He hasn't shed since I got him, in one single spot, the bottom right side of his head is a thick brown colour, I've tried bath's, every kind of water source you can imagine, the humidity in his tank is 50, temp 75-80F. He could not be under stress, there is nothing bugging him in there, its a 6ft-2ft cage, made of wood and fibreglass. I have 2 lights, ceramic heat lamp, and a outdoor floodlight which gets the tank from 70-80 in about 10 minutes.. So what could it be?

How long have you had him? How big is he? What are you feeding? What type of lighting do you have?
The humidity could be a bit higher but that won't keep him from shedding.
That should be your minimum. you should have a basking spot with a temp of 90-95 degrees.

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Hello,
I didn't notice a mention of UV lighting. Are you supplying any source of UV?

Oh, I forgot to mention I have 3 UVA UVB flourescent lights on the top of the cage. The basking spot is about 90-95 degrees, its a 150 watt flood light 1 foot away from where he basks. He is a month and a 1/2 old.

What are you feeding? Dandelion, chickory and collard green, with calcium powder and sweet potatoe once a week.

Are you saying that you're feeding ALL those things ONCE a week or just the sweet potato ONCE a week?

If you're just feeding once a week this is why he's not shedding... HE'S NOT GROWING!!! Igs need to eat EVERY DAY! Poor little guy's hungry!

The basics of your diet is great... Dandelion and Collards are two of the very best things you can feed. You do need a larger variety of items though. Here's a link to a fantastic food chart:

GIS Food Chart The items marked "Staple" can be fed daily; I suggest rotating through them, but the bulk of the diet should be the greens.

Once he gets enough to eat, he'll grow faster and then he'll start to shed.

No, the sweet potatoe and calcium powder once a week.. Knew that would happen, sorry to scare ya. He usually gets random stuff added to the chickory, dandelion, and collard greens, like greenbeans, rasberries, strawberries, mango, watermelon, and muskmelon.

Welcome to HC, you will find this a great bunch of people willing to help with care and it is great to see more people posting on the Ig board.

These are tricky for placement. Firstly you really don't want anything between the bulb and the ig. Many materials -- glass, clear plastic, window screen, and fabric mesh -- will drastically reduce the amount of UV after the light passes thru it, if not filter the UV all the way out. With that you also need to ensure the ig is the proper distance from the bulb face. Tube type florecents only emit UV radiation about 8 inches before the atmosphere sufficietly filters it to nothing.

Even with great placement you need to rotate the bulbs as they have a short life span. Usually after 6 months of use the UV production of something like a ZooMed Reptisun 5 is greatly reduced.

__________________
~ Mark

We were going to have them closer but the top had to be a bit higher for some fake plants and climbing stuff, so we used a floodlight which probably does give off UVA UVB. Its cheaper than the Zoomed lights, a whole box of 150watt bulbs was, FREE! I had 2 Zoomed lights a heat lamp and a UVA UVB and the burnt out 3 days after buying them..
BTW what could I do automatically to raise the humidity? I tried spraying but the fan just tosses that away too quick. Would a fogger work at all?
Or should I stick with spraying twice a day?

Hello,
Proper UV is required and really isn't something that comes second to plants. Without enough UV exposure, your iguana will not be able to assimilate the dietary calcium and phosphorus in his diet. That will create numerous problems like stunted growth, Metabolic Bone Disease, and various other ailments.

A great light for UV is the MegaRay EB. It can be located at ReptileUV. (Has a warranty too!)

The lights you got for free do not have any UVB output. UVB is produced in specialty lighting and not ordinary flood lamps or incandescent lamps.

A dish large enough for the iguana to lay in would help increase humidity. I know this isn't always possible, especially as the iguana grows, but it helps while they are small.

Have you been giving the iguana baths? A daily bath will help to keep your iguana hydrated.

The 150 tungsten filiment bulbs will not produce the wavelengths that you need (UVB or from 290 nm to about 310 nm). These only give you the visible light and heat. Also there are full spectrum lights on the market -- even reptile basking bulbs sold by ZooMed -- which don't have any benefitial use for the ig thus are just a waste of money.

About the best bulbs on the market are from the MegaRay line sold through www.reptileuv.com

Humidity: spraying is great but only twice a day is not enough, even without a fan. I spray my enclosed ig cage more than 5 times a day. Automatically you can use a humidifier or run the humidifier on a timer.

__________________
~ Mark