If you don’t know much about iguanas or animals in general, it’s not unreasonable to think that iguanas produce milk. Milk production is very popular in many animals to feed their young.
When talking about milk production, most people usually think about cows. However, many different animals can produce milk as well but are iguanas one of them?
Iguanas don’t produce milk. The only animals that produce milk are mammals. Iguanas are reptiles, hence they don’t produce any milk. But, they do produce a white liquid as part of their poop, which could be mistaken as milk.
If you own an iguana or are surrounding by iguanas, you might have seen that they produce white liquid in their feces. This white liquid looks very similar to milk. People that don’t know much about iguanas might think that its milk.
White Liquid Iguanas Produce (Urate)
This white liquid that iguanas produce might look like milk but it actually comes from their poop. Iguanas’ poop consist of 2 parts… first it’s the fecal pellet or mass, and the second part is the urates.
Urates are the one that is responsible for that white liquid. they are usually clear with a slightly thick and sticky consistency. Moreover, urates also consist of another part that is a little thicker and is white in color.
Depending on the food you fed your iguana the previously, the urate might come with a slightly different color. For example, if you have fed your iguana foods such as raspberries, cactus pears, or carrots previously, the urate might comes out a little red in color, just slightly.
Urate can sometimes be seen around or through the feces. This is very normal but what is not normal is when the urate gets thick and is yellowish in color. When this happens, you will need to pay close attention to your iguana.
Thick yellowish urates indicate that your iguana is dehydrated or have other underlying issues. When you see that, make sure to bring it to the vet as soon as possible.
It’s important to let your vet perform a fecal check for your iguana every 6 months, twice a year. A lot of times when an iguana has health problems, it usually shows in their feces. By doing this, you can prevent many problems in your iguanas before they become serious.
White Liquid During Breeding Season
Iguanas usually breed once a year, sometimes twice if the weather pattern is abnormal. During the breeding season, it’s common to see semen being mixed with urate and their feces. This will make it look a lot more like milk.
Why Can’t Iguanas Produce Milk?
You might have heard of many unusual animals that produce milk. These animals include pigeons, cockroaches, pseudoscorpions, discus fish, and the Taita African caecilian.
They are not mammals so I can understand why you might think iguanas are also able to produce milk. However, the “milk” of these non-mammals are not real milk.
The reason why these non-mammals, including iguanas, can’t produce real milk is that they don’t have mammary glands. These mammary glands are responsible for producing real milk.
That being said, I am not saying that iguanas are able to produce “milk” that is not real just like the other animals mentioned. Iguanas don’t produce any type of milk.
Conclusion
Real milk only comes from mammals. Iguanas are reptiles, there is no way they can produce real milk. Not to say they can produce fake milk but any non-mammals can.
However, iguanas can produce white liquids from their feces, called urate. This can be mistaken as milk by some people since they have similar color and texture.
During the breeding season, these feces can also include semen. This will make it look a lot more like milk’s texture when semen is mixed in.
