Dogs and cats are wonderful pets. But what if you want a smaller animal that will consume an insignificant amount of food? It does not require education, vaccinations, the purchase of ammunition, it does not smell. Also, it will not make loud noises, cause allergies and crap in the wrong places. "Who is this?" - you ask. - "Fish in the aquarium?" A good option, but it’s also quite difficult to fish, and there’s practically no answer to your concern. There is an animal that is considered exotic, but is now very popular as a pet. This is a lizard. Interesting, isn't it?
However, if with the place of residence of this creation, in general, everything is clear (a terrarium is required), then what about food?
"What do lizards eat at home?" - a question that arises quite often. Before answering it, you need to recall what they eat in nature. And it depends on the type of reptile.
What are lizards? According to the method of nutrition, they distinguish herbivores (iguanas), carnivores (eublefars, currents, yellowfangs) and omnivores. It is easy to guess that the former feed on grass, fruits and vegetables, the latter on living things, which they will catch, and the latter are better than anyone else and eat both.
However, if you have a herbivorous variety, this does not mean that it absolutely does not need animal food. Once a week it is recommended to give a mouse to such reptiles, and a mixture of vegetables and fruits for carnivores.
So what do lizards eat at home? Undoubtedly, their nutritional needs are the same as that of their free relatives. But it’s unlikely that grass will rustle in your apartment, cereals will grow, numerous small mammals like mice run around and insects live, and the animal can provide itself with food. The owner needs to think about feeding reptiles. With a question about what lizards eat at home, the owner goes to the pet store. In general, this is the right direction. There you can buy insects for your pet (flour worms, Drosophila, tropical cockroaches, crickets, locusts, grubbers), as well as small mammals (newborn mice and rats), newly hatched chicks and bird eggs. You can raise insect houses, and some owners collect earthworms, grasshoppers, snails in the summer and freeze them for the future.
What do lizards eat at home if there are no insects, no rodents, no birds? You can give them raw meat, cleaned of bones, and fish. Vegetables and fruits that are fed to lizards - carrots, lettuce, cabbage, apples. Sometimes they are given boiled potatoes and rice. Mandatory vitamin and mineral nutrition for reptiles. They are introduced into fruit-vegetable mixtures or insects are rolled in them. Small representatives are fed every day, sometimes twice, large ones (for example, monitor lizards) need less food.
By the way, the lizard drinks more than once a day, so there must be a drinker in the terrarium. It is more convenient for some species to lick water from the leaves of plants, then you need to periodically spray the greens in the terrarium.
And what do small, only hatching lizards eat? Such babies can be fed with spiders and other small insects, enchitreids, scraped meat, fruit flies (chameleons).