I agree that he may be overdoing it. But in his case I feel some supplementation is needed. I don't think he wants to have to supplement. He would give a good varied diet if he could but he can't find the same foods that are on the iguana food list--such as collards which has the highest calcium to phospherous and calcium to oxalates ratio. I know I tend to use a high percentage of collards so that I can add other things that are bad when it comes to calcium but good for other nutrients. He doesn't have that option though. Eventually he may be able to find greens and vegetables there that willl be comparable to the items we feed but that will take some research on his part.

I tend to take the middle ground between Melissa Kaplan's diet and others myself. When researching slurry recipes I found one that was totally just greens and hers. I was considering making a batch of each and mixing it. But someone that has helped me a lot sent me a copy of a slurry that an excellent rehabber had come up with. When I read it it seemed to be what I was thinking of--some of each with a few tweaks of his own. I feel that Baby and Dragon couldn't have done any better. I still tend to favor Melissa Kaplan and James Hatfield on most things.

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Jan. 25, 1963 - Sept. 10, 2006 (R.I.P)

Ok I just tried to google this subject to see if Melissa Kaplan is accurate but the first 7 pages of results were almost ALL word for word copy of Melissa Kaplan's website on the subject. Ugh!!!!

MK is an authority on Iguanas, one of the first.

However, we are constantly tweaking info based on what we learn. For instance, the use of probiotics is just a recent development. When she wrote her info, NutriBacDF wasn't even developed yet. The only thing available at her time of writing was BeneBac for birds, and before that it was plain yogurt. NutriBacDF is specifically designed for reptiles.

Start with her info and modify it based on current research and testing.

Supplement sparingly. Remember, you are already feeding an excelelnt high calcium diet, the iguana has great UVB and good heat. That's all you really need for a healthy iguana.

Supplement probiotics once a week, a light dusting (if you can see it, it's too much). Supplement crushed up Centrum once a week also.

These are all the things that your iguana will need to grow healthy and happy.

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Regards,
Dominick
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"Do you watch too much television? Did you do so as a toddler? Evidence tonight that it could be the cause of learning disorders, like attention deficit and hyperact-Ooooh, a kitty!" - Keith Olbermann

When you guys say "Dusting" how much is that exactly?

I sprinkly on top. Do you guys do that? The word "Dusting" makes me think of you guys getting a paintbrush, dipping it in powder and dusting the salad with it like you would dust some dusty shelves.

Anthony, have you opened the glued on safety seal over the nutibac yet? If not take a nail or pencil point or other semi-sharp object and poke holes (say between 0.5 and 1 mm in diameter) in the seal to make a shaker (like a spice or salt shaker) out of it. Use this to shake a lite coating of nutribac over the salad, like it has been covered with a layer of dust – remember you won't be able to see this as the powder dissolves in the water on the greens. As Dominick said, if you can see the powder sitting on the greens for more than a few seconds you've used too much.

Kaplin is an authority on igs. As she states on her website not a professional, but yes she has been an authority. One thing I have noticed is anapsid has been slow to update over time on a few key issues, such as she vacillates on the use of UV for igs. As with any authority some people will point at it and yell. I am used to reading past the authors views, as with the news media bias, but one argument I don't understand is over her diet. It looks very close to the other common diets out there I see.

From dictionary.com
Dusting is both removing fine particles from a surface and adding them to a surface. Welcome to the messed up nture of the english language.

dusting
verb transitive
1) To remove dust from by wiping, brushing, or beating: dust the furniture.
2) To sprinkle with a powdery substance: dusted the cookies with sugar; dust crops with fertilizer.

verb intransitive
1) To clean by removing dust.
2) To cover itself with such particulate matter. Used of a bird.

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~ Mark

Mark, that is a GREAT idea about punching fine holes through the safety seal!!! Why didn't I think of that??? LOL

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~~Steph

"This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world." John Steinbeck

Thanks but I am wondering why didn't I think of it. Now I am trying to figure out how to do this without ruining the screw off lid to the jar. Do you think there is a tape that would work to do this? I guess that I could replace the jar with an empty spice container but again I am too late as I tossed all those about a week ago.

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~ Mark

I think we should make this suggestion to the manufacturer of NutriBac. It would benefit us all in the long run.

I think you can purchase single glass spice jars at Bed Bath and Beyond; I'll check it out this weekend.

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~~Steph

"This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world." John Steinbeck

can't you just pour some into a salt shaker?

That would require having an empty salt shaker, but yes. Anything like this would work but if you hadn't pulled off the safety seal you could have used the original nutribac jar.

What ever you do label the shaker WELL. Putting nutribac df on something, say in your coffee thinking it looks like powder creamer, would make mistaking salt for sugar when mixing coffee sound appetizing. On a side note, by no means do I condone the use of salt, sugar, coco, or cream in coffee.

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~ Mark