Jabberwock Reptiles is dedicated to providing top-quality, healthy, captive bred reptiles pets. We strive to offer an informed and responsive service to our customers. These animals are fascinating and intriguing, and we love to share our passion! This is why we want to ensure you are feeding your pet the right meals. What is your reptile’s favorite food?
The short answer is probably insects and veggies. With few exceptions, reptiles feed on some form of animal life. Most reptile pets eat insects, mollusks, frogs, mice, rats, fish, other reptiles, or even birds. Land tortoises are vegetarians, eating leaves, grass, and other yummy leafy greens.
What about the long answer? Your reptile’s favorite food really depends on exactly which type of reptile it is, down to the specific breed. It should come to no surprise that a tortoise, a lizard, and a snake don’t eat exactly the same. With this in mind, we’ll look at a few of our most popular reptile pets to give you a better idea.
Snakes
Most snakes are carnivores or insectivores. They need to eat meat and don’t eat any fruits or vegetables for the most part. Most snakes eat some combination of insects, rodents, other reptiles, and possibly even birds or larger mammals as they grow larger. You’ll probably feed your pet snake rodents, though, since they’re by far the easiest way to feed a captive reptile. This is true for pretty much every snake, from small Corn Snakes to even for large snakes, like an adult Boa Constrictor. Frozen thawed prey is always preferable to live, as mice and rats can potentially injure your snake.
Lizards
Most smaller lizards are mostly insectivores. However, other species of lizard can be vegetarian or omnivorous (both meat and veggies). A Blue Tongue Skink is an omnivore and will do best with a highly varied diet consisting of 40% protein, 50% veggies, and 10% fruit. A Chahoua Gecko is a more active and better hunter than many other lizards and will need a fair amount more live, gut-loaded insects than another breed.
Turtles and Tortoises
We have several options for these pets, from the Central American Wood Turtle to the Redfoot Tortoise. Most pet turtles and tortoises don’t eat any meat or insects. These animals are mostly herbivorous, and variety is key to keeping them healthy while providing good enrichment at the same time. A good captive diet consists of about 40-50% fruits, 20-30% veggies, and rounded off with Mazuri tortoise chow. Leafy greens like collards, dandelion, and turnip are best with spring mixes, kale, bok choy, and escarole being good supplemental treats.
From turtles to snakes and beyond, reptiles are interesting and fun to care for. Making sure that your scaly friend has the right food to eat is incredibly important to its long term health and happiness. If you have any additional questions about what to feed your reptile, don’t hesitate to reach out and ask!
