[Edit this paragraph] function
It grows rapidly, grows up to be big and needs huge feeding space. After domestication, it has a mild temperament and is a popular breed for pets.
[Edit this paragraph] Wild habits
In the wild, green iguanas mainly eat various leaves, buds, flowers and fruits. The main source of water is food. When there are green iguanas, they also drink water drops from branches and leaves. From the morning habitat? Climb to the branches that are easy to bask in the sun, bask in the sun for a few hours, warm up, and then look for food everywhere. After eating for a few hours, they continued to climb to the branches to bask in the sun, because they needed enough temperature to digest the food just now. After the sun goes down, climb back to the habitat to sleep. During the whole day's activities, on the one hand, I will be wary of iguanas older than myself, on the other hand, I will scare them when I see iguanas younger than myself. For other large animals, they will consider themselves their natural enemies. In estrus, male iguanas will look everywhere for female iguanas to mate, while female iguanas will try to hide. ? Iguanas, literally, refer to spiny lizards and iguanas. There are not many species, the most famous of which are sea iguanas and land iguanas in the Galapagos Islands. But for pet lizards, the green iguana is the most popular lizard and the largest iguana. One of them is the most widely raised representative pet lizard. Taiwan Province Province has opened CITES since the end of 200 1. After importing, the value of an individual has dropped sharply from several thousand yuan to several hundred yuan, which is a great blessing for people who like big lizards. Green iguanas are arboreal lizards active in the daytime, and they are omnivores. They can accept animal foods such as crickets, breadworms and eggs in infancy, and turn into plant foods in adulthood, which can be fed with leaves and fruits. In the wild, green iguanas mainly inhabit the forest canopy near streams, so water basins are indispensable equipment in the breeding environment. The skin is tough, the skin is tough. Be careful when playing with the tail, but the broken tail will regenerate, so it won't cause permanent damage. Because of the great demand in the pet market, there are large-scale professional farms in South America for artificial breeding, which can be said to be the most productive lizard. The male green iguana has a thigh hole on the inside of its hind leg, and its neck is much larger than that of the female. There is an extra-large round scale under the ear hole, which is also much larger than that of the female. Mating is carried out in trees. Pregnant female lizards will lay their eggs in holes dug in the ground, so they won't notice their nests after covering the soil, so the hatched lizards have to be self-reliant since childhood. However, female lizards sometimes dig more holes to distract predators. Green iguanas usually lay 30-50 eggs in a nest and hatch after 75-90 days. It takes two years for a newborn lizard to reach adulthood. If properly reared, a green iguana can live for more than 65,438+00 years.
[Edit this paragraph] Precautions before purchase
1. Green iguanas can grow to 1.5-2m in three years. Can you make room for such a big guy? Green iguana II. Green iguanas come from tropical rain forests and need enough temperature to grow healthily. Can you provide it with insulation? ? 3. You need UVB irradiation, vitamin and calcium supplements, the supply of all kinds of vegetables and feeding boxes of all kinds of equipment. Lots of money. ? It takes a lot of time to clean up the feces and food residue for it every day. ? No matter how old children are, they are not suitable for taking care of green iguanas, and parents need to take responsibility for raising all these animals. ? 6. Green iguanas will carry Salmonella, which will spread to humans through bad hygiene habits and cause serious bacterial infections. Especially the elderly, children and people with low immune system. Everyone who touches this animal or cleans the feeding area should wash their hands. (In fact, as a pet, the risk of green iguanas being infected with Salmonella is relatively low).
[Edit this paragraph] Buy points
You may see green iguanas of different sizes in pet shops. Some may be caught in the wild, and some are sold by other breeders. So either it arrived after a long-distance transportation, or it was raised wrong for a while. These factors greatly increase the chances of iguanas getting sick and injured, so it is very important to choose a healthy green iguana. The following points can be considered:
1, overall appearance
Whether the skin is clean, smooth, firm and elastic, and whether there are scratches or bites. ? Are there any signs of burns on the abdomen (because it is easy to burn with a bottom heater)? Do you have feces or other dirt in your abdomen? Individuals who usually have dirt are weak or sick. ? Is there feces or urate in the drainage hole (white material)? If so, it is possible that the individual is infected with parasites. ? Did you resist when you fiddled with its limbs? People who are weak and sick will have weak resistance. ? Check the whole body for lumps and abnormal protrusions. ? Are there dark red or orange spots on the skin? ? Is the shape of the hind leg normal, and is there any induration or lump? The induration may be a fracture, and the lump may be a bone disease caused by calcium deficiency. ? Are there many wrinkles on the skin? Is it dull? ? Observe whether you limp normally when crawling. Are your limbs strong? ? Are toes and tails intact, missing or broken?
2. Head and five senses
Do you have hazy eyes, watery eyes and sediment? ? Is there mucus in your nose? A runny nose? ? Is the mouth pale or dark red? Are there any unusual spots on the palate and tongue? ? Are the sides of the chin the same size?
[Edit this paragraph] Feeding focus
1, food diversity
Green iguanas are herbivores. Under natural conditions, they only eat leaves and flowers of plants. But unfortunately for green iguanas, in the case of artificial breeding, green iguanas can't eat the food they eat in nature at all. So we must provide them with enough and correct food to ensure their healthy growth without getting sick. Pay attention to the diversity of food when providing food, so that green iguanas can get balanced nutrition. If you feed a single food for a long time, green iguanas are easy to get sick due to nutritional disorders, such as calcium deficiency. Therefore, it is very important to provide correct food during feeding. Here is some information about food. Reptiles generally believe that young green iguanas and adult green iguanas eat the same food. ? The following ratio is very effective for raising I green iguanas: 30%-70% solid vegetables? 30%-70% leafy vegetables 15% fruit? 0- 10% grain? The crux of the matter is that those vegetables are nutritious. In fact, when raising iguanas, feeding incorrect food is the number one killer. Remember to regularly provide your iguanas with as many kinds of food as possible to ensure their health. It is best to provide 10 different foods. )
2. Menu
I'll give you a better menu: Tofu, purple cabbage, turnip cabbage, mustard, celery, dandelion, green beans, green peppers, leeks, snow beans, grapes, radishes and pears. Be careful not to give them only one or two kinds of vegetables, but try to provide them with a variety of vegetables. Of course, there are many other vegetables suitable for green iguanas. But some foods are to be avoided, and I will mention some harmful foods below. I don't want you to copy this menu mechanically. I'm just giving an example of what kind of food should be fed. You should make your own menu on the basis of nutrition. Remember the key to providing as many kinds of vegetables as possible. Below I have listed some important information about different kinds of vegetables. You should attach great importance to this information, because malnutrition is very common in artificial feeding, which is caused by the breeder's ignorance of food choice. On the other hand, if you choose the wrong kind of vegetables, even if the varieties are diverse, it will still cause malnutrition.
3. Calcium and phosphorus
Generally speaking, it is best to provide green iguanas with twice the calcium content and twice the phosphorus content. But generally speaking, the ratio of calcium to phosphorus is acceptable at 1: 1 and 2: 1. Although 2: 1 is the most ideal, even a little more than 2: 1 is harmless. This ratio is very important for the growth and maintenance of bones, as well as the contraction of muscles and the normal operation of other body functions. As long as the supply of calcium and phosphorus ratio is neglected in the short term, it will cause diseases such as bone metabolism diseases. Generally, hypocalcemia is more likely to occur than hypophosphatemia. In other words, in general, iguana breeders often don't provide their green iguanas with enough calcium instead of phosphorus. Another problem that needs attention in nutrition is vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 plays a key role in the absorption of calcium. Without D3, iguanas will not be able to absorb calcium in food. D3 can be obtained from two sources, one is food, and the other is produced by irradiating skin with ultraviolet rays (UVB). However, it is difficult for iguanas to absorb D3 from food, so it is mainly produced by their skin. Therefore, it is very important to give green iguanas enough UVB radiation. Calcium deficiency may be the most common problem in raising iguanas, but if excessive calcium is provided, such as feeding high-calcium food for a long time, it is also harmful to iguanas' health. Another point is to give it enough light to produce the necessary vitamin D3. ? Green iguana
4. Danger
In this section, I will teach you how to avoid providing incorrect food to iguanas. The key is to diversify. If you only provide one or two kinds of food for a long time, your iguana will definitely suffer from various diseases due to nutritional problems. Here are some things that may cause problems. ? Oxalic acid oxalic acid will react with calcium to produce calcium oxalate, which is a kind of salt that is not easy to dissolve. Therefore, vegetables rich in oxalic acid, such as spinach, rhubarb, beets and celery stalks, should be avoided in the food for iguanas. Therefore, I suggest that these vegetables should not be used as staple food in daily feeding, and only a small amount can be supplied. Otherwise, it is easy to get calcium deficiency bone disease. ? Cabbage that causes goiter? Just like those vegetables rich in oxalic acid, some vegetables should not be eaten in excess. Cabbage, cauliflower and cauliflower can cause thyroid problems in iguanas. ? Tannic acid? Tannic acid can coagulate protein, which makes it difficult for green iguana to digest and absorb, and it is not difficult to utilize iron and vitamin B 12. Therefore, it is also necessary to avoid excessive supply of such foods, including spinach, carrots, bananas, grapes, lettuce, rhubarb, onions and so on. ? So from the above point of view, the key is to use a variety of foods, if partial eclipse will lead to nutritional problems. In short, remember to have a variety of food. ? Vitamin and calcium supplements? Even if they can provide green iguanas with enough diversified foods, they may still have malnutrition problems. Therefore, it is necessary to add vitamins and minerals to food. Because iguanas grow rapidly in adolescence, they need more vitamins and calcium than adult green iguanas. Generally speaking, a pinch of calcium and vitamins should be added every other meal. It is enough for adults to supplement once or twice a week. Various supplements can be bought in the market. I give some suggestions: A. Supplement vitamins, and the medicine used by people can be mashed for green iguanas. ? B. For calcium supplementation, it is recommended to use only calcium tablets containing calcium and D3 instead of phosphorus, because this will not have much effect on improving the low calcium-phosphorus ratio in food.
5. Water
Like many creatures, green iguanas can stop eating for a while, but if there is no water to drink, they will die. So the green iguana should provide your green iguana with a bowl of water, so that it can have water to drink when it wants to drink. But pay attention to keep the water clean, and it is best to change the water every day. But many people think that they have never seen green iguanas drink water, because the vegetables they eat already contain a lot of water, and most of the water that green iguanas need is obtained from food. But even so, you still need to prepare a bowl of water for them, because sometimes it is not enough to rely solely on the moisture of food. For example, if they eat less and the food they eat is dry, they need extra water.
6. Feeding time
Green iguanas should be fed every day, and the best feeding time is 9:00- 1 1:00, because green iguanas need to bask in the sun (natural or artificial) in the morning to raise their body temperature before they start eating. However, in nature, green iguanas only eat in the afternoon, but there is no harm in preparing food in the morning so that iguanas can eat at any time.
7. How to feed
You should cut the food into small pieces. As for how small it is, it depends on how big your green iguana is. Anyway, don't choke them. In addition, the food should be fully mixed, because green iguanas are picky eaters. If they don't mix food well, they will choose what they like, which will lead to malnutrition. ? Grind calcium tablets into powder and mix them with food to feed.
[Edit this paragraph] Feeding box
1, material of feed box
Usually, most people use fish tanks as breeding boxes for green iguanas, because it is the easiest to buy and the most ready-made. The green iguana feeding box can be made of iron cages, and wood and glass windows can be used as feeding boxes. If you use the fish tank directly, the ventilation is not good. Using iron cages is not conducive to heat preservation.
2, the size of the feeding box
If you have enough space, you should provide as large a feeding box as possible. Green iguanas are arboreal animals. They spend most of their time in trees in the wild. When they are young, they have relatively more activities on the ground, so they will climb more and more as they get older. Therefore, the feeding box should be made higher, not longer. The following are the minimum dimensions of the feeding box: the height is equal to its body length (including the tail), the length is 65438+ 0.5 times its body length, and the width is 2/3 of its body length. In this way, green iguanas can climb, walk and turn around more freely. If the space is too small, it will become depressed.
Step 3 feed the toys in the box
It is best to provide branches in the box so that green iguanas can climb. Branches should be thicker than the body of a green iguana. Tilt the branches in the box.
4. Heating and lighting
Many people solve the problems of heating and lighting at the same time. Incandescent lamps can be used for both heating and lighting. Setting the lamp in a corner of the box can create an environment with changing temperature gradient in the box. Directly below the light is equivalent to a sunbathing place, where iguanas can keep warm in the morning. It is best to place thermometers in different positions of the feeding box so as to know the temperature of the whole box. Generally speaking, the coldest place in the box should be around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Generally speaking, a green iguana needs at least 65,438+00 hours of body temperature to reach 88 degrees Fahrenheit every day to ensure its normal digestive function. It is best not to put the lamp directly in the box, because it is easy for iguanas to climb on the lamp and cause burns. Green iguanas digest food by bacteria in their bodies, and bacteria need a relatively high temperature environment to work, so we must ensure enough temperature, otherwise our green iguanas will be malnourished because of indigestion.
5. ultraviolet rays
It is very important for green iguanas to be exposed to ultraviolet rays. They need to synthesize vitamin D3 in the skin by ultraviolet irradiation, and D3 promotes the absorption of calcium. Sunshine is the best choice. If you really can't get sunshine, you must prepare ultraviolet lamps (especially UVB lamps) for them. It should be noted that you should not irradiate your green iguana with ultraviolet rays through glass or plexiglass, because these substances attenuate ultraviolet rays very much, and a thin layer of glass can remove 95% ultraviolet rays. You shouldn't look at ultraviolet lamps with your eyes, because too strong ultraviolet rays are harmful to people.
6. Illumination period
The photoperiod is simply how long an iguana needs to be exposed to light every day. It is generally recommended to irradiate 14 hours with lamps and ultraviolet rays every day. However, it must be ensured that it is dark at night. If the light is on for a long time, it will make the green iguana nervous.
7. Mat materials
The selection principle of padding is easy to clean and dry. Many people like to use newspapers as cushions because they can be thrown away when they are used up. In short, do not use wood chips, sand and other substances that green iguanas are easy to swallow by mistake.
8. Humidity
Green iguana is a lizard that lives in Central and South America with high temperature and high humidity. Higher humidity is beneficial to the skin of their green iguana breeding box, but it is difficult to maintain high humidity in artificial breeding environment, not only because the equipment for maintaining high humidity is complicated, but also because it is difficult to maintain hygiene in this high temperature and high humidity environment. Because it is easy to breed bacteria under the action of high temperature and humidity and food and excrement.
9. Ventilation equipment
Ventilation is often neglected. If it is a feeding box made of barbed wire, ventilation is certainly not a problem. Even a glass jar with a glass cover can be used, but the glass jar with a completely sealed cover for fish farming can't be used. If you want to use a steel cylinder, you'd better use a steel cylinder with a vent hole beside it, which will have good ventilation.
[Edit this paragraph] Nursing
1, body structure
First of all, let's take a look at the various components of the green iguana and their respective functions. Nose and mouth? Like human beings, green iguanas have noses and mouths, but their noses are not used for smelling, and their nostrils are used for breathing and excreting salt. Its mouth is used to eat and bite, while its tongue is used to identify smells. So you may see that green iguanas often stick out their tongues. In fact, they can really detect their surroundings. ? Eyes? Of course, eyes are used to see things. Sometimes if you pat it on the head or neck, it will close its eyes. The reason why it does this is not clear, but it is certainly not because of discomfort or pain. ? Tympanic membrane? The small disks on both sides of the head are its ears, or eardrums. Most reptiles are deaf, but green iguanas can hear. Therefore, we should take this into account when turning on the stereo or TV. Although most green iguanas are not affected by loud noise, if you think your green iguanas will be nervous in that environment, you'd better not use it too loudly. ? Chin? There will be a round skin under the ear, like a spot, called sybtympanicplate. The secondary eardrum disc has no special physiological function, but it can be used to distinguish different kinds of iguanas. If you go to a pet store to buy green iguanas, you will see many small lizards. If there is no eardrum, it may be just some kind of water dragon, not a green iguana. Under the jawbone, there will be a large piece of skin, called fat. When it is threatened, it will spread its fat to make it look bigger and stronger, so as to scare off the enemy. ? Femoral foramen Green iguanas have a row of protruding holes in their hind legs, which are called femoral holes. Especially when your green iguana grows up, you will find that the femoral hole secretes some hard waxy substances. It is through these substances that the male marks his territory. You can judge the sex of I green iguana from the appearance of femoral hole, which will be introduced in detail in the section on gender. ? Back and abdomen? There is a spawning hole between the hind legs of the green iguana, through which the green iguana excretes waste and reproduces.
2. Feces
Most green iguanas excrete once a day, and it is rare to excrete more than once a day, but some IGs excrete once every other day. Excrement consists of three parts, one of which is a solid strip; One part is viscous liquid; There is also a part of white material (a bit like chalk dust after drying), the main component is urate. The excreta of green iguana should be composed of these three parts, but the amount of each part may be different every day. Many breeders want to train green iguanas to consciously excrete at fixed points, because it is easier to clean. It is said that someone succeeded in the following way, that is, soaking ig in a warm pool. Usually it will be excreted in warm water, so you will gradually get used to excreting in the pool, then remove the water and put it on a newspaper in the pool, and then get used to excreting in the newspaper. ? Another simple way is, if your green iguana often excretes in a certain place in the breeding box, you can spread a newspaper there and get it used to excreting in the newspaper. Many times green iguanas like to excrete in soft places, such as blankets and newspapers.
3. Growth
Green iguanas grow very rapidly before 2-3 years old. The growth rate will vary with individual differences and food quality. If you are malnourished at an early age, it will make you smaller as an adult. When it grows to 3 years old, its growth rate will slow down. Ig can even grow up to 6 feet long (the tail is 2-3 times that of the body) and weigh 65,438+08 pounds, but they are usually smaller than individuals growing in the wild under artificial propagation.
4. Gender
Many breeders want to know whether their green iguanas are male or female. When green iguanas are young, it is difficult to distinguish between males and females from their appearance. When they grow up, they can be distinguished from some physical characteristics. The biggest difference is that the femoral foramen of their thighs is larger in males, and the male femoral foramen secretes waxy substances, while the female secretes little. There are also differences in body length. Men are bigger than women, with wider cheeks and more prominent back protrusions. In addition, when they are sexually mature, it is more prominent near the male reproductive hole because there is a penis there.
5, the correct capture
Don't just grab the middle of its body from above with one hand and lift it up. It should be lifted from below with both hands.
6, nail cleaning
Now you should notice that the green iguana is equipped with 12 sharp claws. These claws had better be trimmed neatly, because if these claws are too long, you may hurt yourself and your roommate (if you have more than one green iguana at the same time), and the key is that it is easy to hurt their owners. There are many ways to trim its claws, such as using human nail clippers, but because human nails are flat, it will be uncomfortable to use human nail clippers, so it is best to use nail clippers for cutting nails for birds or cats and dogs, because this nail clipper is more suitable for cutting round nails, so green iguanas will feel more comfortable. ? When repairing them, it is best to prepare some hemostatic drugs, so that they can be used to stop bleeding in case of injury. To repair the green iguana's nails, just cut off its nail tips. Don't cut off the whole nail, because there are blood vessels and nerves at the root of the nail. If it is cut off, the green iguana will be very painful. So all you have to do is remove the tips of your nails.
[Edit this paragraph] Where do green iguanas come from?
As we all know, green iguanas belong to CITES? Two? There are restrictions on the management of protecting animals in the world. However, green iguanas are very popular pet lizards all over the world. According to statistics, the United States alone imports 500,000 baby lizards a year, and the demand from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan is also great. Now more and more people keep green iguanas, including China. ? So where did so many green iguanas come from? It turns out that some breeders in the countries of origin of green iguanas, such as Mexico, Honduras and Paraguay, have established many large-scale green iguanas breeding grounds and raised a large number of green iguanas for export. At present, some farms established in South America are relatively backward in equipment and small in scale, and most of them adopt extensive breeding methods, and they can be raised directly in the wild by enclosing a piece of woodland. ? The United States is different, because Florida's geography and climate are suitable for the breeding of green iguanas, where breeders adopt scientific breeding methods for large-scale breeding. Every farm has a large number of animals, ranging from 30,000 to 65,438+10,000. As can be seen from the photos, some breeding conditions are high and green iguana larvae are everywhere.