IGUANA CARE, FEEDING
AND SOCIALIZATION
Green iguana Feeding, feeding, and domesticating
Copyright c
1991-2002 Melissa Kaplan,Anapsid.org
All Rights
Reserved
Other original formats of this article can be obtained in the following link
http://www.anapsid.org/icfs.html
Translator: Crispy Su6/17/2002
Subject~If you are not interested in the historical evolution of this article, it is recommended that you omit this part
My first green iguana feeding file was completed in 1991, with only two pages of content. Some experts in the crawler organization told me that many people know more about pets than me, and no one wants to spend time reading my articles~ As for what pet owners want to read, they are short and lean list-style short articles. However, during several educational activities and speeches (often there are green iguana owners in it), I distributed these breeding articles, and the final result was that the organization believed that we might be able to sell these breeding documents! I'm very happy to discover one fact: Overall, the expert's point of view is wrong. The owners of green iguanas, or more correctly, the more information the owners of these owners of green iguanas, have to say that the more they need for green iguanas, the better. In the vast knowledge, the owner is often at a loss about what he wants to learn, but they still try to combine, absorb and apply what they have learned everywhere to the actual situation, and most of this knowledge is learned from other people's wrong experiences. Over time, many people find that they have become so-called experts. These people continue to learn and pass on these experiences to other owners, regardless of whether they have any active requests!
My Green Iguana Feeding Documents have had a profound evolution over the past eight years. First it adds pages to four pages, then eight pages, and later to twelve pages. Next, I jumped to twenty-four pages. At that time, it was because of the addition of lice problems on reptile and related information such as cleaning and disinfection. In 1995, this document had reached 144 pages. Because I am extremely sensitive to the toner used for photocopying and cannot be avoided in places where to use the toner, I am increasingly unable to provide prints of feeding documents. So, at the end of 1995, my initial simple website was first launched, located at Sonoma State University. In mid-1996, the website moved to Sonic, with more than 100 documents related to green iguana breeding. The longest article has always been my article on raising, feeding, and domesticating green iguanas. After
, I cut these articles into relatively easy-to-manage blocks. On the one hand, it can save time for download, and on the other hand, it can also make you more comfortable when looking for data or querying update records.
Melissa Kaplan1999 April
Introduction
With the increasing number of green iguanas imported year by year and the increasingly sophisticated breeding technology, we all know that it is time to figure things out. For some reasons, the pet trading industry has always lagged behind the research results of biologists and top veterinarians for about 20 or 30 years. The biology community has had good information for decades. In the past five years, the veterinary industry has also developed a lot of new knowledge and treatment courses, but only a small part of them have been brought into the pet trading industry. Except for the breeding and breeding of green iguanas such as David Blair
and Jim Hatfield, most of the information in the pet world is just to repeatedly quote old information from bookstores, including incorrect and outdated data. Reptile veterinarians such as Steve
Barten, Steve Divers, Thomas Boyer, and Elliot
Jacobson have made many contributions to clinical research; while Susan Donoghue focuses on reptile nutrition. These scholars have made much faster research on alien species and reptiles than the pet trading industry. Unfortunately, this also means that most owners, especially those of green iguanas, will not obtain more abundant species and feeding information unless their pets are so sick that they need to deal with them by veterinarians.What this article and my green iguana feeding information are trying to do is to integrate knowledge in these two fields, and provide complete information about green iguana based on the achievements of the medical community and personal observations and experiences.
Natural Ecology
Herpetologists call your green iguana Iguana, or The common green iguana (For other information about iguana, please refer to: Classification of green iguana). The green iguana you have on your hand should be from a country in Central and South America. It may be captured in the wild, or it may be collected in the wild and then hatched manually, or even reproduce indoors. Central American observers have found a large number of wild green iguanas exported from Salvador . Although the country has signed CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species), they actually do not, or do not care whether they have a proper mechanism to engage in appropriate monitoring. Domestic (referring to the United States) artificially raised green iguanas are not enough to supply the pet market, and the green iguanas raised are not necessarily healthier than wild ones.
Most green iguanas (although they may not be very green when they grow up) live in rainforest belts in Central and South America, and some come from drier places or on the coast. The most common pet stores are usually from Colombia, Honduras, Peru , Mexico and Sulinan. Because exporting countries have been changing, no matter what the pet store owner says, their origin is simply no way to tell. Because of the destruction of rainforests and the prevalence of pet trading, green iguanas are considered to be threatened species and are listed in Appendix II of CITES. This means that import and export actions must be granted a special license, but anyone can go and buy them after the pet arrives at their destination. Other types of iguanas are endangered, so there are other import and export laws to restrict them.
The young green iguana grows very green and forms a protective color in the leafy area near the bottom of the rainforest where he lives. Their tails have brown stripes and stripes and spots on their backs, all to adapt to the environment they are in. Larger green iguanas live in bright and dry areas higher than the rainforest, while younger small green iguanas need a wet environment. All green iguanas are good climbers, especially steep areas that are completely vertical. They are also experts in swimming, and they will push their limbs close to their bodies and use the swing of their tails to advance, just like crocodiles.
In the wild, green iguanas eat a lot of green leaves, buds, flowers, and fruits with soft texture. They also use rain and dew to absorb moisture, but most of them come from food. In the spring they will ingest the leaves of legumes to get rich in protein. Regardless of the pet world, wild and laboratory studies have shown that green iguanas are not omnivorous animals, but herbivorous animals, and should also follow this principle when feeding (this does not mean that they do not eat insects or carrion in the wild, nor does it mean that wild iguanas will not look for animal protein. Raised green iguanas may often eat animal protein, but in their original habitat they are vegetarians and have a strong digestive system that can digest high fiber content. Feeding animal protein in artificially raised environments may cause premature death due to renal failure).
The green iguanas are working as follows: When the morning sun shines into the top of the rainforest, the green iguanas move from their nightly habitable branches to their sun-touching branches, and after a few hours, their bodies are warm enough and can start walking around foraging. After several hours of climbing and foraging, they returned to Rizhao Point to enjoy the afternoon sunshine. They must have enough heat to digest what they eat during the day before returning to the nest at night. During the day, green iguanas must be kept abreast of similar threats of large size and potential predators. Young green iguanas are usually at the bottom of the food chain and are prone to omnivorous or carnivorous reptiles, large amphibians, birds and mammals (this is why the newly bought green iguanas are afraid of you, because they think you are a huge predator).When breeding season comes, male green iguanas will struggle to find females, and females will generally avoid overzealous male courtship offensives. Their habits can be said to be full of intense activities, and the interweaving is a short rest.
The impact of pet trading on green iguanas
Green iguanas have become one of the most popular lizard pets, and unfortunately, one of the most accessible species. Pet stores that once only sell supplies also started selling reptiles, and green iguanas usually become display items. Manufacturers of pet supplies have begun to repackage old products and compete among peers in response to the green iguana breeding boom. When I bought my first green iguana, one was priced above $100, and now many pet stores offer special green iguana larvae for only $10. Many people are reluctant to spend more than the lizards’ own price to buy equipment, and pet stores do not know the environment the green iguanas need, but only supply the lowest level of essentials. Not only do some pet stores not know about it, but also sell equipment for small lizards that are not worth $20 for profit, but these do not include misleading the nutritional needs of green iguanas.
1974 International Zoo Yearbook claimed that in 1971, a total of 403,319 live crawlers were imported into the United States, of which 136,993 were just green iguanas. This is the top ranking of a single species among the United States imported pets that year (other species include 27,727 pythons and 39,892 other species of lizards). In 1990, TRAFFIC USA (a program of the World Wildlife Foundation) reported that there were as many as 100 to 1.5 million live reptiles imported into the United States, three to four million complete leather, more than 8.65 million parts of leather, and 20 to 30 million pieces of leather, total amounts of 400 million to 500 million US dollars. Of the more than one million reptiles, the green iguanas topped the list, with an input of about 300,000 (trade information in 1990). In 1993, USFWS data showed that more than 750,000 green iguanas were imported into the territory that year. This result shows that more than 2.6 million green iguanas have been legally imported in the past eighteen years. If the green iguanas are well-raised, they can be over fifteen years old. So why can’t we see large mature green iguanas? That's because green iguanas are not as easy to care for as pet dealers describe.
The high mortality rate of green iguanas mainly comes from two major reasons: improper temperature settings and inappropriate diet. If handled properly, your green iguana will have a long and healthy life. On the contrary, your green iguana may face growth stagnation, disease, deformity, or ~death.
Lifety
Wild green iguanas are expected to live for more than 10 to 15 years, of course this is in the case of not being hunted by predators or captured by humans. If properly cared for, they can survive in artificial breeding for more than twenty years, reaching 5 to 7 feet (1.5-2.1 meters) in length and weighing up to 18 pounds (8.18 kg) (female or males from certain specific areas are petite). You can provide the environment you need for a green iguana in terms of appropriate living environment, heating, light source and diet.
Pick healthy green iguanas
When you go to a pet store, you may see a tank of fresh green iguanas (2.5-3 inches/6.35-7.62 cm, long anal), or a few slightly larger individuals ranging from one year old to a few years old. These large individuals are raised individuals. The reasons why the previous owner gave up feeding were mostly because they were unable to handle their normal (untamed) behavior, unwilling to deal with daily routine cleaning and feeding chores, or the green iguana was already sick but the owner did not want to spend money to buy medicine for it. Sometimes a healthy green iguana will be taken away by the owner because the owner feels that he can't take proper care of it. So, how to select a healthy individual from the middle?
You must catch different green iguanas separately. If the store owner is unwilling to let you catch the individual you want to see, go to another house! Unfortunately, there are not many stores selling green iguanas, and you have to find a store that you are willing to choose.Grab the green iguana with both hands and gently move the green iguana's forearms, legs, and drooping skin with the fingers of one of the hands so that you can carefully inspect the green iguana from head to tail. The inspection items are as follows:
General appearance
Is the skin clean and there are no bite marks or scratches? (Bite marks and scratches may cause ulceration in the future)
Are there any burn marks on the abdomen? (The burn can be healed, but the skin here will be more sensitive to bottom heat in the future and is prone to burn again)
Is the abdomen covered with excrement? (Dirty green iguana may mean an unclean environment or a tendency for organisms to become weak and sick)
Is there any residual dry excrement in the cloaca? (If so, it means that your green iguana may be a little weak, or there may be parasites in your body)
gently moves their limbs, is there any resistance? (Weakness or tremor indicates that the green iguana is already unhealthy or has signs of insufficient calcium)
Are there any abnormal lumps in the body, limbs and tail? (The cyst or broken bone must be treated by a doctor)
Is there any flea parasites in each part of the body? Please pay more attention to the ears, armpits, and the crest on the back. (This shows that I have not received proper care in pet stores for a long time, and it is likely that I have weak constitution) Is the shape of the hind legs normal? Is there any enlargement between the legs? (One swelling may be a sign of a fracture, and both sides may be a metabolic skeletal disease)
Is it skinny? Is the skin wrinkled and slow movement? (The situation of weight loss and dehydration may be an internal parasite or bacterial infection, which needs to be treated by a veterinarian)
Is the bottom of the tail full and thick? Or can you easily touch the pelvis by just touching it? (The bottom of the tail end indicates long-term hunger or malnutrition)
head / eyes / ear / nose / mouth
Are the eyes blurred, tearful or scabbed? (Maybe it is a respiratory infection or eye inflammation)
Is the nose damp or dry snot? (Rapid nose or dried snot may be a respiratory infection and requires a professional doctor to deal with it)
Are the sides of the jaw enlarged? (Maybe a metabolic bone disease)
Are there any lumps or bulges on the face, neck, and drooping skin? (Whether hard or soft lumps are abscesses caused by infection, and they need to be handled by professional doctors)
Behavior:
The domesticated and highly socialized green iguanas will behave very easily when facing strangers, although such lizards usually find opportunities to climb onto the owner's shoulders or head. When his back or head is touched, he will remain alert and react positively to the surroundings. Healthy larvae or untamed (whether or not) larvae and adults will be irritable and try to escape, may whip you with your tail or sway like a crocodile to escape, or may not want to be arrested.
Sick young or adults will try not to be caught by you or pick them up and play with them, and will also try to escape, but they will be less powerful. You can tell the difference between each other by using your hands. If a green iguana is always lying at the bottom of the feeder, not interested in the surroundings, and does not respond to your hands, then it is either too cold or too ill, or it is an internal parasite problem or a tissue bacterial infection. If there are significant wrinkles (between the forelimbs and the pelvis), this may mean that the green iguana is dehydrated or has been starving for a long time.
Bringing a green iguana bigger is neither simple nor a matter of three or two days. Be honestly there are no shortcuts besides some of the information provided in this article. You are facing a wild animal with wild instincts and natural reactions, as well as self-defense nature. A healthy little green iguana will also do its best to stay away from predators, and when you first establish a relationship with him, in his eyes, you are the predator, and your behavior just happens to make him feel uncomfortable. He doesn't feel safe when he feels that emergencies have been happening or is in a vulnerable environment.It is not recommended to have more than one green iguana at the same time, as one is already difficult to take care of properly. The information here can help you understand why your green iguana always shakes its tail and even bites people, why it needs a hiding place, and why it doesn't eat in front of you. In the wild, wandering alone, eating, or sleeping in an exposed place is undoubtedly a way out for yourself.
. Regarding the precautions for rescuing """" green iguanas
Some kind-hearted people will have the idea of taking them back and taking good care of them. Before you make this decision, please refer to the article Rescuing Green Iguanas from Pet Shop.
There are countless new pet supplies in recent years. If we raise animals with short life cycles, these manufacturers can conduct research based on each generation to summarize the impact of food and products on small animals, then we will be more confident in certain products because experiments or facts have proven that it is best for our green iguanas. However, green iguanas will not produce offspring within a few months, or even within a few years; they will have to reach sexual maturity at the earliest, and they will live much longer than before in artificial breeding environments, because in the pet market, there was no good information about food and breeding in the pet market.
Therefore, some foods in the industry that can cause metabolic skeletal diseases under long-term feeding, or frozen foods with Welch's (brand name) grape jelly or with certain flowers as "mysterious" ingredients. Other foods even lead to malnutrition, slow growth, and even death.
Pet dealers also have some incorrect (and often inhuman) beliefs, such as "reptiles will not grow to a larger scale than breeding environment, so they can keep them in 10, 20 or 30 gallon stocking boxes for their entire lives." There is another trend recently: when merchants hesitate about the huge size of their pets in the future, they will convince customers that the store sells "mini species". Unfortunately, there is no so-called mini species in the green iguana.
My advice is: be sure to question all new products and jargon used to promote the product (the most common example is the so-called "full spectrum" or "green iguana-specific" products). It is precisely because there are no relevant legal provisions that require pet dealers to have a complete understanding of the pets they sell, so there will be no laws to regulate the safety of pet supplies or advertising content. Therefore, consumers can only rely on themselves and seek more blessings.
Finally, always look for the root of the information. If someone tells you that you should pay attention to the breeding of green iguanas, but the green iguanas he raises only live for two or three years, then his words should be used as negative information. On the other hand, a lot of information is widely circulated on the Internet. Whether it is information mentioned by individuals or merchants, many things have not been actually verified or confirmed at all. You won't know that the owner of the website is a veteran with twenty years of experience, familiar with the health, natural ecology and related information of crawlers, or a super novice who is even less experienced than you. Take a closer look at their documents, introductions or reference data and original sources. Never believe these words completely, including what I am saying now, unless you can verify the contents yourself. I personally wrote a reference data directory for the information cited over the years, and there is also relevant information on Adam Britton's website (http//www.crocodilian.com/iguanabiblio). To find information about crawlers, you can also check out my search crawler data article.
Living and artificial breeding environment
Help the green iguana build a residence, not just throwing a 10-gallon feeding box, a warming stone, and a few branches. (In fact, this is what you want to avoid!) Even a 30-gallon feeder plus some tropical background images and some plants or branches is not enough.
Build a home
To build a green iguana home, you can’t just think about today, but also plan the problems you must face in the next few months or years. The artificial breeding environment not only provides a safe area for green iguanas when you are not around (even if you are around it), but also provides an independent environment regardless of the external environment. It means that if the temperature outside is -10° F (-23° C) and the indoor temperature is 65° F (18°
C), the living environment temperature of the green iguana must still be maintained at 75-88° F (24-31° C), and the heat source concentration area must even reach 95° F (35°
C). This means that you must provide the right light and heat sources, no matter how much they cost; it means that you must maintain high humidity as much as possible to avoid health damage to the green iguanas; it also means that you must provide the exposure cycle they need, rather than considering the time you go to school or work; it also means that you must learn all the information and take the time to learn something you never thought about. It also means that you must confirm all the links, because what will go wrong will eventually make mistakes, and often happen at the most inappropriate time.
feeder
starts with 60 US/50 UK gallons and a top cover feeder. Generally, you can buy a glass feeding box, with half of the upper part being glass and half being a movable upper cover. This type of feeding box is easy to clean and disinfect. Put the feeder in a quieter corner of your home because of the noise of the TV or radio, people walking around, children's play, and dog barking. These will scare your new green iguana and put pressure on them. In the early days, such a feeder seemed a little larger, but a properly cared for green iguana could be as large as a feeder of over 60 gallons in a year and as large as a feeder of 100 US/83
UK gallons in a year and a half. (See the chapter on the identification of age and size of green iguanas).
Remember, although the little green iguanas grew up from the ground, they prefer to stay in trees. Try to provide enough height for the green iguana to climb, or nail some shelves in a wooden feeder. If you want to buy a wooden feeding box or do it yourself, don't fall into common bad designs or bad sizes. When you are making or buying a feeder, there are some basic design problems that you have to avoid.
substrate
Choose an appropriate substrate that is safe for green iguanas and easy to clean for you. Trimmed artificial turf, foot pads or carpets, paper for wrapping meat (or mahjong paper), or thick napkins can be used. If you are using artificial turf or carpet, prepare more than two pieces of them for replacement during cleaning. Must be completely wiped dry before reuse. Be sure to trim too rough or part and exposed thread. Don't use newspapers, as ink will absorb on the skin and the invisible poisonous gas will slowly affect your green iguana when it evaporates.
Do not use walnut or ears of corn, cat litter, wood chips, gravel, sand, stone, tree bark, "lizard sand", "lizard-specific bark", or any particulate items as the base material. No matter how much time you spend watching your green iguanas (remember, you can't be watching them at any time), they will eventually eat these bases intentionally or unintentionally. These things can cause scratches on the intestines when they pass through the intestines ~ if they can pass through them smoothly. Often these things get stuck in the intestines and cause tightening. The green iguana stops eating and cannot defecate; food residues accumulate in the digestive system and corrupts the food, causing bacterial infection or intestinal gas. At this time, the green iguana will become dehydrated because it tries to move a large amount of debris in its body. If the obstruction cannot be discharged in time, it will lead to the death of the green iguana. Animal doctors remove various substrates from the intestines of green iguanas, such as velvet edges of blankets, pushpins, coins, balloons, and even condoms, silk underwear, or hair from humans and dogs and cats.In short, I would like to emphasize here that should not use particulate items as the substrate for , nor should I place anything you would worry about children accidentally touching in the living environment of a green iguana. Green iguanas are like human children, and they are interested in the novelty they see, which can easily lead them to licking them in the end.
So why do pet dealers continue to sell these goods that will cause harm to small animals? This is because most owners don't complain. I know that some green iguana owners keep their pets to death or suffer severe torture, and finally they must seek surgical methods to remove foreign objects in the intestines. Even if they complained a lot to me, no one was willing to pick up paper and pen and write a letter to a pet dealer or store. So, if you buy a product or food that claims to be helpful to your pet and use it according to the instructions, but find that your pet has been hurt or even died due to it, be sure to write a letter to tell the merchant. If you don't do this, it will only lead to more small animals dying in the future.
's only safe particulate substrate also has its disadvantages. Because the pill-shaped alfalfa is edible, it can be used as a base. However, if too much dry base is eaten into the stomach, it will also cause the accumulation of excrement and cause damage to the intestinal wall. In addition, the substrate wet by food, water, and urine can easily become moldy or breed bacteria. If you choose this substrate, please thoroughly clean the wet substrate and disinfect it to prevent the substrate from being contaminated and harming your pet.
My personal preference is to use substrates that are easy to clean and disinfect. When the environment is set, your green iguana won't like to crawl on the ground, and it will crawl down mostly because it needs to be foraging, drinking water, or drowning (unless they aim the cloaca mouth from above to the ground to launch). In glass feeding boxes, thick napkins, thick velvet cloth, linen cloth or meat-wrapped paper (or mahjong paper) can be used. I personally recommend adding a layer of flooring and tart cloth to the bottom of the wooden feeding box. You can buy beautifully colored and reasonably priced self-adhesive tarpaulin in building materials or tiles stores. You can also go to building materials companies or floor construction operators to get the remaining large pieces of tarpaulin they use at a cheap price. The advantage of using oil cloth is that you can curve the right corner parts of the edges, so that dirt is not easily piled up in the seams, making it easier for you to clean and disinfect, and the splashed water will not be directly sucked into the wooden feeder wall.
Privacy
Young green iguana needs a breeding environment that can be isolated from the outside world, and at the beginning, it also includes hiding from you. Offering a place to hide, such as half-hole tree trunks (available in pet stores) or an empty cardboard box is a good choice. The carton or trunk must be large enough to hide the entire body of the green iguana, and of course it does not need to include the entire tail. If you are using small paper boxes at first, you will have to replace the paper boxes soon after, depending on the situation where the green iguana grows up. Because tree holes are expensive and green iguanas grow fast, using the packaging box left after snacks seems to be a better proposal.
Sports/ Pressure relief
Green iguana likes to climb, so it is recommended to provide one or more branches, ropes, or towels for them to climb or receive warmth. Please do fix these things so that your green iguana won't fall. There is no way to install shelves or fix climbing branches, which is also the main disadvantage of glass feeding boxes.
When sleeping, the green iguana likes to hold its head on other things. In the wild, it is likely to be another green iguana; in a captive environment, it is a relatively soft item. Many green iguana owners find that their pets like to sleep on socks rolled up or folded towels. Free-range green iguanas will look for comfortable sofa cushions or pillows on the bed to use as mats.
If your branches are taken from the wild, you must first do some processing to ensure that some unexpected visitors are not brought into your breeding environment.Branches are prone to hiding small insects, woodworms, and spiders, and you won't want these things to be incubated in your feeding box. If the branches are not big and can be stuffed into the oven, remove the dirty surface and loose bark, and bake it at 200-250° F
(94-120° C) for 2-3 hours before letting it cool naturally. If the oven is not big enough, put the branches into the bleaching aqueous solution (make at the concentration of 1/2 cup [118 ml] of water per gallon (3.8 liters) and soak for 24 hours. After that, carefully remove the bucket of water and soak it in clean water for a day. Please expose the sun for 2-3 days before using it again.
Green iguanas, especially those between adolescence and maturity, will feel particularly secure when you are in high places. You can expect the green iguana to spend most of its time at the highest point and make sure it is indeed a safe and warm place.
Sunshine
In order to provide the benefits of sunlight, some special lighting equipment is necessary. Such as Duro-Test's Vita-LiteR, ZooMed's Iguana LightR, or Reptile
LightR (now called Repti-LightR) or other products. No matter what product, it is necessary to provide UV UVB (wavelength in the range of 290-320 nm) and have a color rendering index (CRI) of at least 90 or above.
Please note: a product marked with the word "full spectrum" does not mean that the product can provide enough UVB, and may even be unable to make UVB at all! UVB fluorescent lights have a subtle positive effect on the behavior of green iguanas, and UVB must be combined with vitamin D3 to be effective, which itself helps calcium metabolism. ,The fluorescent lamps used for ornamental fish or landscaping tanks will not create the wavelengths required by reptiles. White-hot bulbs, including those containing neodymium, and other crawler lamps for heating or heating, do not create enough UV rays and should only be used to provide heat sources. In the pet world, there are no so-called legal provisions to regulate whether advertising content is true. Therefore, this industry is full of fraudulent behavior, and in the long run, it has indirectly created a continuous stream of crawler transactions.
is effective, these lamps should not exceed 18 inches from the green iguana, and the distance between 12 and 15 inches will be better. Please make sure that the lamp set is fixed smoothly above the feeding site, and do not allow the green iguana to climb up the ground. A green iguana about one year old is enough to destroy the lamp tube, and may also cause it to smash down and cause glass fragments to fall everywhere. You can cut a piece of mesh cotton or something (to? inches) to plug the edge of the lamp. If your green iguana keeps drilling into the lamp, your ambient temperature may be too low.
UVB The light tube should be turned on for 12 hours and turned off for 12 hours, as it has been the case for the whole year. Installing a timer can make everything easy. You can drive from 6 am to 6 pm. If you want to spend time with your pet while you are more energetic, you can adjust the time to 7:30 to cooperate with your commuting hours. The exposure cycle is also the same in winter to determine that the green iguana can obtain sufficient UV rays to match the absorption of D3. If your green iguana can often receive sunlight at other times, the time of light in winter can be reduced to nine to ten hours.
is not a UVB lamp that can still light up means that it will create effective UVB rays. On the contrary, before the lamp tube is completely damaged, it has long lost the ability to create UVB. Therefore, when there are signs of darkening on both sides of the lamp, or after the lamp has been in use for nine to twelve months, the lamp should be replaced. Some particularly cautious owners will replace the lamp tubes every six months, but there is no actual data here to prove that it is necessary to do so.
Conclusion: Many owners will eventually agree that UVB light sources are indeed one of the most complex and difficult parts of raising green iguanas, and are also the most likely topic to get negative information or misleading besides diet. Please take a moment to go to the Rizhao chapter on my Green Iguana Feeding Website for more information.
Heat
The growth rate of green iguana depends on the following three elements: temperature, activity, and food.The higher the temperature (of course, if it exceeds 95° F/35° C, even if it is too high), the more their activity will be. In addition, the metabolism in the body will also function normally, which will help the normal digestion of food. This situation is like other wild relatives who eat every day (with few exceptions). If the green iguana is in an environment below the appropriate temperature, it will eat less, exercise less, and cause stress due to the inappropriate external environment. These may be the root cause of disease or nutritional imbalance.
All crawlers have a temperature range suitable for their growth. This range means that in order to maintain normal physical functions of reptiles, the maximum value of low temperature and the maximum value of high temperature can be tolerated by the crawler itself. In some cases you may temporarily make the ambient temperature exceed or below this range, but long-term improper temperature management will eventually lead to serious health problems. Because most reptiles can still move normally for a period of time in inappropriate environments, many people do not believe that their breeding methods are harmful to green iguanas, and these adverse side effects will take a long time to be revealed. It is worth reminding that the owner must provide an independent environment for the green iguana. Regardless of the surrounding temperature or outdoor temperature, this independent environment should maintain a temperature range suitable for green iguana activities for many years, and there should be a relative temperature difference during the day and at night.
Although green iguanas are tropical animals, they are often at below average temperatures in captivity, and often not even at 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26-27°C). In order to effectively stimulate appetite and digestion, green iguanas must spend 12 hours a day to receive heat exposure from 88-95° F (31-35° C). Other places in the feeding box must have a temperature difference effect, that is, there is a heat accumulation zone and a cool zone. For green iguanas, the high and low temperature zones during the day can range from 76-88° F
(24-31° C), and the heat accumulation zone at night can decrease to 84° F (28.8° C). Adult (18 months old, with a minimum length of 9 inches of anus) can tolerate the low temperature at night drop to 70° F (22°
C), while young green iguanas cannot be below 73° F (23° C). If the temperature is right at night, the young green iguana will get up in the middle of the night and eat a few more bites before going back to sleep. This not only provides more opportunities for exercise, but also increases the amount of food consumed by green iguanas. In this way, the more heat can also compensate for the heat consumption caused by inadequate adaptation to the new environment and tension.
Equipment that should be avoided
In the wild, green iguanas are used to keep warm by sunlight: the tropical sun warms the air. When green iguanas rest between branches, they keep warm under heat sources available everywhere in the environment. They feel warmer when they expose their bodies to the sun. And when they move to the shadows, their bodies cool down. This activity is called temperature regulation, which is the way all reptiles regulate their internal and external temperatures.
Although the advertisement says that green iguanas like to use warming stones or heating "twigs" to keep warm, these products are actually not suitable for your green iguanas. Manufacturers of wet stones do not care whether their products are really suitable for green iguanas, in order to catch up with the green iguana craze, they always put the green iguana logo on the product’s advertising. The warming stone only generates a heat source on its body and objects that are closely attached to the warming stone, without heating the adjacent items. This often happens: its internal thermostat is damaged, resulting in severe burns and even death in the green iguana. This includes all the "new products" and "improved products" that are constantly appearing on the market. (My question is: if the previous product was "newly improved", then why will a new version of the "newly improved" design be launched every year?)
Many green iguana owners insist on their pet "deeply love" warming stone. The fact is that in the breeding environment of the green iguana, the temperature in the rest of the places is only about 80° F
(26.6° C), which is several degrees lower than the temperature required for digestion of the green iguana, but the owner did not pay attention to this, and most people obeyed the pet store owner's words.Of course, pet stores and manufacturers love it so much because once you buy their products and use them, you can’t return them. Even though reptile veterinary physicians and common literature have emphasized for several years that owners are warned not to use warming stones on green iguanas or any animal that obtains temperature with heat radiation (to give a few examples: Mattison, 1987, Frye, 1991, de Vosjoli, 1992, Blair, 1993, see warming stones for more reference), pet stores still sell these equipment to newbie green iguanas.
Heating branches are rarely recorded as burns that I have heard, but because it does not warm the overall environment, it cannot provide the environment required by the green iguana. On the other hand, such products are usually not cheap, and green iguanas can quickly make the product inadequately under proper feeding.
Another product is the so-called bottom heating pad, which is the one used to be applied under the feeding box. This type of product is suitable for small lizards. Due to its size, this type of lizard does not require a change in breeding environment during growth. For green iguanas, using this type of product can be said to be unnecessary. In addition, the heating pad is not easily removed from the glass jar, and it is easy to cause danger when taken off and used in a new feeding box.
Effective heat source
Green iguana lives in a warm to hot climate zone and has very good adaptability to warm pads designed for humans. Put a warm mat to cover half the bottom of the small feeding box, or under the heat-gathering zone of the large feeding box, and in the warm summer your green iguana will probably do this. (Of course, the thermometer should be used as a supplement).
Harming
Sometimes the temperature is not very warm. When these cooler, you can use ordinary household white-hot bulbs or ceramic heaters to increase the temperature during the day. Nowadays, more and more daytime heating lamps are used by crawlers on the market, but they are far from being as hot light bulbs used in ordinary households. Some crawler light bulbs will be painted to reduce visible light generation. Although they change the visual effect of crawlers on the environment's appearance, these bulbs will not be extra helpful to your crawler's health compared to ordinary bulbs. Since there are already so many irreplaceable equipment and supplies (such as UVB lamps), why spend money on some replaceable products?
UVB The lamp does not produce a lot of heat, so don't look up to it to provide an effective heat source for your green iguana.
Heat at night
At night, incandescent light bulbs can also be used to increase the temperature, but please do not use a white light source. Using white light sources all day long can stress all animals, including your green iguana. Long-term stress can lead to illness and reduce appetite and mobility. So what should I use? The simplest one is a colored light bulb, which you can buy at any hardware store, or at a building materials store or a lamp store. Blue and dark green lights are best suited because they can create heat sources of the same wattage while only emitting faint lights. Another option is to use night light bulbs dedicated to crawlers. The blue light emitted by them will not disturb the daily or non-daily crawlers, nor will it affect the daily human beings. If you live in the same room with your pet.
Ceramic Heater (CHE)
Ceramic Heater uses infrared radiation to create heat sources, and they do not generate visible light (so it is not very easy to see that the power supply is turned on or off). They are very useful for small breeding environments, because the reflection of infrared rays will eventually increase the temperature of the feed box and produce a temperature difference effect. In large feeding environments, they are only suitable for providing the temperature of the heat collecting zone. They can also be used in heat collecting zones in outdoor feeding environments.
Ceramic heater temperature is very high, and the high temperature is enough to melt the plastic lamp holder generally used on white hot bulbs. If you want to use a ceramic heater, please remember to use a ceramic lamp holder.
Temperature adjustment
If the temperature is too high, you can connect the lamp or heat emitter to the brightness regulator in series.A brightness regulator can be used to adjust the required brightness and thus control the heat.
In winter, indoor heating stoves with a safe heating range can be used (a model with an automatic closing device is recommended) to control the temperature. For example, having a closed oil furnace is very safe, economical, and stable. It looks like a radiator, you can adjust the output power to 600-1500 watts so it will run slowly without overheating easily. In a closed space, these equipment can easily adjust the temperature to 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which is very convenient for you who want to provide a proper temperature in the green iguana.
3DThinking
There is a key factor that is often overlooked by the owner: the green iguana lives in the space of the three dimensions, so the temperature difference provided should also be in the three dimensions. One temperature distribution from left to right, from front to back is two-dimensional, and another thing to consider is the temperature differential adjustment from top to bottom. Because green iguanas like to keep warm in high places, the heat-gathering zone should be set at the top of the warm zone in the feeding box. The heat source will gradually decay during the downward scattering. In order to prevent the ground in warmer areas from becoming too cool, a bottom heater or an additional lamp and ceramic heater can be added.
Avoid guessing
I learned one thing: it is impossible to guess the location of the crawler or the temperature of the feeder box very accurately. However, there are many types of thermometers on the market that can help you confirm whether the temperature difference in the environment in which the green iguana is located remains at the necessary level. Pet stores sell many kinds of self-adhesive thermometers, with high temperatures up to 105° F
(40.5° C). Almost any thermometer can be fixed in a feed box, and can be obtained at relatively cheap prices in hardware stores and other places. Make sure your glass thermometer is fixed outside the sphere of influence of the green iguana so that it will not be torn off and broken by the green iguana. At least two thermometers are used, warm and cool areas are used; it is best to use the third one, which is placed in the heat-concentrated area. The thermometer should be placed in the same position as the green iguana is warming or sleeping, otherwise the read number will be different from the actual number next to the green iguana. If you can prepare an extra thermometer outside the feeding box, you can use it as a reference to see how the temperature outside the box will affect the temperature inside the box. The relative position of the
feeding box in the house also affects the acquisition of heat sources. If placed on the floor or in a cool position at all times, you may need to spend more effort to maintain the internal temperature of the feeder. Relatively speaking, placing it in too hot places can also cause problems. Just like the maximum temperature of the thermometer can reach 105° F, if your thermometer is about to break the gauge, the temperature in the feeding box may be higher than the maximum value of the thermometer scale, enough to cause your green iguana to be infected with major diseases or even dehydration and death.
People with electronic backgrounds (or people with such friends) will connect thermometers and thermostats to make these controls automated.
Food selection
For several years, green iguanas have been considered omnivorous animals, that is, they also consume animal and plant-based foods. Although some observations show that some individuals eat insects or carrion, after long-term observation of the results shown by various ethnic groups, it is found that this phenomenon is not so common in their native habitat.
According to Boyer (JSEAM 1(1)), Gordon Rodda (Herpetological Review, 25(2):85), and John Iverson (Adaptations to Herbivory in Iguanine Lizards,
in Iguanas of the World: Their Behavior, Ecology and Conservation, GW Burghardt
and AS Rand, eds., 1992, Noyes Publishing, Park Ridge NJ), green iguanas are herbivorous animals in the wild. Iverson found that even though previous reports suggest that juvenile green iguanas have insectivorous or carnivorous nature, they were actually completely herbivores from childhood to adulthood. Although they may eat insects and carrion, the acquisition of these animal proteins is an accident, not a daily necessity.The digestive system of green iguanas is like other herbivorous lizards, suitable for digesting high-fiber plants and extracting many (but not all) essential water from it.
In the 1980s, with the development of human technology for breeding green iguanas (eating), farmers found that feeding animal protein to green iguanas will accelerate its growth rate. This way, the juvenile body is more likely to be protected from predators and can also be grazed in nearby trees and forests. To lure them to stay nearby, farmers set up food supply stations to provide attractive food. When the green iguana grows big enough, it can be eaten (for information on using agricultural and animal husbandry technology to protect animal and plant resources, please refer to the Costa Rica: Green iguana Park
website and read the article Survival
of the Tastiest by Sorrel Downer). In fact, a diet rich in high animal protein would cause green iguanas to die when they were 5-7 years old, but before that, they had already gone to the slaughterhouse and entered the gluttonous family's stomach.
Green iguana has been treated as a pet for decades. In the past, people suggested that the minimum amount of vegetables or plants be fed with insects, mice, cats, dogs, chicken, beef, carnivorous feed, eggs, and other animal proteins. In the early 1990s, the number of green iguanas circulating in the US pet market increased sharply, and soon this gust of wind blew to Canada and Northern Europe. The green iguana feeding books written twenty years ago were still being sold at that time; sometimes publishers just changed photos and covers, and then circulated the wrong messages again. At that time, mainstream veterinary organizations would mostly summarize the recommended catering tables listed in the existing green iguanas introduction book on the market as dietary advice. Until then, veterinarians did not have much experience in dealing with green iguanas, so they were not suitable for proposing this type of foraging behavior: what is the best solution.
However, as time evolved, more and more green iguanas were sent to animal clinics, and some animal doctors began to conduct causal analysis. Some animal doctors and reptile research scholars have also begun to study the health problems of green iguanas and investigate the causes. Therefore, we can see that the veterinary community later made very different suggestions, and many animal doctors no longer advocate feeding animal proteins. These early doctors who made recommendations include: Jeffrey Jenkins DVM, Customer Information Manual, recommended feeding 50% animal protein to newborns; Nancy Anderson DVM, The Compendium 13(8), 33%; Stephen
Barten DVM, Veterinary Clinics of North America Small
Animal Practice/Exotic Pet Medicine 23(6), 15%; Fredric Frye, 1993, recommended feeding plants and animal proteins. Others, such as Thomas Boyer DVM, recommend feeding large amounts of animal foods including trout, selves, vertebrates or bird food, etc. If feeding biscuits for monkeys or dog food, feed them in a small amount (5%) (Journal of Small Exotic Animal
Medicine 1). Between 1993 and 1994, the above-mentioned animal doctors began to advise people not to feed animal protein to green iguanas. The reason why
does not give animal protein is because even very small amounts of animal protein can cause serious problems. Another decisive factor is that if the plants fed green iguanas are properly configured, they will all grow healthy even if they are not fed with protein in animals. As the dietary research on green iguanas continues to spread in the pet world and the biological world (and the same is true in the food manufacturing world), foods that do not contain animal protein have also begun to be innovative. Although one or two animal proteins will not cause immediate damage to your green iguana, since we don’t know how much is safe, why not just not feed them at all?
Although some knowledgeable doctors and scholars have published related research and articles in all the reptile journals or veterinary journals, there are still some books that recommend foods that are not suitable for the owner, such as: monkey biscuits, trout, carnivorous or omnivorous animal feed, chicken, beef, other meats, dairy products, eggs, mealworms, mice, crickets, cat food, and dog food.Some books will recommend feeding fine sand to improve digestion, but this is not only unnecessary, but it will also have a serious impact on your green iguana and even die. When you are looking for a feeding manual, you should not only look at the publication date, but also look at the feeding guides in it. Many times, if this book suggests that the owner feeds animal protein, it may also recommend some incorrect ideas in other chapters.
Article source: Pet Century
