Ok here are a couple of questions from a newbie.First do I sprinkle calcium dust on his food.Its called Jurassi Cal?Second is it ok to give him juvenile iguana fortified food made from the co. Zilla.Third I also have Jurassi Vite-vitamin supplement.The calcium is phosphorus free.Please any help with this would be great.Any advice on what I need far as supplements go.Or will he get everything he needs from his food intake of collard/mustard greens,green beans,parsnips,watercress,yellow squash,and the small amounts of fruit he gets.Thanks to all that may reply to this thread.I believe the pet stores may tell me I need this and that when maybe I really dont.Just to boost the sales.I have 3 pet stores where I live.I get different answers from all 3.

Here are some helpful links.

http://reptileguides.herpcenter.com/...p=705&posted=1

http://reptileguides.herpcenter.com/...p=701&posted=1

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

Venus, I like your new eye-con. (Yes, I know, groan!)

Chopper, I'm going to add that while I haven't heard of the juvenile food harming the iguana necessarily, it also doesn't help them that much. You'll do much better just feeding your ig the recommended veggies and their vitamins.

If you do decide to feed him bagged processed food, make sure it doesn't contain large amounts of protein, and feed it only as a supplement. If it's hard food, you'll want to soak it in water to make it digestible.

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"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.

The supplements I use are RepCal brand, both calcium as well as the vitamins. I supplement every week or two with a light sprinkling of the supplements, about what you would use if you were salting your own food.
You really don't need the pellets if you are supplying a good balanced diet but I, as well as several others I know, use pellets as an addition to the diet. I would be wary of the Zilla food since it lists fish meal as one of its componenents as well as many of the key ingredients being nothing but filler. You want to avoid animal protiens. The pelleted diet I use is also Rep Cal(no I am NOT on their payroll LOL!) I give about a quarter cup at a time once or twice a week. I soak it in water until its really wet and soft before topping it on the greens. This adds a touch of variety as well as being a great way to get more water into the ig. I also spray the greens down till they are soaking wet.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Water on the salad, lots of water, keep that lizard properly hydrated. Soaked RepCal worked well for me like Merlin -- I used about 1 T dry and soaked over the salad daily. Is you use this don't bother with the other supplements as you'll be overdoing it.

Biggest variety you can. Even some things listed as rare to occasionally. Do you eat the same mix daily?

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~ Mark

My local pet stores do not carry the repcal products.So i'm going to buy off of the net.I alternate some of the greens he gets.One day mustard greens with fresh green beans,and a little bit of fruit.Then the next day I give him collard greens with squash and some fruit.He get some variety of leafy greens every day.Every other day I throw in some sweet potatoe.I've had him for almost a week now and today is the first time ive dusted his food with calcium.I just wasent sure if I should or not.Will the Jurassi vitamin supplement work in place of the repcal until I can get some in?

I stand corrected.My local pet stores do carry the repcal products.Ive just looked on there sites.Now seeing what it looks like I remember seeing it now on the shelves.Looks like ive had a blonde moment(no harm meant)lol.So i'm off tomorrow to get some.Thanks for all the advice....

See if you can find a place that still sells greens by the pound. Open the bunch and take what you need. That way you won't waste much and you can have a bunch of different ones on hand at once. Once your ig packs on some size you won't worry about greens going bad too quickly.

Fresh alfalfa is easy to grow and seeds are readily available -- health nuts use them for sprouting. It will take a while to start but once established it is hard to kill off. More lawns than not in the midwest have it growing in them if you look closely.

Clover is also great. The low ground cover type which gets a white, pink, or red ball like flower.

I typically had three different greens on the plate at once and a hlaf dozen additional parts of which I could grab a few. What worked well for me was have two hand graters (flat paddle type) which I would grate the veggies right over the greens in a collander. That way you keep the fruit (squash, cucumber, tomato are fruit not a veggies)in the largest pieces possible for the most time. Stores longer that way. Having a few cheap graters allows one to be clean and on hand. Once grated with veggies I would run it under cold water and dump it right on the plate / pie pan. Don't bother draining it.

I speak in the past tense as I had to put my ig down back in February. He died of liver failure after only 11 years. Nearly all igs captive are chronically dehydrated and as you know dehydration is very hard on organ function primarily the two filters, kidneys and liver. With some quick reading you will find that kidney failure is a major killer of well kept adult igs.

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~ Mark

In the four states and six cities I have lived in both of the big box pet stores carry Rep-cal. With the fully stocked shelves it can be easy to overlook.

You'll also find the clear jars it comes in are great. I have two full of rice, one of screws, and one full of 22LR.

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~ Mark

Thanks Mark and i'm sorry to hear about your ig.Thats a bad thing when you lose a pet that you've raised for a long time.Thanks for all the info,I sure will put it to use.I'm going today and get some repcal.and to see if maybe I can find that book,that ive been told about.