Iguana Care

Now, here's something we'll cover in more depth in our feeding iguanas section, but light is of vital importance to iguanas, indeed to most lizards.

Why?

One of the most common iguana health problems is metabolic bone disease, which occurs when iguanas don't get the right doses of calcium and phosphorus in their diet.

However you can have a huge amount of calcium and phosphorus in an iguana diet and yet the animal can be suffering from a deficiency.

This is because lizards require Vitamin D3 to utilize the calcium and phosphorus in their bodies. This vitamin D3 is almost fully reliant on the ultra-violet rays of the sun.

Therefore, without light which simulates the suns rays, iguanas will get sick quickly.

Not just any old light will do. A fish tank bulb won't do the trick. It must be a specialist reptile lighting setup like the zoo med iguana light.

And what's more, even if this weren't necessary, as basking animals, awake during the day, it is natural for iguanas to be attracted to bright light.

Your iguana lighting setup should consist of one or more high power bulbs, attached to a reliable timer which will help ensure your iguana's lights go on and off as they should, without you having to worry about remembering to do it yourself.

So we can add to our list now of basics for our iguana environment...

• Humid

• Warm

• Tall, with things to climb on

• A body of water to swim in

• Bright, "reptile-recommended" lighting

OK, now we're getting there.

The actual cage design itself is entirely up to you. You may decide, as many people do, to "simulate" the rainforest with it's branches and so on in a very artificial and human way such as using wooden rods or plastic piping instead of branches, and a large dog-bowl of water to swim in.

This method will keep your iguana perfectly happy. Your iguana doesn't know or care whether the tank "looks nice", just that it feels comfortable in it.

Me? I prefer to do a litte more work, but create a breathtaking cage which resembes, as best as I can manage, a rainforest, with stumps of wood, branches, plants, boggy areas and so on.

I'll be honest. For me, one of the joys of keeping reptiles is to place them into an aesthetically pleasing tank in my living room so I can enjoy it. The "clinical" approach just "isn't my bag, baby!" as Austin Powers would say.

Iguana Care Covering the care of iguanas in captivity, we look at everything from iguana sexing to ideally suited iguana cages, an iguana lighting setup, non toxic plants for iguanas which you can use to decorate your iguana's cage and even my sneaky, personal way of choosing great iguana names every time! We also take a look at feeding iguanas, iguana diet and an assortment of iguana food. This section can also be printed out as an iguana care sheet.