My Igauna Broke Her Femurs

For Hanukkah this year Chuck got me an adult Iguana from a buddy of his. His friend said she ate spinach and manderin oranges. When we got her home I did some research on iguana diets and found out that Iguanas should be given spinach on occasion only because High in calcium, but very high in oxalates and goitrogens, so it should only be fed occasionally. I can't even find oranges let alone manderin oranges on the Iguana Food Chart, and it's 6 pages long!

So ling story short, my Iguana has a calcium deficiency and her bones are eggshell thin. It was from improper nutrition and I am guessing that the depletion of nutrients in our soil had a hand in it ass well. She is now on a daily oral calcium supplement, a multi vitamin and her logs are in a cast for the next two weeks.


I am of the opinion that Artificial Chemical Fertilizers contribute to the change of nutrient value of foods, by increasing the abundance of crops without replacing all the exhausted mineral elements in the soil. Also, when chemical fertilizers are used, the earthworms literally leave the soil. Many of these chemicals kill the earthworm and also alter the nature of the microbes, which may become virulent instead of beneficial. The earthworm is one of the most important considerations in terms of a nutrient rich soil.

Another reason for poor nutrients in our fruits and vegetables is that continuous cropping makes the soil deficient after using the same land over and over. However, organically grown foods are much richer in essential nutrients than commercially grown products.

I found the following data at

http://www.spatrade.com/articles/archive/ds799-3.html

The calcium in Spinach is 96.00 in Organic and 47.50 in conventionally grown plants Milliequivalents per 100 grs.

So the moral of the story is:

Feed all members of your family organically grown produce, even your pets.




This is Donatella



Donatella in her homemade carrying cage after getting splinted at the vet.