Ok this is the 4 week mark of my Iguana being in my home now. I've SEEN him eat his poop at least 5 or 6 times. I've posted about this before, and was suggested that it may be missing bacteria in its gut.
I've tried yogurt once, just a small dab. When that didn't work, I thought it wasn't enough, so I bought some nutribac DF and served it two days now in a ROW, because each day, he was happily chowing on his poop late afternoon.

I tried to remove the poop as soon as possible but he poops at different time (not to mention different places!!!) and today as soon as I removed the poop, go sit in my sofa rest for a while an go back, there is a fresh batch and eating again!

To the contrary, he doesn't finnish his food. He has a bowl now. He always eats JUST the food that heaps over the edge of the bowl, never beneath the line. I can give it less, it will eat to the level of the bowl edge. I put more, same thing. All the food INSIDE the bowl is wasted. If I just put the food int he floor, he eats it. But then its hard to keep it moist on the wood.

Anthony,

From what I have read there is no scientific proof of why an iguana may eat poop. There are some theories such as they do it to get gut flora, vitamins, or it may have something to do with reaching sexual maturity. Another explanation is that they do it when the owner is around to show their displeasure when they are mad. http://www.anapsid.org/coproph.html Who knows maybe his pooping in inappropiate places, unexplained behaviors and this is all related. Maybe as time goes by and he gets more settled he may stop all of it. Iguanas can be very stubborn and contrary at times.

I found that Huff eats almost all his food if it is in a very shallow bowl or a plate. You could try that.

Marie

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

He seems to not be eating poop to displease me because there have been times that I have walked in on him already eating it, and also because sometimes I come home and see that he has poop on his mouth, so he is eating it also when I'm not there.
I don't know about the sexual maturity thing, but if it is a female it probably isn't sexually mature because it is now 7 inches snout to vent length 25 inches snout to tail length (grown another inch this week.) but females are sexually mature at 10 inches snout to vent length right?
It doesn't show any characteristic of a male, although males can get sexually mature at 6 inches snout to vent length, but it has no jawls, no fatty lumps on the head, and its femoral pores are really small and doesn't stick out at all. You have to sort of squint to see them. Plus I have watched him poop and maybe I missed it but it seems that there were no hemiphebes sticking out that is pulled back in. By the way, when it is female, how to you tell if it is sexually mature?

I will try getting a smaller plate. Do you suggest a plate that has an edge like a dinner plate, so there is space between the edge and the floor? Or a dog food type plate where the edge goes straight down to the floor? For the latter, I have no idea where I would get one that is shallow, as most such plates (dogfood, ashtray etc.) are quite deep.

Anthony.

I just use a plastic salad plate or saucer.

Well my Huff has gone through two seasons and has no jowels (just barely starting to get them now) or fatty bumps. I knew he was male by the bulges in his tail. The femoral pores didn't get waxy stuff until he went into his first season months later and that was when he first flashed me too. Dragon I was told she was a male and she had some male traits. I found out she was female when she became gravid. A good herp vet can sometimes tell by probing but sometimes that is inconclusive. It is really a wait and see thing or educated guess unless you want to have genetic bloodwork done.

Both Baby and Dragon attempted do eat feces when I first had them but I took them outside to both poop and bask. So I was able to stop them. That went on for a while but they just suddenly stopped. I didn't know why they tried or why they stopped trying because nothing had changed. Maybe your ig will stop soon. Sorry I couldn't anymore help. Maybe someone will have other ideas.

Marie

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

Cophrogy is fine in baby iguanas, part of their trying to balance out things. As his hind gut matures, the probiotics kick in and his appetite increases, he will do it less and less.

Try not to worry so much about it.

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Regards,
Dominick
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