Iguana Salad

      For more information on diet and about this salad please visit Melissa Kaplans Iguana Care pages.

      Here is a description and recipe of a typical daily diet for the green iguana.

      Iguana's are herbivores and as such should have a diet consisting of leafy greens, vegetables and some fruit items that all have a good calcium to phosphorus balance. Please feel free to copy this salad recipe!

      This salad, or recipe is virtually the same as what you will find on Melissa Kaplan's Iguana care pages, except that her pages go into a lot more detail about the nutrients. Therefore, you really should make a point to visit Melissa Kaplans Iguana Care pages! This is only meant as something that will get you and your iguana off to a good start. :)

• 1 orange squash (Winter squash as in pepper, butter, pumpkin ...)

        quartered, heated slightly in the microwave to soften the skin. Then the skin is peeled off, and the squash is shredded into fine pieces in my food processor. It looks a bit like shredded cheese when I'm done.

        sweet potato may be substituted here on occasion

• 2 large parsnips

        (looks like a white carrot!)- shredded as above.

• Perhaps one large carrot

        now and then mixed in to added beta carotene- (and some colour to his diet!) shredded as above. Carrots are high in oxalates and should not be used on a regular basis.

• 1/2 of a plastic veggie bag of fresh green beans

        (you know- the kind they have in grocery stores to put your selection of veggies or fruit in) This is about 3 cups of green beans. Finely chopped in the food processor or steel knifed.

• 1 cup of alfalfa pellets

        mix in with already chopped or shredded veggies

• 10 - 12 fresh or reconstituted dried figs

        Scoop some of the seeds out as they can impact an iguana. Figs are very high in calcium! Chop figs finely and mix into salad ingredients.

• 1 large cantaloupe

        halved or quartered with the seeds scooped out. chop finely ... try to get as much of the cantaloupe juice into the salad as possible as well as this will add vital moisture to the mix.

        Raspberries, papaya, honeydew melon, and or strawberries may be substituted for the cantaloupe on occasion. Cantaloupe and raspberries have quite good calcium to phosphorus ratios for fruit.

• Mix all of the above ingredients together. The salad should be moist- not too dry ...
• I then get out several plastic sandwich bags and put daily portions of salad for Napoleon in each baggy. I then place all of these baggies into large freezer bags and place them in the freezer.
• Each evening I take out a frozen portion of the salad and place it in the fridge to thaw.
• Each morning I make Napoleons food:
  • I chop some collard greens (about two leaves) into small pieces. Each piece is about half the size of his head or smaller. I will occasionally use mustard or dandelion greens as his leafy veggie as collard, mustard and dandelion greens all have a fairly good calcium to phosphorus ratio ... and rarely kale or escarole.
  • I never use any type of lettuce as it has absolutely no nutritional value- none what so ever!
  • I then mix his daily portion of the above salad, and the leaves together in his food dish.
  • Once a week you can add a very small amount of powdered multivitamin to the daily salad. Mix the vitamins in well. Vitamins made specifically for reptiles, birds or even some human vitamins such as Centrum (ground in coffee grinder to make a fine powder) may be used but please read the labels on whatever vitamin that you might choose to use. Heavy metals such as iron, zinc and even copper are often added to multivitamin mixtures and if the vitamins are overused or are used on a long term basis they could cause iron and zinc toxicity.

          My iguana was just diagnosed yesterday (Nov, 12th, 99) with extremely high iron levels and high zinc levels in his system. Whether this is due to overuse of vitamins or whether he is sensitive to iron and zinc in general I don't know. We aren't even 100% that vitamin supplementation is the cause but it certainly seems to be the most likely suspect at this point. So please, as a word of caution, be careful of how much vitamins you actually give to your iguana, and it might be wise to purchase iron-free multivitamins.

  • Then I add some Vitamin B1 or Brewers yeast (thiamine). Vitamin B1 from the pharmacy might actually be better to use than Brewers yeast because the Brewers yeast might have additives in that your iguana does not need. I add the vitamin B1 powder because I freeze my salad and I take out a portion of what I need for Napoleon each day. When fresh veggies and fruit are frozen the vitamin thiamine can degrade and foods served to animals that have little or no thiamine in them can cause deficiencies of this important vitamin.
  • Then I sprinkle some powdered calcium onto his food.
  • I mix his food together one more time so he doesn't have powdered vitamin and calcium sitting on the top of his food.
  • Then I serve him his salad which he usually eagerly eats at least half of, and picks at the rest throughout the day.
  • If he has eaten all of his food by the time I come home from work I will often either give him another portion of salad, or perhaps just some leafy greens as a treat.
• He loves his salad!
  

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Iguana Books

Iguanas for Dummies

     By Melissa Kaplan!!!! 384 pages of in depth iguana care information. So, you wanna iguana. Or you already have one. Now what? This fun and friendly guide gives you expert advice on selecting an iguana and taking care of your fascinating pet throughout its life. It provides valuable tips on diet, habitat, health, and other important iguana issues.

Green Iguana; The Ultimate Owner's Manual by James W., III Hatfield

     The best book on green iguanas to come along in years. Information on diet, housing, and health, wonderful insights into iguana psychology and iguana-human interaction. The definitive work on management, care and personality traits of green iguanas in captivity. If you own a green iguana or if you are thinking of getting one, you should buy this book.

The Green Iguana Manual by Philippe De Vosjoli

     Basic information about the care of the Green Iguana. Outdated nutritional information.

The Iguana : An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet by Karen Rosenthal

     Up-to-date reptile information and ownership instruction. The Iguana covers everything from selecting an ectotherm and understanding its environmental needs to discussions on behaviour and a glossary of relevant terminology.

Iguana Iguana : Guide for Successful Captive Care by Fredric L. Frye

     A new and expanded edition, devoted exclusively to the green iguana, based on the author's previous publication, Iguanas: A Guide to their Biology and Captive Care. Includes b&w; illustrations and 24 pages of colour plates. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.