What do lizards eat in nature and at home?

The species diversity of lizards is of considerable interest. In total there are more than four thousand varieties of these ancient animals. It is known that lizards are the ancestors of snakes. There are even legless representatives, very similar to their reptiles, but not poisonous. This includes a spinner, which is so faintly reminiscent of a lizard that people often mistook it for a snake and are frightened.

Almost all existing species of lizards are able to discard the tail in the event of danger. Against most animals and birds, such a maneuver does not work, so people have long wondered why these reptiles have such a strange feature. Recent studies have shown that most often lost tail lizards are seen in areas with a large number of snakes. From this, scientists concluded that the ability to throw off the tail developed in lizards precisely to protect against reptiles predators. The fact is that the snake most often bites prey for the place to which it manages to reach. In the case of the lurid lizards, this place, of course, is the tail. Discarding it, the animal prevents the further spread of poison in your body.

In the way of life, all lizards can be divided into several groups. These are reptiles that feed on plant foods, carnivores and those who are able to digest any type of food are omnivorous species. When feeding, these features should be taken into account. After all, a pet, which by its nature is a predator, is unlikely to be pleased with lettuce leaves. And vice versa, predators need extraction, not fruits and vegetables. The problem here is that often what lizards eat in nature is different from the food that the owner can offer her. This is especially true for exotic species of animals.

What do lizards eat in nature?

Most lizards are predators. In this case, a large part of them can absorb combined food. This ability has evolved in these reptiles in the course of evolution to increase the chance of survival. Much less among the lizards is found exclusively herbivorous. In nature, small and medium species prefer to eat invertebrates. Larger species of lizards feed on appropriate prey: birds and fish, amphibians, including themselves, non-venomous snakes and even mammals. The largest species are the lizards from the island of Komodo. It's scary to imagine what lizards eat this size: it is believed that they can attack even pigs and buffaloes.

Small ones eat different insects, spiders, millipedes and worms. Species that live near the water feed on shellfish. Also, lizards can be considered garden nurses no worse than birds, because they destroy a huge number of pests: harmful beetles (hungry lizards are able to eat even the Colorado beetle, which most animals bypass, considering it inedible), flies, bears, butterflies (including "cabbage ") And their larvae. Among other things, these reptiles kill vectors of dangerous diseases, the latter can be almost one hundred percent of their diet - depending on the habitat of the lizard. To eat that kind of animal requires a lot of food - to the delight of the gardener.

A bit aside from their relatives is the aforementioned spindle. Unlike other relatives, her teeth are strongly pointed and bent back, which allows you to grab and hold a very slippery prey in your mouth. What does a lizard eat with such teeth? Due to this unusual structure of the jaws, the spindle can feed on slugs, worms, mocrites and similar creatures, as well as the larvae of these insects.

What do lizards eat at home?

Vegetable-eating

The main food for such lizards should be fruit and vegetable mixtures. The technique of their preparation is about the same as for domestic terrestrial turtles. Before serving the pet, fruits and vegetables must be washed in warm (but not hot!) Water. Of course, if you care about the health of your pet, then you should not feed it with grass grown somewhere along the roadside or near industrial zones. There, harmful chemicals could enter the plants, and lizards are very sensitive to such things. It will be much better if the owner in advance will take care of a variety of food for his ward. This will allow the lizard to get all the useful vitamins and trace elements in the right amount. At the same time, an uneven diet will relieve her from hypervitaminosis, which can develop if you constantly feed the reptile with only one type of food.

Predatory

The food of a carnivorous lizard depends, first of all, on its size. It does not include the fact that the lizards of this species feed in the wild. Great success, if its diet can be made as much as possible natural. After all, the animal's organism adapted for a certain kind of food for centuries. The smallest species or young will go to feed the flies of Drosophila. Lizards larger can be given caught crickets and grasshoppers, cockroaches, bought in the store bloodworm. In pet stores it is possible to purchase some types of insects for feeding. In the absence of live prey, you can add finely chopped fish and eggs to the pet's diet. Meat is not recommended, so this should be used only as a last resort, if nothing else. The largest representatives are usually given to small mammals: rats or mice, which can also be purchased at a pet store.