What Food Is Best For Your Iguana?

Many people are keeping iguana as their pets. It is very important to know about the proper food for these animals for their right growth and to keep them healthy. Feeding only lettuce is not a solution. As the owner of the pet, you should feed them healthy and nutritious food. Here are a few useful leads regarding the food for iguanas.

1. Vegetables: Some people advise that iguanas can be fed on insects and worms or food meant for dogs and cats. Iguanas have their bodies biologically made in such a manner that they can consume more of plant proteins. This signifies that they should be considered only vegetarian. Their food should consist of mostly vegetables or fruits with high nutritional level including collard green and leafy mustard. You can also feed them lettuce, but it should not be on regular basis. Most of the salad lettuce does not have any nutritional degree. Iguanas live well on vegetables. Their food should mostly comprise of vegetables.

It is difficult for iguanas to digest and process the animal proteins. This will cause a lot of exertion on their kidneys and may lead to kidney problems. It is hard to absorb the animal proteins and it may produce uric acid in the body which causes gouty arthritis.

2. Water: iguanas consume only a meager quantity of water. There should be sufficient amount of humidity in their cage, otherwise they may get dehydrated. This will harm them.

You should give them plenty of water to drink. They may not try to drink the water themselves. You have to devise some means for that. You can sprinkle some water in their food. This way they may take water with their food.

You have to train your pets to drink water. Put some treat for them in the water so that they drink water with this food. They will soon get habitual to drink water.

3. Vitamins and minerals: Iguana requires a lot of Vitamin D3, calcium and phosphorous for growth of its bones and body. You should select the food containing these minerals and maintain the ratio of these elements 2:1. Feed them those foods, which have these nutrients.

4. Lighting; Proper lighting is most important for iguanas. If they are exposed to sunlight, they get Vitamin D3 calcium and phosphorous from ultraviolet UVA and UVB from sunrays. You can use different types of artificial lights, which produce the ultraviolet rays. However, the sunrays are the best. To make the iguana get sufficient quantity of the vitamins and mineral, they should be able to get exposure to sunlight to maximum possible extent.

5. Temperature: Iguanas are cold blooded animals. Their body functioning mostly depends upon the heat they absorb from their environment. For the digestion of the food, they require heat from atmosphere. They cannot digest the food, if they are not kept at proper temperature in their enclosure. The temperature should be maintained between 85 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit for proper digestion of their food.