This is the last part on iguana’s diet. In this article, we will talk about feeding baby, juvenile and adult iguanas. We will also answer questions on when to feed your iguana and how much food it needs. In addition, we will discuss water requirements for your iguana. If you have missed part 1 and part 2 articles, make sure to read them as well for more information on iguana diet.
How often to feed an iguana?
You need to feed your iguana every day, once or twice. Feed your iguana at the same time of the day, as iguanas love routines. 
Even though you can feed your iguana once in two days, you should always try to do it every day. One of the times when you need to feed your iguana less and make it hungry is when you are introducing new food to correct the diet. As iguana is most likely to refuse new foods, making it hungry will leave no choice for your lizard.
A good practice is to provide your iguana with most of its food in the morning and provide a snack in the evening. Then, you should remove any uneaten pieces in the evening.
If you are at home for most of the day, you can give your iguana its salads and vegetables, and then treats later in the day. Make sure there is no leftover food left in the cage after evening. Also, don’t feed your iguana less than few hours before it goes to sleep at night.
How you present the salads to your iguana also plays a big role. Most iguanas enjoy eating directly from the plants. If your iguana is not eating the salad from the bowl, try to mix it differently and present it in another way – and see how the feeding response changes.
Presentation is also important for iguanas.
What to feed an iguana?
Provide your iguana with lots of veggies and salads and let it eat as much as it wants. With time, you will learn your iguana’s habits and will know how much it approximately eats in a day.
Older iguanas will eat less, and you can start reducing iguana’s portions from the age of 4-5. You can feed your iguana fresh and some frozen veggies and fruits, as they usually contain same amounts of vitamins.
As baby iguanas are growing, you might consider feeding them twice a day. Also, you can approach your newly bought iguana and its enclosure with food, so it gets used to your presence.
Same goes for egg-laying females and sick iguanas. Sick lizards are likely to refuse food, so offering them favorite foods few times a day can help them to eat.
A large feeding dish like this should be perfect for presenting food to your iguana.
Many iguanas hate eating with people around, and get stressed. Always try to place iguana’s food bowl further in the tank until it gets more comfortable with you.
Find a full list of foods that you can offer your iguana and the list of toxic and non-toxic plants and veggies for your iguana in this post.
Malnutrition in iguana?
One of the main things to remember is that you iguana needs proper lighting source to digest the food and absorb all the nutrients. Otherwise, it won’t happen, and your iguana will suffer from malnutrition.
When your iguana gets malnourished, it will start feeding on its own muscles and fat tissues to survive. This is also similar to what happens in a human body.
After some time of starvation, your iguana will lose a big percentage of its muscle and fat and you will be unable to bring its health to the previous condition.
Lots of calcium will be taken from the bones, causing MBD – soft bones and slow death. Of course, this will happen gradually and in case of severe starvation, but it is important to know about these consequences.
Feeding a baby iguana
When you bring your new baby iguana home, start thinking about its diet plans straight away. Remember that iguanas grow incredibly fast and they need right foods and right amounts to reach their maximum sizes.
Hatchling iguanas grow by consuming egg yolk inside the eggs, which is similar to human embryo nourishment by egg sac. As egg sac is the protein, baby iguanas will need to adjust to the vegetarian diet after birth.
Your iguana is likely to eat a little after you bring it home. Allow few weeks for your iguana to acclimatize, and offer the food in the back of the cage.
Baby iguanas will be hard to convince to eat various vegetables and greens straight away, and they can take some time adjusting to new foods by tasting them. Don’t get discouraged and be patient during the first few months.
Make sure that you give your baby iguana leafy greens and some vegetables only in the beginning. Also, chop them into very small pieces.
Mist them and the terrarium (they will drink that water) few times a day. In addition, provide water in the shallow dish that they can easily access.
Don’t house baby iguana in a big enclosure (it can find it hard to navigate around) and take care of lighting and heat levels inside.
With proper feeding, temperature & humidity, your baby iguana will grow quickly into a healthy juvenile and adult. And don’t forget about extra vitamins and proper lighting – sprinkle your iguana’s food with extra calcium and give it multivitamins.
Vitamins and commercially prepared foods decompose and lose their value after few months; This means that you will need to change vitamins approximately every 6 months and feed the commercial food you buy straight away.
Juvenile iguana feeding 
When your iguana reaches around 2 years of age, it is starting to become an adult. At this point, it is still growing fast and needs a nutritious diet.
You can also offer your iguana some commercially prepared food to see if it likes it (or if you can’t take care of its diet for few days). As iguanas grow older, they become stronger and experience vitamins deficiencies less or in milder forms. This is unless they are starving, of course.
How much water does my iguana need?
Apart from water that your iguana needs to drink, you also need to mist your iguana once or twice a day. Iguanas enjoy misting and it is a must do procedure to keep them happy.
They love water and use it for drinking, bathing, swimming and misting. A large or extra large water dish like this will be the best for your iguana.
Never offer iguanas untreated tap water. If you are giving your iguana tap water, use a water conditioner like this that will remove chlorines, chloramines, heavy metals and ammonia from drinking water. It will also add important electrolytes and ions to the water. Add few drops per cup of water.
Iguanas take in most of their drinking water with fresh vegetables, that contain more than 60% water. 
But of course, you need to always provide your iguana with a bowl of fresh water and change it once or twice a day for hygiene purposes.
Mist your iguana two to three times a day with warm water. With baby iguanas, you should mist them and cage more times a day. This is because they are only learning to drink the water from the dish.
Apart from misting, how much water does iguana need to drink? This will greatly depend on the iguana and its habitat. When you just get your iguana, start observing how much it drinks in a day and how much water is left there in the bowl by the end of the day.
On average, iguana will need 20 ml of water per 1 kg of weight. So, an adult iguana that weighs 3 kg will need around 60 ml of water a day, which is not much at all.
Don’t forget that some water will spill out and evaporate in the habitat during the day. Watch out for your iguana and how healthy it looks. If it seems to have any wrinkles or dry skin, then this might indicate that it is dehydrated.
Another point to remember is to change the water once or twice a day. Plus, change the water as soon as possible when you see iguana’s feces, mud or old food in the water bowl. This will help your iguana avoid any contamination or infection.
Which water should I give to my iguana?
Make sure that the water you are giving to your iguana is clean. You can give it tap water if using a conditioner, filtered or bottled water. Also, water high in fluoride can cause some issues and decrease calcium absorption in iguanas.
High-fluoride water is found in many places and countries, and if you suspect this is your case, change the water source for your iguana pet.
And that’s it! Hopefully, 3 articles on iguana diet have helped you learn about diet management and feeding of an iguana! Comment in the section below if you have any questions!
Read this post to find the list of best foods for your iguana.
You can also learn everything on iguana supplementation here.
To find a list of toxic and non-toxic foods for your iguana, read this post.