An iguana refusing food is giving you one sign with many possible stories, and the vet's first task is sorting those stories — a task done largely from facts you supply. The detail that this is happening outside breeding season matters and should be said early in the call, because it removes the explanation the vet would otherwise test first: the seasonal appetite dip that belongs to that time of year. What prompts the visit is not any single number, but the combination you report — how long the refusal has run, whether weight and behaviour have moved with it — and your account is what the vet judges. Arrive at the call with that combination counted, weighed and written down.
Counting the Fast Properly
Count the fast in days, and count honestly. A day where the iguana ate two bites and left the rest is not a full refusal, and a day where nothing was touched is not a reduced appetite; the vet needs the true shape. Note the last day food was eaten normally, then each day since with what happened at the bowl: ignored, investigated and left, a few mouthfuls taken. Record what was offered each time — the staple greens, the vegetables, any favourite item used to test interest — because an iguana refusing everything reads differently from one refusing staples but taking a prized food. Add the surrounding outputs while you count: droppings produced or absent, urates passed, a shed in progress or recently completed. Shedding weeks can dull appetite, and the vet will want its dates in the same timeline.
Weight and Behaviour Beside the Bowl
If you weigh your iguana, use your usual scales and set the new figure against the recent ones you have recorded; a stable weight over a short fast tells one story, a falling line another. If you do not weigh, describe body condition in plain observable terms: the fullness at the hips and tail base, whether the ribs or hip bones look more prominent than last month, the skin's fit. Behaviour stands beside weight in the prompt set. Note basking time — hours under the lamp as usual, or hours hiding at the cool end — responsiveness when you approach, grip strength on the branch, and colour compared with its ordinary bright or dull states. An iguana that is off food but basking, moving and holding weight presents differently from one that is off food, hiding and thinning, and the vet triages on that difference.
Husbandry Facts to Have Ready
Expect the consultation to turn to husbandry, so have the facts measured rather than estimated. Basking spot temperature and cool-end temperature, taken with your thermometer where the iguana actually sits and rests — not the dial setting on a thermostat. UVB provision stated fully: the lamp type, how many hours a day it runs, its distance from the basking site, and its age in months since fitting, because output fades long before the lamp goes dark. The diet as actually fed over recent weeks, item by item, with supplements used named as facts. Enclosure facts complete the set: size, water provision, humidity as you measure it, substrate, and any recent changes — new decor, a move, another animal newly visible from the glass. The vet reads them for what they explain; your job is accuracy, not deciding in advance which fact is the culprit.
Making the Call
Order the call the way the vet will think: outside breeding season, this many days refusing, weight doing this, behaviour changed in these ways, husbandry standing at these readings. That sequence answers the opening questions in one pass. Ask what the vet wants you to track while you wait for the appointment, and write their list at the head of your notes. Bring the feeding record and the husbandry page with you; reptile consultations run on paper more than on memory.
The Pet Passport in KinsLe holds the feeding log and husbandry page together as one standing record, so next season's comparison is already written.