How do you ascertain the health of your iguana pet?

If you are one of those who is well informed on how to attend to an iguana and has read the right literature on its upkeep, you would ensure that your iguana does not suffer from any ill health.  However, in the event of it falling ill, you should be able to quickly recognize any problem that it could be facing and take adequate measures to alleviate the problem.  This article is an attempt to share some of the tell tale symptoms exhibited by a sick iguana and what you can do to counter them.

Food Habits and Appetite

Over a period of time, you would definitely get to know about your pet’s eating habits and the moment there is a perceptible change in this schedule, you must realize that there is something wrong.  Typical signs are decreased intake of food or sometimes taking in more than normal, wishing to opt for something different than the usual menu and a reluctance to eat moist food.  These are sure signs that something is amiss and it is time to seek medical help.

External Look

You need to look for the texture of the skin and its color of your iguana to determine if there is any looseness or discoloration.  Though discoloration does occur occasionally due to change in temperature or stress, that condition is temporary and it is only when an iguana is really ill that the change in the skin color remains irreversible. It is worth mentioning that the skin usually takes on a brownish hue and that is a definite sign of sickness and time for you to rush him to the vet.

General Countenance

Your iguana’s behavior should also give you certain pointers on its health.  If it appears withdrawn and prefers to hide in a specific place within the terrarium, you should know that there could be something wrong with it.  The other scenario is when a normally passive iguana suddenly acts aggressive and that again is an indication that you need to show it to the vet at the earliest.

Iguana Feeding Information And It’s Eating Habits

Proper nutrition is crucial factor for iguanas, because many diseases occur because of incorrect nutrition. Iguanas are exclusively herbivorous throughout their life, so don’t be fooled that juvenile iguanas can eat various insects, because it is not true and may even harm your pet!

In one of the shops of small animals in the terrarium of iguana i have even saw the inscription: “… the juveniles consume insects, with age they become strictly vegetarians  ….” Can you think of that? And then you buy iguana in such shop, which probably has already some health problems (if they are feed with such food), and you get a stupid advice that you need to feed iguana with the animal food until it’s young (with that kind of diet you make the maximum damage to iguana) ….

Iguanas daily menu sheet must consist of:

* 45% of multiple leaf vegetables
* 40% of diversified vegetable
* 10-15% of fruit

Feed him 1-2 times a week, however,  you can add cereals to to menu, which should not exceed 5% of the total ration.

It is important that iguanas menu is as diverse as possible! In drawing up the menu, you must use as many different types of leaf vegetables and plain vegetables, also use different fruits but do not overdo it, just keep it in little amounts!

Also important is terrarium temperature of iguana: Iguana digest it’s food the best if the temperature in the terrarium is at least 29 ° C and therefore must be taken into consideration that the temperature during the day, in a certain parts of terrarium, doesn’t not fall below this limit! The fall in temperature below 29 ° C strongly inhibit digestive process!

And do not forget to UVA and UVB light (natural and / or artificial).