and are also good for them. Some fruits are good, but should be a minor part of the diet. Basically ig food should be mainly greens topped with some squashes, with fruit as a treat. There are many things you can add in for variety (like peas), but the staples are the only foods that should be fed every day.

A good site for feeding and othe info is www.greenigsociety.org, here is a link to their food chart Green Ig Society Food Chart

It can be a bit much, but just remember to be sure to provide a mixture of greens and squash every day, and you can add in some of the other fun stuff listed and know it is safe and how often it should be fed.

Updates are appreciated, and pics are too!

P.S.- How is the tail looking? I am hoping it is just regrowth, but worry that it could be gangreen, which would need to be removed ASAP. If it travels further up the tail or if you see darkening of other areas (like his toes or feet) you should take him to the vet immediately. I think a vet check is in order either way, but it would be nice for both of you if he had time to settle in first.

It makes me relieved to see a post like this. It at least means that the ig is getting the care he needs. :thumbs:

Take a look at the pinned topic "Foods to Feed Your Iguana" at the top of the feeding forum. It should help you out with the diet. The most important thing at this point is the UVB lighting. Make sure it's a good brand (ZooMed, ESU) becuase he desperately needs the calcium and vitamin D3. Make sure to keep him very warm. He most definately has some degree of MBD (metabolic bone disease) so leave the UVB on for a little longer than you would normally (14 hrs a day should be about right) and give him calcium rich foods. Hold out on the calcium binding foods like carrots for the time being. Feed in the moring if you can, it helps with digestion.

As for the cage, try to up the size when you can. He is stunted and needs a bigger cage. When you get the UVB light on him and he starts eating his good diet, he'll grow pretty fast and need a bigger cage. If you need me to, I can describe how to build the type cages that I have. They are handy little things.

Tha cage can come a little later. The MOST important thing is the UVB and proper diet. To help his digestion and shedding, you can give him baths every other day in lukewarm water. Do you have a pic of him?

You might also want to take him to the vet to check for any internal parasites that he might have. That might be why he's not eating as much as you think he should.

I hope everything turns out ok for him. You're doing a great job so far.
Heather

I think we are double posting, Spiny!

Rabbit pellets are ok because they have a lot of alfalfa in them, which is an excellent source of calcium. Don't feed turnip - too high in goitrogens.

You don't really need the yeast unless you are freezing your greens and veggies. When you freeze veggies, the thawing process kills most thiamin (vitamin B1). The yeast just puts it back in there. You don't need it unless you are freezing.

huh? I don't think I double posted anything. I said turnip greens (along with mustards and collards) which you also have on you feeding list...I never said turnips. I only question rabbit pellets because they are not fresh, yet I did not say it was wrong. They may be mostly alphalfa, but what is the rest of it, fillers? I would think fresh alphalfa would be a better recommendation, though we all do have to wade through all the info and choose what we feel is best through experience.

My main concern with the diet was the lack of squash and the accessive portions of fruit. A healthy ig eats his greens and veggies! LOL!

P.S.-Where did everyone go?

No, I meant that we are posting right on top of each other (right after each other). Not that you are double posting. lol. Sorry. And also I was talking about ApexFear feeding turnips, but now that I read it again I see that she's feeding turnip greens...not turnips. Just reading too fast. :)

The problem with getting fresh alfalfa is that most of what you buy live is going to be alfalfa sprouts, which are actually quite bad for igs. You want the mature stuff (which is what they put in the pellets). If you go the pellet route, you want to look for the pure alfalfa pellets, so there's not much in there but alfalfa.

Heather

hello there i know you are proberly all sorted now but i noticed you said you fed dander leaves? now think about the flowers too they are good for your iggy and bright/attractive in colour mine all go mad for them. also the orange veg is as important as the greens, i tend to staple with a mix of collard mustard greens and dander leaves for the greens and carrot sweet potato or butternut squash for the orange with other little bits and bobs added.also you will proberly have noticed and someone may have pointed this out to you but iguanas dont chew so they cannot ground up there food in their mouths like we can, so you have to do that for them by chopping the food up finely,iguanas tend to digest more of the food if it is chopped finer than if it is coarsely chopped (i will have to find the link to back up my quote and add it).

oh and one more thing people do not always remember this but have you been through a shed cycle yet? if so i will shut up but watch the spines and toes and in your case the tail too,my females spines are very curvey and she cannot get them all off herself she needs assistance otherwise the skin would build uo and she would lose thta spine, so once the skin all around tha spines thats shes struggling eith is shed i soak her as normal and try to help ease the milky coloured skin off the sine,it should remove easily so if it doesnt i leave it for a week and try again you have to be very careful with things like this but not all iguanas ned help so hopefully you are lucky.now the toes just make sure that all the skin comes off,i have personally never had a problem with it but i have a friend that almost lost a tip of the toe due to retained skin over and over again.and the tail for you now as it is regrowth you may have problems with the shedding of it our male has a regrown tail and he needs assistance with the tip every now and again because its so much thicker than normal skin on the rest of his body but thats easy just soak the iggy and run a damp towel down the tail thta normally removes the last of the skin if its ready to be removed.

sorry ives sidetracked from the origional question but when our family 1st got an iguana many moons ago i wish someone had pointed out all the little things that MIGHT happen so i was prepared instead of panicing about it.

many thanks lou