Iguana Diet 2. Importance of Supplements & Vitamins

Other than creating a balanced diet for your iguana, you must think about supplements and vitamins. The need for vitamins in your iguana’s diet is serious, even though vegetarian diet can provide your pet with all the nutrients that it needs. Read part 1 article on iguana’s feeding and diet to learn about edible and toxic foods for your iguana.

The main mineral that your iguana needs is Calcium

Calcium is very important, and you should be providing your iguana with supplementary calcium at least once a week. This mineral is important in your iguana’s diet – especially in young and female iguanas that are laying eggs.

Calcium is needed to grow strong bones and eggs and it also keeps muscles healthy. Iguanas that eat or have been eating more foods high in oxalic acid or ones in rehab should be given extra calcium.

Calcium to Phosphorus ratio importance in iguana’s diet

It is important to remember that any calcium that you give your iguana as a supplement should be coupled with phosphorus. You should aim for 2:1 calcium to phosphorus ratio, even though calcium ratio can be 2.5 or 3.

Okay, you know the ratio, but what supplements are best for iguanas?

The best calcium supplements and multivitamins for your iguana

Most supplements on the market are sprays and multivitamins and it can be hard to measure the right amount. The most common sources of calcium and phosphate for supplements are limestone flour, dicalcium phosphate, bone meal calcium lactate and calcium gluconate. One of the most common lizard products for supplements are:

• Calcium by Zoo Med, with or without D3. This one is good to provide your iguana with extra pure calcium (calcium carbonate).
• Multivitamin complex by Rep-Cal like this. This multivitamin complex is ideal to supplement your iguana. It has a big range of important vitamins and minerals, as well as amino acids.

How often to supplement iguana’s food?

• Your iguana must synthesize vitamin D3 by getting exposure to the UVB lights and unfiltered sunlight. Iguanas are not meant to get extra vitamin D3 in a powder form and too much vitamin D3 can accumulate in bones and cause organ mineralization.
• This is why it is very important to get separate pure calcium supplement, and a separate multivitamin. In a multivitamin, always look for an optimal Ca:P ratio.
• If you think that your iguana needs some extra vitamin D3, it can be fine if it’s included in the multivitamin. You can also get a separate calcium + vitamin D3 supplement and use it instead of a regular calcium once in two weeks. Please find more info on vitamin D3 below.
• Use one pinch to supplement hatchling iguana’s food once a day. For babies, use one pinch 4 times a week. Then, use one pinch per kg of iguana’s weight to supplement adult iguana’s food, once a week.
• Supplement gravid and weak adult’s diet with calcium 2 times a week (one pinch per kg). While your iguana is gravid, you can supplement her food with calcium every 2 days.
• Use one pinch of multivitamin to supplement iguana’s food once a week for young iguanas or once in two weeks for adults.
• As you can see, all the doses should be small. Never add supplements in the water, and only dust the food.

Does my iguana need multivitamins?

Yes, you iguana needs a wide range of vitamins and multivitamins to be healthy. Vitamin C and E are important for healthy immunity, eyesight and processing iron. Folic acid is important for egg-laying and other reproducing iguanas.

While all of them help support functions that make your iguana healthy, there is a big chance that they get enough of these vitamins with food. Feeding your iguana with vegetables and some fruits every day will provide it with needed vitamins. Extra amino acids will also aid in cell functions.

However, there can be a time when you have been feeding your iguana only or mostly commercially produced food. Lack of time can be one of the reasons.

In this situation, the need in supplements (and water!) is higher. Same is with sick iguanas in rehab, egg-laying females and growing baby lizards – they all need extra supplements.

Be careful with supplements, as it is easy to overdose.

Vitamin D3 and iguana

Your iguana must synthesize vitamin D3 in its skin. But sometimes, you might think that your iguana needs some vitamin D3 in its diet, especially if you never take it out for unfiltered sunlight. Sunlight coming through the window get filtered and is not very beneficial for your iguana. Your multivitamin might also contain vitamin D3 in it.

As we have discussed before, too much vitamin D3 can get stored in the body, causing mineralization. Many reptile supplements contain very high doses of vitamin D3.

If you buy supplements with vitamin D3 in them, make sure there is no more than 45,000-50,000 IU/kg of vitamin D3. There are reptile supplements that exceed the dose by 5x or even 10x.

For example, is the supplement has 23,000 IU/kg of vitamin D3, then your 2kg iguana will be safe with a dose of 3 grams, 2 times a week.

The safe limit of vitamin D3 supplement for your iguana is 80-100 IU/kg of iguana’s weight. If you do not want to make calculations, then always choose the supplements with safe vitamin D3 dosages and only use a pinch to lightly cover the food.

How to supplement your iguana’s food?

The best way to supplement your iguana’s food is to always have a pure calcium + separate multivitamin supplement.

Plus, get a multivitamin with minerals (if it has calcium, make sure it has optimal Ca:P ratio). This way you can supplement your iguana with calcium and phosphorus, and other vitamins, such as A, B, C, D etc.

But if your iguana’s diet has been incorrect for a long time and there is a need for only one mineral, concentrate on that first.

More facts…

• If getting vitamin D3, make sure it is in the form of D3. The problem is, lizards can’t absorb D2, which comes from plants. They need D3, which is obtained from animal tissue.
• The best way to provide your iguana with D3 is taking him outdoors and providing with special UVB basking lamps. Vitamin D3 is very important for health of your iguana, and you should provide extra vitamins if your iguana doesn’t have access to sun every day. Read more on terrarium lighting here.

Fiber levels in iguana’s food 

Fiber in iguana’s diet plays the same role as it does in human’s diet. Healthy diet will provide your iguana will sufficient fiber levels.

Good levels of fiber in iguana’s diet will help intestines move the digested food and keep the bowels healthy. Giving your iguana foods that have adequate levels of fiber is important to keep the digestive tract healthy and running smoothly.

Please note that higher levels of fiber can be found in vegetables, such as various greens and hay. Fruits have lower levels of fiber, so you should give them as a treat. Good sources of fiber are peas, bran cereal, and timothy hay like this that you can add to food portion once a week.

But too much fiber can also cause digestive upsets – so don’t overdo it.

Protein levels in iguana’s diet

Some owners might start thinking about protein supplementation for iguanas. This is not necessary if your iguana’ diet consists of more than 60-65% of vegetables.

All the greens, eaten by iguana in a day, will make up for protein intake and you don’t need to think of supplementation. Remember that fruits contain much less protein than vegetable greens and should be given as treats.

Vegetables high in protein are sweet potatoes, lima beans, zucchini, asparagus, peas and bamboo shoots. Fruits high in protein include apricots, cantaloupe melon, nectarines, lemon peel (also contains high levels of calcium and phosphorus).

Remember not to feed your iguana any cat or dog food, mice or insects for extra protein. Iguanas are strict vegetarians and they diet should only consist of fruits, vegetables and plants.

How do I know my iguana’s diet is correct and what should I do if it’s not?

Sometimes you might be questioning if you are doing a good job with feeding and supplementing your iguana’s food. Please remember that you should always try addressing diet questions straight away, as iguanas take long time to show any signs of incorrect diet or become ill.

But when iguanas become sick, it is hard and sometimes impossible to bring its health back to normal state.

A healthy iguana is moderately active and should be walking around and doing different activities in its enclosure. It should also be alert and know what is happening around.

Healthy iguana’s body should be plump with wide and strong tail. Skin should be tight and pelvic bones should not be sticking out.

If you feed your iguana commercial foods way too often, it can cause lack of important vitamins. Commercial foods don’t have any vitamin/mineral level labels, so it is almost impossible to tell their levels in the food.

Another scenario is when you have been giving your iguana incorrect foods or only nutritionally low foods (for example only romaine lettuce).

To help your iguana adapt to new diet you will have to introduce new foods slowly and give it time to get used to new foods. Start mixing new foods with usual foods and give every day, until your iguana stops refusing them.

Important factors for iguana’s effective nutrition

• Water availability – You must always provide your iguana with enough water.  Some foods, especially dried pellets, don’t have enough water in them. Place a bowl with fresh water and change it daily, as your iguana drinks it, bathes in it and defecates in it. Water helps to hydrate iguana, digest food and form feces. Any loose feces are indication of a problem.
• Light source – iguana must have a light source to digest its food. If you keep your iguana inside with no light, all the nutrients will not be fully absorbed, and food digestion will be disrupted.
• Your iguana will also be sluggish and will not want to eat its food. So, make sure to keep your iguana warm, by equipping its enclosure with a light source. Place fluorescent lamps like this that help iguana produce D3.
• Another bulb option is a mercury vapor lamp like this, which provides your iguana with both heat and UVA/UVB light. Ceramic bulbs are excellent for providing heat only.
• Don’t fall for any vitamin D3 drops, as this is scam. Your iguana only needs unfiltered sun or special supplements to benefit from this vitamin. Also, do not rely on vitamin sprays, as they can be hard to get on food and to get the right amounts.
• Read a full guide on lighting in iguana’s cage here.

Make sure to read the next part on iguana’s diet here. In the next article, we will talk about feeding baby, juvenile and adult iguanas. We will also talk about meal plans.