Do not think that you can feed your Iguana a can of dog food and it will be happy. That is not what Iguanas are supposed to eat, and giving them something of the sort will screw up its digestive system and eventually cause serious health problems down the road. Iguanas are strictly herbivores and are designed to eat only plant material. There are many fruits and vegetables that are great to feed your Ig, but you cannot throw together just any old combination. To be sure you are getting enough on "Iguana RDA", I would suggest using one of the Basic Iguana Salads for the first meal of the day. The one that I use, Melissa Kaplan’s Basic Salad Recipe, is fairly simple.

Using a food processor, shred:
1/2 cup raw green beans
1/2 cup raw squash (I recommend zucchini or butternut squash)
1 medium parsnip
Then add 1/2 cup of either alfalfa hay or alfalfa pellets. DO NOT use alfalfa sprouts. The sprouts aren’t as healthy as the mature plant,    and giving the Iguana sprouts will also give it the runs.
And last, add 1/4 cup of minced fruit. I use dried figs most of the time, as was recommended by Melissa Kaplan, but there are a lot of other fruits you can use.

This salad is great for an Ig. Not only does it cover most of the basic "Iguana RDA", but it’s simplicity is a bonus. You can make a big batch of the salad and freeze it for up to 30 days if you want. I put all the ingredients that need to be shredded into the processor and then freeze it in a few separate bowls. Then I add the alfalfa pellets and fruit each day to the individual serving. That way I can tell if the salad is still good by smelling it. With the alfalfa and the figs already added, it is harder to tell. You can do what you want. If you freeze the salad, you also need to be sure to replace the vitamins and minerals that are lost in the freezing process. For information on this, check The Supplements.

Then, for the second and possibly third meal of the day, you can choose from a wide variety of fruits and vegetables listed in the Foods…the good and bad section. Be sure to give your Iguana different kinds of foods, because it will get bored eating the same thing for every meal of the day. And beside, there are different nutritional contents to the different foods, so then you can be sure you are keeping your Ig healthy.
 

2. The supplements.

Just providing the Iguana with the basic salad and another meal with a variety of different fruits and vegetables is not enough. You also need to give your pet the vitamins and minerals it needs for proper growth. You must provide a Calcium supplement, a multivitamin, and, if you are freezing the salad, you have to replace the B vitamins that are lost in the freezing process. This calls for Brewer’s Yeast.

There are many different calcium supplements that can be used, and some manufactured specifically for Iguanas. Do not use them. Use a plain food grade calcium carbonate for humans. It will come in the form of a pill, and it should be crushed to a powder so that it can be sprinkled over the salad. Make sure the formula you choose does not contain any phosphorous, because Iguanas already get plenty in their diet. The ratio of Calcium to Phosphorous that you should try to maintain in the Iguanas diet should be in the range of 2:1. If you do not come close to this, the phosphorous will impede the calcium uptake in Iguanas and that would be bad.

For the multivitamin, you should also use a supplement designed for humans. Centrum is a good one. I use it for my Ig, and it, too, was recommended by Melissa Kaplan. It should be crushed to powder and, if you want, it can be stored in a salt shaker for convenience. The reason behind using human multivitamins and supplements is simply this: reptile vitamins are not manufactured with nearly the precaution that human vitamins are because of the strict FDA regulations. Thus, there is much better quality in the food products for humans. You should try to give the best you can to your pet. The multivitamin only needs to be given 2-3 times a week, unlike the calcium and brewer’s yeast.

The Brewer’s Yeast only needs to be used if you are freezing your Ig’s salad. By freezing the salad, you are destroying the B vitamins that are essential to a healthy Iguana. To replace it, you simply buy some brewer’s yeast tablets, or if you can find it, Brewers Yeast Powder. It, too, can be stored in a salt shaker and a light sprinkling over the thawed food will do.
 

3. When and how much do I feed an Iguana?

As I stated before, the Iguana should get one meal of a basic salad (I suggested Melissa Kaplan’s, but there are others) in the morning, and at least one other meal of varied fruits and vegetables sometime in the afternoon. I would recommend feeding the Iguana the salad in the morning so that you are sure it is eating the healthy meal every day. Give it plenty of salad, so that, on a regular basis, the Ig is leaving some behind. That way you are sure it is eating enough. But if it is leaving most of the salad behind, or if it refuses to eat it all together, then you need to wean it off of the "bad" foods and get it to eat one meal of basic salad every day. After it eats the salad, you can feed your Ig a meal that consists of leafy greens and other fruits and vegetables. Maybe even two separate "snacks" in the afternoon and evening. Just make sure the Iguana is eating the basic salad before you feed it any leafy greens, because the greens are a favorite of Iguanas, and it will usually eat them before any other food.

 
4. Food Preparation and how to store it.

As I have discovered, it is best to peel the vegetables before you use them. Wash them first, but peel off the skin, too. Yes, there may be some extra nutrients in the peel, but for the most part, it’s not hurting anything to peel the vegetables. For the vegetables & fruits that cannot be peeled, there is a great bleaching method to be sure you are getting rid of the germs just waiting to be ingested by your Ig. Fill the kitchen sink with water and add one tablespoon of bleach. Then immerse the produce for about 10 minutes. Next, rinse the produce thoroughly with cold running water to flush away the bleach residue. This is very important, because bleach is harmful to Iguanas, so it MUST be rinsed extremely well.

FREEZING THE SALAD:

There are a few different ways you can freeze your basic salad. I just put it in a couple of different Tupperware bowls and freeze it that way. If you do it this way, be sure and shake the salad about every twenty minutes to freeze individual pieces of the salad, rather than having one big block of frozen salad. You could also pack the salad in ice cube trays, and when frozen, pop the cubes out into a plastic bag and use however many cubes you need at a time. Another option is to place salad portions in plastic sandwich bags and squeeze out the air so they can be stacked up in the freezer.

THAWING THE SALAD:

There are a couple different ways of thawing frozen salad. You could use the microwave, or water, depending on how you froze the salad. Microwaving can alter food nutrients, so if you are using it to thaw your salad, add the supplements last. Be sure to use DEFROST, and make sure the salad is cooled to room temperature before giving it to the Iguana. Wouldn’t want to burn his little tongue!

If you freeze the salad in individual baggies, you can thaw the food by immersing the plastic bag in lukewarm water. Either way, you still need to add the brewer’s yeast along with the other supplements.
 

 
5. Water

Water is absolutely necessary to provide for your Ig. Keep a good-sized dish of water in the cage so that it has a chance to get a drink if thirsty. I recommend replacing the water every day if possible, but at least every time it gets dirty. The larger the water dish you keep in the cage, the better level of humidity for the Iguana. Try to keep the dish directly under a light source so that it will evaporate faster to aid in maintaining a good humidity level in the cage. Not only does it help the humidity, which keeps your Ig’s skin healthier, but the Iguana may want to poop in the water. I have found that many juvenile Iguanas form a habit of pooping in their water dish. That is a good habit for the Ig to have, because it is easy to clean up. If your Iguana develops this habit, just keep changing the water in the dish every time it poops, because as it gets bigger, it will aid in "potty training".

How To Prepare

Dandelion Greens and Mustard Greens--I remove any hard stems and rip up the leaves into pieces about the size of a postage stamp for juveniles and a little larger for adults

Spaghetti Squash and Green Beans--I remove the seeds, skin, and stump from the squash, cut it into small pieces and put it in the food processor with the green beans, if the green beans have the stems still on you will need to remove them first (if you do not have a food processor chop ingredients very finely)

Papaya--I cut up the papaya into small pieces on a cutting board (about the size of peas for juveniles and just a little larger for adults)

I spread out the leafy greens on a flat dish, mix up the rest and serve on top of the leafy greens.

Other Healthy Food Choices-The following information was obtained using Nutrition Analysis 2.0 from the University of Illinois website. This is a great place to look up food information for your iguana (and yourself).

*some raw squashes are very hard, I recommend microwaving or steaming them and then cool before using

Harmful Foods

There are many foods that can be harmful to your iguana's health. Do not feed your iguana any food on this list, use the charts above to be sure you are providing your iguana with a healthy diet.