Is there any food out there that will help a slightly on the small side, reluctant to eat iguana bulk up a bit so (s)he doesn't seem so delicate?

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Kirsty
0.0.1 Green Iguana

Greetings Kirsty-

Try supplementing your iguana salad with RepCal Iguana food. Use a small amount per each feeding, soak it in water before feeding (very important, never feed dry), then sprinkle on the salad and feed.

The pellets soak up water and increase hydration, they are usually an appetite stimulant and "lubricate" the digestive system, making it more efficient.

Also, you could try supplementing once a week with a small about of probiotic (NutribacDF is best). Probiotics replace bad gut flora with good bacteria by crowding out the bad bugs. This is known to increase the iguanas appetite and benefits the digestive system by making it more efficient.

Either of these methods are known to stimulate the appetite, which is the ultimate goal.

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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

UGH I was gonna say just that but Dominick came out of hiding and beat me to it!! GRRRRR

By the way, I don't think that the ig the size of Odin will actually eat a lot of rep-cal if you sprinkle repcal pellets on top of the salad though. I used to do that when I feed Liv Tyler and a lot of it falls off and gets wasted. What I do is I soak the repcal pellets till they are soft, then I put them between leaves and I get them smeared and smashed up so they are spread like peanut butter between the two leaves before I cut the leaves up. I pour the excess water onto the salad, or on treat days where I add a little whole wheat bread, I soak the water up with the bread, just to make sure I don't waste any vitamins that were soaked away. You'll find that it eats a lot more that way. You'll still find that some of it gets squished out and left stuck on the sides of his mouth, but a lot more will go into the iguana this way.

I some times put juvenile T Rex iguana food down for him. But i'll try mashing it like you say replover

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Kirsty
0.0.1 Green Iguana

Kirsty I would try the Repcal. Last time I looked at the ingredients TRex used animal products.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

The one i'm using says its vegetable with hibiscus flower. I've read the ingredients and it didn't list animal proteins. Are there any ingredients that I should look out for?

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Kirsty
0.0.1 Green Iguana

This is an interesting issue. How many use other iguana diets than rep-cal? I use rep-cal, which I love except for the D3 and corn (someone PLEASE give me a figure on what is an acceptable level of D3. I was told that the amount in Rep-cal is negligible thus will not harm the ig, but I would really like to see something along the lines of figures and facts...), but I hear that Zoo med's is actually better, nutritionally, but that most igs don't really like it.

Um I cant help but see the title of this thread and think of Mayonaise. EEWWW. Not a good iguana food. LOL

Colors. Many igs eat by color rather than taste. Reds, Yellows, Oranges can help. At least color is the first thing the ig works towards when he first sees the plate.

As is mentioned above hydration is critical. My current theory is hydration is one of the top things in the diet to watch and work toward. Three keys to diet I see are hydration, variety, no animal protien. I am speaking from the point of view of a keeper of a 10 year old ig who is known to have early stages of liver and kidney problems.

Soaked pellets may help but you have tried and use them. Recently I have found that my ig avoids the salads with rep-calI don't know why but he does.

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~ Mark

LOL! Leave it to Bob!
The pellets are the first thing that Zok goes for!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!