zilla

Question
QUESTION: hi i hope you can help me i have a green iguna she is alomost a year old. I feed her mustered greens,collard greens and green beans.corn,carrots,spinach,broclie,cauliflower,her cage stays 85 two 90 and we spray her twice a day.well i haven't got her out for awhile and Saturday July the 28 we gave her a bath two help get her dead skin off and now today is July the 29 and she hasn't eaten in about week and shes getting week please help she is not just a pet she is family

ANSWER: Molly,

When an iguana doesn't eat, this is not a good sign. This is the tell-tale sign that something is wrong. I highly suggest seeing a veterinarian at this point if she is still not eating because she may have some sort of parasite or infection which requires antibiotics or something to that nature.
How often did she eat when she was her "normal self"? What has changed in her living conditions? Has she undergone any stress recently?
There is always the slim possibility that she has eggs she needs to lay and cannot. I just cannot even speculate as to what the problem is just based on her diet, temperature and behavior. I do know that I would be force-feeding her if I were you. It is good to try and syringe-feed water too so that she is not dehydrated. I think at this point, you need to have a veterinarian look at her and do an exam and see if something is wrong internally.
If there have been any changes in her life she could be reacting to stress.
If she has never had a UVB bulb on her for almost a year, she could be very malnourished because UVB allows iguanas to digest calcium. Without it, an iguana cannot get the proper calcium absorbed into its body and will develop a calcium deficiency. It is a very common occurrence in captive iguanas. I would first take her to the vet, keep force-feeding her until then, follow the vet instructions and when you get that all figured out, make sure you have a new UVB bulb that is less than 6 months old so it is still potent and then re-evaluate her diet. She should not be getting the carrots, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower very often. These foods are high in phosphate and block calcium absorption, further enabling the calcium deficiency. These foods should be substituted for things like orange squash, green beans, dandelion greens, escarole, small amounts of fruit, avacado, etc.

Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance to you.

Sincerely,

Sara J. Gwerder
President
Raptor Rescue Iguana Sanctuary
Shreveport, LA
www.RaptorRescue.org

"UVB Bulb + Proper Diet + Consistent Daily Routine = Happy + Healthy Iguana"

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QUESTION: how do you force feed food we have been doing the water shes more alert now.zilla won't eat fruit she well pick around it and leave it there

Answer
You can do it a couple of different ways: you can use a popsicle stick and pry the jaw open and hurry up and shove some greens down there while the mouth is open.

If that doesn't work well, you can buy baby food squash or green beans or something like that and use a syringe (without a needle).

You can also grind up the food in food processor and syringe that into the mouth.