Lettuce 101

Written by Veronica and originally posted to the IguanaDen list, used with permission.

While igs LOVE lettuce and will eat it above all other foods in their dish, especially if it is the main ingredient of your igs diet...this same food is one of the worst foods you can feed an ig, beardie, and any other herp that is an herbivore or omnivore. Lettuce is made up mostly of water with NO health benifits whatsoever. They become addicted to this food and it becomes harder to wean them off of it the longer they are allowed to eat it. This goes for ALL lettuces.
To wean an ig off of lettuce is a gradual process. To stop cold turkey can stop them from eating at all. With eating lettuce for so long the igs health is already very compromised and will still need to eat to stay at least as healthy as it is and then to get it healthier with a better diet.
There are two very good diets to follow. The one promoted on these lists most is, of course, the Iguana Den Diet. The other is Melissa Kaplan's diet which you can find at her site at http://www.anapsid.org. Get the ingredients to the diet of your choice keeping the lettuce as a part of the main salad using equal amounts of it and the core salad items in the diet guide. Over the course of a couple of months, gradually reduce the amount of lettuce each week in the salad until there is no lettuce at all.
This will save your igs life.