What and how to feed lizards

Before you own any gecko, you will need your own insect "farm". Indeed, it is unprofitable to buy live food all the time, and our wards prefer for the most part it was him, and uninterruptedly, taking into account seasonal needs.

Invertebrates are a desirable food (often almost the only one). Only very large individuals eat newborns or very small vertebrates. In the diet certain types and childbirth include vegetable feed, as well as " children food"(artificial mixtures).

However, the volume of our brochure does not allow us to cover in detail the laboratory method of breeding invertebrates. Fortunately, there is an extensive literature on this subject.

Traditional food for lizards - flour beetle (Tenebrio molitor) and its larva; darkling with larva (Zophobas morio), known colloquially as the "giant mealworm", migratory locust (Locusta migratoria), four types of crickets: field (Grylitis campestris), brownie (Gr.domesticus), two-spotted, or African (Gr. bimaculatus), banana (Gr.assimilis), four types of cockroaches: American (Periplaneta americana), ashen (Nauphaeta cinerea), Cuban (Blaberus giganteus) and Madagascar (Gromphadorrina portentosa). Excellent food are two kinds of butterflies - wax moths: small (Achroia grisella) and big (Galleria mellonella). For all lizards, especially young ones, flies serve as a desirable food: fruit flies (Drosophilidae); indoor (Musca domestica) and others. Some feeds have a number of advantages, as well as their disadvantages.

So, the flour worm is "not beneficial" in terms of vitamins and minerals. To avoid this, the larvae are fed with cottage cheese, bone meal and vitamin and mineral supplements. Breeding flies at home is hardly possible for sanitary reasons.

You should not collect "wild" cockroaches caught in objects unknown to you, or other insects in the field by "mowing", on a lamp, etc. Your animals can get a good dose of pesticides. Collection is possible only with a full guarantee of security. In such a case, within all year round you can have "wild" black cockroaches (Blatta orientalis), as well as red Prussians (Blatella germanicd). When feeding cockroaches and crickets, you need to be careful and remove those that are not eaten, as they spoil the plants in the terrarium, and in in large numbers gnaw on the delicate skin and fingers of animals.

Some feeds are extremely convenient when serving: "meal worms" fall asleep in a flat and low feeder; overly active crickets and cockroaches must be pressed down.

However, lizards do not react at all to motionless "food objects", in any case, newly acquired individuals. With many years of maintenance, such "long-livers" recognize the feeder well, get used to it and begin to grab dead insects. By the way, when feeding invertebrates, long veterinary tweezers will be absolutely necessary for you.

You should adapt to the rhythm of feeding your pets. So, day geckos need to be fed during the day, after the animals warm up; night geckos - by sunset.

For young animals, a well-digestible diet should be offered. They should be fed more often than adults, almost daily.

Pets need a variety of food; it is necessary to take into account their individual needs, the most delicious food for some species, when, after a long fast, our pet eagerly grabs a favorite "delicacy", for example, it may turn out to be a pink mouse for a spotted eublefar.

In a word, gradualism is needed. Although feeding takes a long time, lizards should be fed in fractions, as they usually eat in nature. Terrariumists who are versed in technology can make a simple automatic feeder, where a portion of 3 to 5 worms will fall on the tray during the day.

Sometimes newborn geckos refuse to eat themselves. So, if there is no other food than the "meal worm", small, just shedding larvae of the beetle (they can be seen by their characteristic whiteness) are squeezed out and coated with the mouth of the gecko. Usually he starts licking the contents from his lips, and then, having tasted the delicacy, greedily grabs it.

Overfeeding animals is a characteristic and, unfortunately, a common mistake of a terrariumist. With frequent burping, this leads to indigestion, and often to the death of the animal. The digestion of swallowed food is directly related to the temperature regime, and with a sharp decrease in temperature, food burping is not uncommon.

The use of vitamins and microelements will be indicated in separate essays devoted to one species or group of species.

So adequate temperature regime, full-fledged, rich feeding, taking into account the needs of animals - an almost complete guarantee of the well-being of your pets. It is better to spend time preventing diseases than treating a gecko.

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Pretty exotic. It is suitable for breeding for those who do not want to walk the dog in the morning, or clean the tray after the cat. The lizard does not produce loud sounds, won't wake you up in the morning, doesn't need a large area to live in. In short, the animal is ideal for keeping at home. It remains only to understand what small lizards eat at home.

Rules for feeding lizards

In the summer season, this is done three times a day. In winter, the number of meals is reduced to two times. What is the best food to feed? First of all - insects:

• spiders;
• crickets;
• flour worms;
• small mammals;
• bird eggs;
• cottage cheese (used as a feed additive).

From food of plant origin, the lizard is allowed to give:

• lettuce, parsley, plantain, clover or spinach, dandelions.
• Vegetable pieces are perfectly eaten - cabbage, zucchini, cucumber, carrots and even raw potatoes.
• In the fruit group, apples, pears, grapes and melons are suitable.
• They love lizards and a mixture of finely grated carrots and minced meat.
• Young lizards are fed with tweezers. And older people eat on their own.
• It is very useful for a lizard to give eggshells, previously crushed finely, calcium tablets, chalk and various preparations intended for reptiles.

Conditions at home

For breeding lizards at home, it is assumed not only correct, but also the observance of certain conditions for her life. They are not very complicated, they are quite easy to create.

1. The first step is to select and install a terrarium. It can be of any shape, but the height is at least two times the length of your pet.
2. The bottom is strewn with earth that does not contain fertilizer components and other additives. Suitable for this purpose and coconut shavings or sand. There are special mats for sale in pet stores. It is allowed to cover the bottom with pieces of bark, torn paper, shavings.
3. Be sure to place some branches in the terrarium that will remind the lizard of its natural habitat. It is allowed to decorate housing with pebbles, artificially created plants, plates on which the lizard will crawl.
4. A prerequisite is two temperature zones in the terrarium. The hot area must be heated to a temperature human body(36 degrees), and cooler - up to thirty. At night, the temperature should not be below twenty-one degrees Celsius. The hot zone can be heated with an incandescent or glass-ceramic lamp, and an infrared element is also used. The underlying soil can be heated with a mat, which is sold in a zoological shop.
5. The lizard, living at home, needs constant light. For this reason, an ultraviolet light bulb should be located nearby.
6. The humidity level for a lizard should be between fifty and seventy percent. These conditions are achieved in several ways. In a cool place in the terrarium, a bowl of water is placed so that the lizard can freely accommodate in it. To increase humidity, spray with water, use moistened sponges. In order not to form a fungus, you should monitor the quality of air ventilation.
7. remember, that

Lizards are one of the most common types of reptiles on earth. However, few people know what is included in the diet of lizards.

In this article, we will look at what lizards eat. Consider the diet of reptiles will be relatively small and large species of lizards.

The diet of small individuals

The most common small lizards on the planet, belonging to the real lizard family, mainly feed on insects. More large species can feed on small vertebrates. As a rule, such lizards hunt from behind shelters. It is worth saying that among the small species of lizards there are those that are not carnivorous. Such lizards prefer to eat fruits and berries.

Some individuals of small lizards, for example, the South Asian monitor lizard, feed on ants. To catch prey, the lizard uses its tongue, which is covered with a special sticky substance. Larger representatives eat fish, turtles, frogs, crabs and other arthropods. Often lizards use poison for hunting, which may not be dangerous to humans, but can be fatal to other animals. Gila monster belongs to such lizards.

The diet of large lizards

Such large lizards as monitor lizards usually prey on large animals. Their diet may include animals of large cattle or deer, antelopes and gazelles. We emphasize that we are talking about especially large lizards, these include the so-called dragons Komodo Islands. However, among the monitor lizards there are also smaller species that eat the eggs of other reptiles. For example, crocodiles. By the way, crocodiles themselves do not belong to the suborder of lizards.

What do pet lizards eat

The diet of domestic lizards as a whole does not differ from the diet of their wild counterparts. Large lizards can be fed with fish, small snakes, bird eggs, you can also feed plant origin. In addition, many lizards can eat fruits and vegetables. The most common type of food for carnivorous lizards are insects, for example, earthworms, moths, beetles, flies, larvae various kinds insects.

As for small species of lizards, for example, gecko, agile lizard, yellowbell, green lizard, insects, various mixtures of vegetables and fruits, as well as plant foods are perfect for them.

When feeding lizards, it is necessary to take into account their wakefulness period. After all, the lizard is divided into two types, one of which is awake at night, and the other during the day.

Lizards should not be fed food that has been treated with chemicals. Some of the lizards may long time do not eat, and it is important to know that in such cases it is necessary to use force-feeding. Forced feeding is used in cases where, as a result of prolonged starvation, the lizards show bones at the base of the tail. Forced feeding lasts for two to three days. After that, the animal should start eating on its own. If this does not happen, force-feeding continues.

There are about 6,000 species of lizards on the planet. They are classified according to their range, external differences and food preferences. There are carnivorous, herbivorous and omnivorous reptiles. Lizards feed on leaves, fruits, mosquitoes, a variety of larvae, and more. The diet directly affects the size of the reptile. How larger lizard the more likely it is a predator.

There are a lot of species of lizards in the world, some of them are herbivores, others are predators, the third is omnivores

Classification and appearance

Lizards are found not only in wooded or steppe areas, but also within settlements(cities, towns, villages). More than a hundred species of reptiles can be found in the villages. On the territory of Russia, only two types of lizards live in nature:

• quick;
• ordinary.

They live not only in Russia, but throughout the entire post-Soviet space. Not listed in the Red Book. It's hard to tell them apart by shape. But there are still signs inherent in each of the species. A quick lizard is very difficult to spot. She is super-fast and nimble. Has a small size. The quick lizard is usually green in color.

The common lizard has larger size than quick. Color - dark green or brown of all shades. Long paws with tenacious claws. The body is covered with scales, unlike a quick lizard.

Both species move very quickly, using deceptive maneuvers. For housing, they prefer minks that they dig themselves. They can also occupy dwellings left by other animals or insects. They have a permanent pair (they do not change partners during reproduction). After the death of one of the partners, the second long time remains alone, but eventually begins to search for a new pair.

They live wherever there is free access to sunbeams. Reptiles of these species are diurnal. In winter they hibernate.

Diet of wild reptiles

Lizards living in wild nature, you need to get food on your own. The diet of reptiles is quite monotonous. Food preferences:

1. These reptiles eat everything they can find on the ground: beetles, worms, spiders, caterpillars, and so on. The most dexterous and quick manage to catch mosquitoes, flies, midges.
2. AT summer period reptiles often live in potato fields. The Colorado potato beetle is an important component of the lizard diet, as it is very rich in protein.
3. Small reptiles are predominantly semi-vegetarian. They eat worms and larvae. Also, small lizards feed on vegetation. This allows them to get the vitamins they need.
4. Reptiles saturate the body with moisture in ponds. After the rain, they drink from the puddles.

Lizards are the most voracious of all reptiles. Most reptiles are small in size but eat almost as much as some large bird species.

Lizards are considered the most voracious among reptiles.

Nutrition at home

• life span;
• pet health;
• compliance or aggressiveness.

Walking a lizard, like ordinary pets, will not work. This means that food for it must be purchased in stores, because insects must be present on the menu.

There are several types of food on the market:

• special;
• dry;
• insects;

Almost all insects are suitable for feeding lizards: moths, grasshoppers, worms, locusts. They also eat the larvae. You can also feed cockroaches, but only live ones (you can’t feed at home, since a pet can be infected). It is better that all types of insects are constantly at hand (you can keep them frozen).

Almost all insects are suitable for feeding lizards.

Also in the pet store you can easily find dry food that is designed specifically for reptiles. They can be fed, but only occasionally. Reptiles do not tolerate non-natural products, although these foods are full of useful ingredients.

There are also special foods. sold in veterinary pharmacies. They are made in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables. The necessary vitamins are added to special feeds. You can also add medications, for example, from worms.

Division by type

Agile lizards in nature feed on small insects and baby snakes. The standard diet consists of flies, cockroaches, worms, crickets and mosquitoes. They also eat a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Chameleons require flies, crickets, and mosquitoes for good nutrition. The diet should include vitamin supplements. You can find dry food in stores, but it is better not to use it often. Sometimes you can feed the chameleon with an orange, grapefruit, banana or grapes.

Chameleon eats different kind midges and insects

Geckos should only be fed live food. Suitable for most types of non-poisonous insects. Large individuals can be included in the diet of mice and small rats. Also, an additional source of protein can be quail eggs. Geckos should be given dry vitamins and calcium daily. Liquid vitamins are used once a week. Lizards of this species are very fond of fruits and marmalade, but such treats can be given to them occasionally.

Almost no one keeps Moloch at home, since its maintenance causes many difficulties. They are quite common in zoos. Only ants are eaten. In one sitting, they can eat up to 2500 pieces.

Geckos prefer live food, mostly insects.

Skinks can be fed with ordinary insects, but be sure to supplement the diet with mice, snails, squid (almost any lean meat will do). Also, you need to add vegetables, fruits and cereals to your food. Sometimes you can treat skinks to liver.

The iguana is a herbivore. When kept at home, she needs spinach, broccoli, cabbage and other similar vegetables. Legumes should be present in the second half of the diet. Fruit should be given sparingly and little by little. Be sure to give vitamin mixtures.

The lizard is a very calm and peaceful animal. For people, they often become not just pets, but also friends. Keeping a reptile is pretty easy. They don't need special care. It is only necessary to properly and balanced feed.

We continue on our website to tell you about such an exotic pet like a lizard. You and I managed to find out whether it is worth getting this pet at all (read about it), what types of lizards are suitable for home content and, for such a pet. However, as you understand, a cozy home is not all your reptile needs. The lizard needs something to eat so that it can grow and develop. And, since you took care of her stay in your house, then the duty of feeding is also your task. That's just how and what to feed the lizard?

We invite you to find answers to these questions with us, and our publication will help you with this ...

What do lizards eat in nature

Most lizards are predators

To begin with, let's remember what lizards eat in natural environment a habitat. So, most of them are still predators. Therefore, it is not surprising that the natural diet of such exotics consists of insects, worms, and even small vertebrates. Larger lizards can afford to hunt fish, other lizards, amphibians, snakes, birds, mammals, and do not deny themselves the pleasure of eating bird eggs. There are true herbivorous reptiles, but they are very few. Yes, and they, mainly eating plant foods, can sometimes afford to switch to the diet of a predator. By the way, predatory reptiles also sometimes arrange fasting days for themselves, and feed exclusively on plant food.

If you have just a herbivorous lizard, then be aware that she loves fruits and vegetables. And, if you have ever dealt with turtles at home (read about the features of their keeping), then, like them, lizards can prepare vegetable and fruit mixtures, periodically not forgetting to offer them another type of food - for predators.

So, based on the above, we can conclude that although there are vegetarian lizards and predatory lizards, basically they are all omnivores. And, if so, our task is to draw up a varied diet (the richer it is, the better), not forgetting that the main food must be given to your reptile (for vegetarians, these are plants, fruits and vegetables, for predators, this is carnivorous composition) daily.

How often should you feed a lizard

What about the diet is more or less clear, but we will return to this issue a little later, but here What should be the frequency of feeding these reptiles? If you think that lizards, just like, can live without food for a long time, the main thing is that there is water, then you are mistaken. Lizards need several meals a day, and in the hot season it needs to be fed 3 times a day, while for the colder season it is enough to feed the pet 2 times a day.

For feeding, the time is chosen when the lizard is active. If you have several lizards, then make sure that the reptiles do not grapple over food, therefore, it is better to feed them in different terrariums. After the lizard has eaten, it is better to remove the remnants of food.

Putting a reptile on a diet and limiting its food intake is not worth it. As a result of malnutrition, a pet can begin to get sick and die.

What to feed a domestic lizard

And now the most interest Ask- what to feed domestic lizard, considering what she eats several times a day? Well, you can offer your reptile various insects - spiders (but not poisonous), crickets, mealworms ... Some give small reptiles or bird eggs. However, if the lizard is small, then it is better to protect it from the use of mammals. This is fraught with indigestion and can lead to illness and death of the reptile.

You can also prepare a nutrient mixture for your favorite lizard. According to those who have such a pet in the house, lizards simply adore it.

How to prepare lizard nutritional formula

Take carrots and meat in equal proportions (although some owners are categorically against giving meat to lizards - they prefer to replace it with insects, larvae and other living creatures, but grinding meat is much more aesthetically pleasing than passing earthworms through a meat grinder), and skip it all through a meat grinder (carrots can be rubbed on a grater), then add a little lettuce, and vitamin supplements, calcium to the resulting mixture. The lizard will definitely like such a dish, and she will gladly have breakfast and lunch with them, but for dinner she will have to offer something else. By the way, young lizards are recommended to be fed with long tweezers, but for older lizards, food can be put in a bowl.

Also remember to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after feeding the lizard. So, just in case...

What to do if the lizard refuses to eat

Collective lunch

This question is often asked by reptile owners who are not yet accustomed to their status as a lizard breeder. Well, perhaps you just overfed your pet, and he decided to arrange a couple for himself. unloading days. Just observe the behavior of the lizard - if it is still active, drinking water well, but simply refusing food or eating, but very little - it's not scary. The reptile can thus unload its body from your overfeeding (a symptom of the latter is frequent belching), or maybe she transparently hints to you that what you feed her is not to her taste. In this case, it is recommended to review the diet of your pet or pet.

It is not uncommon for young lizards to refuse self-feeding. In this situation, you can try to interest the reptile in breakfast or lunch as follows - squeeze out the contents of the mealworm and grease the lizard's mouth with it. She will definitely lick it off, and then, having tasted the delicacy, she will greedily reach for food.

Do lizards need vitamins?

If you want your reptile to be healthy, look bright, and behave alive, it definitely needs to include vitamins and minerals in its diet.. If you have a vegetarian lizard, then you can crush these vitamins and minerals and mix them with rice and fruits. For predator lizards, you can prepare a mixture of food insects and add vitamin powder to it. Some owners even specifically inject mice and rats with vitamins before giving them to be eaten by their lizard, or inject minerals into the latter in gelatin capsules. Doing this or taking the easier path is up to each owner to decide for themselves. Most importantly, avoid those substances that can scare your pet away from food or ruin his appetite ...

By the way, calcium can be given to lizards in the form of cuttlefish shells or in the form of crushed eggshells (eggs must be raw).