They need a lot of variation in their diet to stay healthy. Herbivores only eat plants. The green iguana is one of the only pet lizards that is an herbivore. Carnivorous lizards are not as rare as herbivores, but are rare compared to insectivores and omnivores.
Carnivores only eat meat such as mice, rats, large insects, rabbits, or fish. The largest lizard in the world, the Komodo dragon, is a carnivore that eats deer and pigs. Regardless of their feeding group, wild lizards typically eat less frequently than pets and spend most of their time in search of food. Pets have all their dietary needs provided for them and eat higher quality food than wild species. A balanced diet is important to keep wild and pet lizards healthy.
Prey and food variation provide different sources of nutrition and enrichment. Their diet also change as they need different amounts of nutrients depending on their life stage. A good example is Baby lizards. They eat more food proportional to their body weight than adults as they are rapidly growing.
A proper diet is very important for young lizards. Over their first few months they are developing their muscular and skeletal systems. Baby garden lizards usually eat insects and only a few fruits and vegetables. Flightless fruit flies, pinhead crickets, and bottle fly spikes are the best insects for baby lizards. Baby lizards are growing faster than adults and need to eat more often.
Their smaller size also means they cannot eat the same prey as adults and cannot go as long without eating. Feeding baby lizards is the same as feeding any reptile. This makes it easier for your lizard to hunt, prevents prey from escaping, and lets you keep track of how much they eat.
You should also make sure all prey is smaller than the space between their eyes as this will prevent choking. The exact amount of food will vary based on species, sex, and growth rate. But, using a feeding schedule is a helpful aid. These lizards are mostly insectivorous and eat flies, ants, crickets, spiders, and larvae. Waxworms, butterworms, and hornworms can be fed as treats.
Many wild lizards are easy to feed and are actually helpful to your garden as they hunt common pest invertebrates. Smaller species like anoles and fence lizards should eat 2 to 5 small crickets or 2 mealworms each time. Larger species like agamas can eat 20 large crickets or 5 to 10 medium-sized dubia roaches.
Agamas are the only garden lizard that is an omnivore. In addition to the insects above, adult agamas should be fed kale and dandelion greens. Pieces of grapes, raspberries, or bananas can be fed as treats too. Every adult should be fed appropriately sized crickets, mealworms, and dubia cockroaches. Larger food will need to be cut into pieces. Adult lizards should grow very slowly.
Sudden, noticeable weight gain may mean you are overfeeding! Not providing diet variation is a common mistake. It is easy to feed a lizard one or two prey items, but variation is the key to proper nutrition and enrichment. A restricted diet is very damaging to their health and can lead to metabolic bone disease and vitamin deficiencies, especially in omnivores. For example, feed your insectivore a mix of crickets and mealworms one week and roaches and crickets the next week.
This will not only provide a wider range of nutrients, but will also mentally enrich them during feeding time. Even with a varied diet, most captive lizards also require vitamin supplements to remain healthy. Too few vitamins, especially vitamin D, can cause stunted growth and digestive and skeletal problems.
Dust food with a high-quality multivitamin and calcium powder twice a week. You can also gut-load feeder insects by feeding them fresh fruits and vegetables no more than 48 hours before they are fed to your lizard.
Can Lizards Eat Fruits and Vegetables? Apple Cut it in small, bite-sized slices and remove the seeds, as they can be toxic to lizards. Lettuce Dark Green Avoid iceberg lettuce, as it has little to no nutritional value for lizards. Honeydew melon Finely chop and discard of rinds and core. Celery The stalk and leaves of the celery can be a good staple vegetable for most lizards. Strawberry Remove the top of the strawberry, including the stem, and finely chop.
Yellow Squash Finely chop or shred this vegetable before providing to your lizard. Blueberry An excellent source of antioxidants, but like other fruits should still only be fed in moderation to lizards. Collard Greens A favorite choice among vegetable staples, collard greens should have their stems removed and then be finely chopped or shredded before being providing to a lizard.
Grape High in oxalates, grapes are a great treat for lizards. Turnip Greens Turnip greens are very high in calcium and moderately high in oxalates and goitrogens. Help us make PetMD better Was this article helpful? Yes No. Share this article. What did you find helpful? Many omnivorous reptiles do best with a supplement or pellets to augment their fresh meals.
Common examples of pet turtles are the herbivorous Russian tortoise and the omnivorous red-eared slider. Most pet reptiles eat much less varied food than they would in the wild. For example, we often just feed crickets to our anoles and mice to our corn snakes. Nutritional deficiencies can lead to weak bones, vulnerability to disease, and a generally shorter life for your pet. These balanced diets go a long way to making your reptile more healthy.
Even with a mix of pellets and fresh food, many pet reptiles benefit from—or even need—supplements. Which supplements your reptile needs will vary greatly based on what you feed and what species it is.
Some reptile owners feed their crickets and mice a supplemented diet , dust their crickets with supplement powder, or sprinkle supplement powder onto fruits and veggies. You can even add supplements to water for some reptiles. In short, there are a lot of different ways to ensure that your reptile gets the diet it needs. The most important thing is knowing your species and doing your research to provide it with the best diet possible.
Metabolic and Endocrine Diseases of Reptiles. Merck Veterinary Manual. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads.
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