Diet
Green Iguanas are primarily herbivores, feeding on leaves, flowers, fruit, and growing shoots of upwards of 100 different species of plant. In Panama one of the Green iguana's favorite foods is wild plum, Spondias mombin.
Although they will consume a wide variety of foods if offered, Green Iguanas are naturally herbivorous and require a precise ratio of minerals (2 to 1 calcium to phosphorus) in their diet. It is important for captive iguanas to have a variety of leafy greens along with fruits and vegetables such as turnip greens, collards, butternut squash, acorn squash, mango,and parsnip. Juvenile iguanas often eat feces from adults in order to acquire the essential microflora to digest their low-quality and hard to process vegetarian only diet.
There is some debate as to whether captive Green Iguanas should be fed animal protein. There is evidence of wild iguanas eating grasshoppers and tree snails, usually as a byproduct of eating plant material. Wild adult Green Iguanas have been observed eating bird's eggs. Zoologists, such as Adam Britton, believe that such a diet containing protein is unhealthy for the animal's digestive system resulting in severe long-term health damage including kidney failure and leading to premature death. On the other side of the argument is that Green Iguanas at the Miami Seaquarium in Key Biscayne, Florida, have been observed eating dead fish and individuals kept in captivity have been known to eat mice without any ill effects. De Vosjoli writes that captive animals have been known to survive and thrive on eating nothing but whole rodent block, or monkey chow, and one instance of Romaine lettuce with vitamin and calcium supplements.
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