What You Should Do for Iguana Nutrition

If you have a pet iguana you will need to use the right iguana diet for your pet. A typical iguana will need a special diet, as the animal can grow in size in a fast amount of time. In fact, it can be about a hundred times heavier than it was as a hatchling in just two years. Because of the great size of the animal it is important to look into using appropriate iguana nutrition so that your animal will not become a fat iguana.

A typical iguana is an herbivore. It will eat young leaves and flower buds and the occasional fruit. There are some carnivore iguanas that will eat mealworms as well. However, it helps to keep a balanced diet for your iguana. This is so that the animal will be able to keep from being a fat iguana, but there are some other concerns as well.

A larger food intake can result in obesity in the iguana. However, metabolic bone disease is a more serious concern and will be one in which an animal doctor will have to take care of. This is where the diet of the animal is not well balanced. This occurs when the body of the iguana is bony and fat or its jaws appear to be swollen. The iguana is also more likely to develop fractures when metabolic bone disease occurs. It can be controlled, however, if you are feeding your iguana a diet that is high in calcium and low in phosphorous.

Having a good exercise program for your iguana is important. It helps to get the iguana to move around and to be active for a good period of time in a day so that it will keep from being overweight. Having the right calcium to phosphorous ratio is going to be important as well.

It helps to get a better idea of how an iguana would grow normally so that you have a better idea of whether or not the animal is healthy. A hatchling will measure for about three inches from snout to vent. It will grow three quarters of an inch each month for three months and it slows by half at the three month age. The snout to vent length will be at about a little less than six inches. In one year the iguana will be about nine to ten inches long, and from twelve to fifteen months the iguana will grow to about three times its size and will continue to grow for a couple more years. It is best to check on the growth status of your iguana to see that it is following it properly. If it is not then the animal will clearly not have the right nutrition.

Iguana nutrition is important for iguana health. Not only can having the appropriate nutrition help to prevent your iguana from being a fat iguana but it can prevent dangerous illnesses, especially metabolic bone disease, from happening in the future.