What Do Lizards Eat?

One of the most important factors that contributes to a long healthy life for our lizard friends is nutrition. But what do lizards eat, exactly?

Diets for Different Types of Lizards

It’s important to understand the life history of your lizard and what they typically eat in the wild to determine the best feeding strategy for your pet.

Lizards can be classified into four different categories that describes their nutritional life history:

• Herbivores (green iguanas)

• Omnivores (bearded dragons, water dragons)

• Insectivores (green anoles, many gecko species)

• Carnivores (monitor lizards, gila monsters)

Herbivores and omnivores typically consume more vegetables and some fruits in their diets compared to insectivores and carnivores. Only a limited number of lizards, about 2%, are strictly herbivorous. Most fall into the omnivore category.

It’s also important to understand how different ages of pet lizards will determine their diet. In some species, young animals may be strict insectivores but then later switch to a more omnivorous life. Sometimes, even strict carnivores will eat plant matter in the wild.

What Do Lizards Eat?

In the wild, a lizard’s diet is dependent on the availability of food sources, as well as their species and location. Wild lizards, depending on location, primarily eat insects, spiders, and even other lizards, with fruits and vegetables added in when available.

Developing a balanced diet for your pet lizard, including constant access to fresh, clean water, is paramount in ensuring they thrive in captivity. You should always chat with a reptile veterinarian and mimic your lizard’s natural diet as closely as possible.

Live Food

Insectivorous, carnivorous, and omnivorous lizards will need live food presented to them. Live food items not only provide essential nutrients to your lizard, but they also enrich the habitat and encourage natural hunting behaviors.

Live prey items for lizards may include:

• Crickets

• Roaches

• Mealworms

• Calci-worms

• Superworms

• Waxworms

• Hornworms

Consult with your veterinarian to determine which live food is best to feed your unique lizard.

To ensure a complete diet for your lizard friend, it’s necessary to supplement oral calcium and vitamin powders. These can be added to your insect’s diet by “gut loading” them prior to feeding them to your reptile. This simply means offering the prey items this supplement as food 24–48 hours prior to feeding them to your lizard.

Some nutrient-specific diets are best fed for a few days before feeding to your lizard, while others can be dusted with a supplement immediately before feeding it to your lizard. Either way, your lizard will get those extra nutrients upon eating the prey.

Make sure to talk to your veterinarian about the specifics of feeding these supplements to your lizard. Many pet parents find a schedule helpful to remember which supplement to give and when, as over-supplementation can be just as harmful as under-supplementation.

Never feed your pet lizards insects from the wild, as these prey items may carry pesticides or other toxic substances.

Pellets

There are many commercial reptile foods in—including pellet form on the market for lizards. A pelleted diet should be used for lizards as a supplement only and never as a sole diet.

With truly balanced diets, many lizards may not even require pellets and always check with your veterinarian before feeding anything new like pellets to your lizard.    

Mazuri, Repashy, and Fluker's are often great choices when looking to supplement your lizard’s diet.      

Fruits and Vegetables for Lizards

For many lizards, a healthy diet includes offering an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Fruits and vegetables safe for lizards include:

• Yellow squash

• Collard greens

• Lettuce (no iceberg lettuce)

• Turnip greens

• Apple

• Honeydew melon

• Strawberries

• Blueberries

• Grapes

• Celery

Before offering your lizard these foods, though, it’s important to properly prepare them—just as you would for yourself. This includes washing produce to remove pesticides (as some can cause health issues in lizards) and cutting the food into smaller portions (approximately half the size of your lizard’s head) for easier consumption and to prevent choking.

All fruit items should be fed to lizards in limited amounts; feeding too many fruits to even herbivorous reptiles can lead to nutritional disorders. They should be used primarily as treats rather and a primary food item.

Toxic Foods for Lizards

Do not feed your lizard the following food items:

• Fireflies

• Avocados

• Citrus fruits

• Ladybugs

• Dumb cane (dieffenbachia)

• Onions and garlic

• Wild insects (due to risk of pesticide exposure and parasites)

Develop a complete diet for your lizard with the collaboration of an experienced reptile vet—and don’t forget your calcium and nutritional supplements to keep your pet lizard as healthy as possible. Local reptile veterinarians can be found on the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians website.