Enclosure
Lighting
Feeding
Heating
Water & Humidity
For More On Iguanas
A good size tank to start out with for a baby iguana is a standard 30 to 50 gallon tank. As your iguana grows, it will probably be necessary to build or have built a custom cage. The standard for deciding on cage size is one and one half times the length of the lizard in length, two thirds the length of the lizard in width, and the length of the lizard in height. We have found higher is better. Iguanas love to climb and love to be up high. There are several things that can be used for cage bottom cover. Orchid bark, artificial turf, indoor/outdoor carpeting, newspaper, and alfalfa pellets are all useful for this. Bark or wood chips can tend to attract mites and other insects, so keep this in mind. Cedar chips can be toxic, so avoid using these. Branches set up for climbing are a necessity. Iguanas are arboreal (tree-dwelling) lizards. The branches should be chosen according to the size of your lizard, and easy for your them to climb and lay on. We do not recommend hot rocks. They are not a natural way for the iguana to absorb heat and they can cause serious burns. Hot rocks should never be used as a replacement for adequate lighting.
During the day, allow about a third of your iguanas tank to be in the sunlight, to allow it to absorb vitamins. Full spectrum bulbs do not reproduce natural sunlight. It is less expensive to have the small amount of the tank in the sunlight than to buy full spectrum bulbs, and sunlight is better for your iguana anyway.
An iguana's health is very closely related to what they eat. Green Iguanas are strictley herbivores. Protiens that we need to live healthily are unhealthy to iguanas. You should never feed your iguana dog, cat, or human foods. Most iguanas do like human junk foods, but should never become part of it's diet. Some people do feed their iguana treats, so if you do, make sure you give it a treat at th most once a month, but sould be even rarer. Serious health problems can occur i f you give your iguana junk food. Cabbage and cabbag related items should be fed extremely sparingly. Thyroid problems may be the result of feeding these items to your iguana frequentely. Never at all feed you iguana spinach, NEVER AT ALL. An iguanas diet should consist of greens or iguana pellets(still feed him the greens every other time). Like humans and most other animals, iguanas require a lot of calcium. Don't feed him things that are to high in phospurous. The greens can be dandelions leaves(as long as they are not treated and are cleaned) whinch grow in most lawns and fields, or any food leaves(except cabbage). Along with that, you can add things like squash, and blackberries, and rasberries.
Your iguana should have a bowl of water in the tank for keeping the humidity up and for your iguana to soak in. You'll know if the humidity is to low because your iguana will start to drink a lot from the water bowl.
Iguanas get most of their moisture from the air, so to keep the tank humid, you could consider misting the tank daily. The optimal humidity level is around 95-100%. Try to get a humidity guage for your tank in addittion to your temperature guages, or get guages that read both.
Heating
An iguana unlike warm-blooded animals require the heat of the sun to help digest their food. If you were to put an entire glass tank in direct sunlight, the temperature would reach lethal levels. It is the best idea to artificially heat the tank. The iguanas basking spot should be in the high 90s(farenheit). One way to provide this is by placing a lamp over tha cage pointing to a specific spot(normally one end or the other), or you could use a hot rock(Make sure it has a thermostat) to heat the basking area. Undertank heaters can maintain the rest of the daytime air at the mid 80s while at night maintianing the temperature at the low 70s.
