Before you decide to get one, you need to set up a terrarium for it. This animal must have its own place in your home, otherwise it may get sick, injured, or simply run away. You can choose a terrarium of almost any shape for your pet, but its height should be 2 times longer than the lizard’s body.

The bottom needs to be covered with earth. It should be without various additives or fertilizers. Instead of soil, you can use sand or coconut shavings. Pieces of paper or shavings for rodents are also suitable. Alternatively, you can line the bottom of the terrarium with large pieces of bark. IN natural environment lizard habitat different trees, so you can put several branches in the animal’s housing.

Keeping lizards at home requires the constant presence of two temperature zones in the terrarium. The cold one should be heated to 30 degrees, and the hot one to 36. The temperature at night should not be lower than 21 degrees. You can heat the hot zone using a glass ceramic/infrared lamp or an incandescent lamp. A special mat, which you can buy at a pet store, will provide heating to the soil.

Pet lizards need constant bright lighting. Therefore, install an ultraviolet lamp for it. If you want to have several animals at the same time, you need to make sure that there are several heated areas in the terrarium.

Required condition keeping lizards - external heat sources. Thermoregulation is vital for reptiles, since the optimal temperature range for them is up to 37 degrees near a heating source and up to 26 degrees “in the shade.” This applies equally to tropical species and lizards that live in temperate climate(the ideal temperature for the latter is only a couple of degrees lower).

Lizards also need an additional source of ultraviolet light. Special UV lamps can be purchased at a pet store.

As for nutrition, herbivorous lizards rely on fruits and vegetables that are not treated with chemicals. If you purchased apples coated with wax, be sure to peel off the skin. Feed carnivorous lizards with finely chopped fish; sometimes you can add a little to your diet raw meat, cleared of bones and cartilage.

There are almost 6,000 species of lizards. Reptiles differ in their habitat, appearance and food preferences. Some lizards are predators, others are herbivores, and the third category eats both plant and animal food. A reptile's diet is mainly influenced by its size. How more lizard- it is all the more obvious that it feeds exclusively on living fellows.

Plant foods in the diet of a common lizard

Herbivorous lizards eat various varieties of fruits, vegetables and berries. Reptiles that live near vegetable gardens, fruit and vegetable plantations readily feast on carrots, cabbage, lettuce, apples and even strawberries.

Some species of lizards consider pollen and plant nectar to be their favorite food. However, if at the time of examining the flower they come across a small fly or fly, then it will be a good addition to lunch. Lizards that only eat plant foods, in nature there is very little. There are only a few species of such reptiles.

Sometimes there are lizards with two tails. This feature is not a genetic disorder. When a reptile's tail is damaged, a new one begins to grow at the site of the break.

Diet of predator lizards

Carnivorous lizards are primarily animal feeders. However, in the absence of suitable food, they do not refuse vegetation. Small lizards eat worms, many varieties of insects, and hunt vertebrates. More large reptiles attack small birds and eat their eggs. There are lizards that not only hunt amphibians, snakes and small mammals, but also hunt their smaller counterparts and even catch fish.

The largest lizards, such as monitor lizards, can eat carrion. Moreover, the type of animal does not matter to them. It could be a reptile or a bird.

It is widely believed that the most predatory lizards are monitor lizards. However, there is a species of these reptiles that is absolutely indifferent to hunting animals and feeds exclusively on ants.

Lizards at home

The nutrition of lizards kept in food must be treated with great responsibility. Vegetables and fruits are common food for herbivorous reptiles. When choosing, you should give preference to clean plants that have grown away from roadways and have not been treated with fertilizers or chemicals. Contaminated food will cause serious harm to your reptile's health.

If it is a predator, then its main diet should be mice, rats, insects and their larvae, worms, snails and fish. It is recommended to give boiled meat very rarely, only as an exception if there is no other food.

For normal development, lizards need vitamins. Reptiles are given special food with the addition of powdered fortified mixtures. It is recommended to feed herbivorous lizards boiled rice, and insects and larvae are sprinkled with vitamin “seasonings” for predators.

It is worth noting that many rodents that are commercially available for feeding to lizards are given special vitamin injections. That is why such food not only satisfies the reptile’s hunger, but also enriches the body with the necessary amount nutrients.

Tip 6: How to catch a sand lizard, what to feed it and where to house it

The sand lizard (Lacerta agilis Linnaeus) lives almost everywhere in Russia. Keeping such an animal at home is quite difficult. But, since this reptile is very beautiful and interesting, some terrarium lovers prefer to put up with certain inconveniences. It is not difficult to catch a sand lizard if necessary, even on your own.

Until recently, keeping lizards at home was exotic. Although the history of terrarium goes back several centuries. For example, the oldest scientific work devoted to keeping reptiles at home dates back to the 18th century. Its author, Johann Matthaus Bechstein, was an expert in aquariums and terrariums. That's why his work is still interesting today. Before you start a terrarium, you need to know the habits, physiology and what lizards eat at home.

Today there are more than 6,000 species of dinosaur descendants in the world. Most of them are carnivores, but there are exclusively herbivorous or omnivorous species. Small and medium-sized predatory lizards eat:

• insects, except poisonous ones;
• arachnids;
• shellfish;
• worms

More large species They hunt rodents, birds, and amphibians. They do not disdain their fellow tribesmen - lizards and snakes. Some reptiles only prefer certain type food. For example, the group of stenophages includes the Australian moloch, some round-headed lizards and North American toad-like lizards. Representatives of these groups of reptiles are myrmecophages - they eat exclusively ants. Famous flying Dragon- Asian flying lizard, also feeds on tree ants.

But the pink-tongued skink prefers terrestrial mollusks - snails and slugs. They form the basis of the diet of our legless spindle lizards (spindles) and yellow-bellied lizards (capercaillie). Vegetarian lizards have an equally extensive diet. They eat leaves, juicy fruit pulp, fruits and shoots, and flowers. Complete or almost complete squamate herbivores include:

• iguanas;
• agamas;
• skinks.

Adult representatives of these families are vegetarians, but juveniles can diversify their diet with insects and worms.

Omnivores eat both protein foods and plants. For example, a representative of the gecko family, the Madagascar day gecko (Felzuma), feeds, in addition to animal food, nectar and pollen from flowers. Long-legged skinks love to feast on mulberries.

Not only the food preferences of lizards are varied, but also the way they eat. Herbivorous reptiles primarily obtain food by gathering. Chameleons watch for their prey and sneak up on it. With the help of a sticky tongue extended at the end, chameleons capture prey (insects and even small birds, reptiles) at a fairly long distance. The length of the tongue is equal to 1-1.5 times the size of the reptile's body.

Nimble flail-footed or geckos and huge monitor lizards actively pursue their prey. Lizards grab and swallow prey whole. If they come across one that is too large, they use a special “inertial” swallowing method. By relaxing and strengthening the grip of individual parts of the jaws and shaking its head, the lizard seems to “move” its mouth towards the prey.

What to feed lizards at home

A reptile's size, brightness of color, fertility, and life expectancy depend on a reptile's complete, balanced nutrition. When populating a home terrarium, it is necessary to take into account all the feeding habits of lizards.

Types of animal food

Providing animal food for your pets is easy. You can catch it yourself, breed it, or buy it at a pet store. You can catch beetles, locusts, butterflies, flies and spiders both in the house and in meadows and fields using nets and flycatchers.

You should avoid stinging insects - wasps, hornets, bees, gadflies. Some types of caterpillars, fireflies, and giant locusts can become poison for your pet. Before catching insects, you need to know what poisonous species found in the region.

Flying and crawling prey can be immobilized by tearing off the wings and legs, but it is better when the lizard hunts insects itself. To prevent the “food” from leaving the terrarium, it is necessary to tightly close it with a mesh with small cells.

Living insects can hide from pursuit for a long time among stones and snags, and some omnivorous arthropods are capable of severely biting a lizard. Therefore, it is worth releasing prey into the terrarium one by one so that the lizard can catch it and eat it. Sometimes reptiles are placed in an empty vessel while feeding, where the prey has nowhere to hide.

Worms, blowfly and beetle larvae, crickets, and wax moths (moths) can be purchased at the store. They are easy to breed at home. There are also special companies that will provide your pet with live food all year round.

The hunting instinct is awakened by the sight of moving prey, so it is difficult to train a lizard to eat stationary food - pieces of meat, fish, offal. Food cut into small pieces should be taken with tweezers and moved in front of the reptile's face. Over time, she will perceive food as living prey. Later, when meat is firmly included in the diet, it is ground into minced meat and given to the pet in this form.

However, you should not replace meat food with live food. Meat can be used in winter time or diversify their diet from time to time. As a source of protein for large predators small mice and hamsters, bird eggs, fledgling chicks and even cottage cheese will go - all this is a pleasant addition to the main diet.

Plant food

Herbivorous lizards will like:

• leafy greens(spinach, parsley, lettuce);
• wild plants(dandelion, clover, plantain);
• chopped green and orange vegetables(beets, carrots, cabbage, zucchini);
• soft fruits and berries(oranges, melon, apples, pears, grapes, viburnum berries);
• flower heads(roses, hibiscus, nasturtium, dandelion, geranium, clover).

Plant food is crushed and offered in a mixture. If the lizard constantly refuses any ingredient, then it must be excluded. Plants should not be picked on roadsides or in industrial zones, so as not to poison your pet with heavy metals. It is also necessary to monitor the level of pesticides in vegetables and fruits.

The green mixture is laid out in feeders - heavy bowls with a low side. Mix the plant mixture into rice and into the meat of squamous omnivores.

Ready-made commercial feed

Ready-made food for reptiles appeared on the market not so long ago. Before introducing them into your pet’s diet, it is necessary to test them - not all types of lizards are ready to eat dry food. You need to choose it in accordance with the age and physiological state of the reptile.

Before use, it must be moistened with water, even if there is no such recommendation on the package. A dry product will force the lizard to drink a lot of liquid, which for some species (agama, moloch, alligator lizard) is not just dangerous, but fatal. Most often, ready-made food is administered as an additive to the main plant or animal food.

Feeding

Despite their naturalness, live food and plants cannot fully provide for the reptile essential vitamins and microelements. Plants grown in soil conditions poor in micro- and macroelements will not provide the necessary substances, especially to a growing organism. Therefore, feeding is necessary.

These can be ready-made vitamin and mineral supplements, crushed eggshells, crushed chalk, calcium glycerophosphate tablets. They are mixed with food and given 3-4 times a week - too much supplementation can be just as dangerous as too little.

Feeding schedule and rules

A feeding schedule for the terrarium pets is drawn up depending on their age. The amount of live food should be such that the lizard can eat it within 3-5 minutes. Leftover food must be removed from the terrarium.

The drinking bowl should always have pure water in abundance. The container should be used so that the pet can drink freely, but not spill it. When feeding adults, you need to take into account the time of activity, so the reptile will hunt more efficiently.

Young animals

During the period of intensive growth (4 months), lizards need " building material» – proteins and amino acids. During this period, even vegetarian reptiles eat insects, larvae and worms. Such habits are echoes of ancient times, when all lizards ate animal food. Therefore, live food should make up 60-80%, the rest comes from fresh plants.

Metabolic processes in the body
The disease progresses more rapidly, which requires more frequent feeding - 2-3 times a day. Once a day they are given vitamin D, calcium or vitamin and mineral supplements appropriate for their species and age.

Young reptiles' appetite may change, especially after a large meal, but this is not a reason to skip feeding. It is better to remove the leftovers than to starve your pet. If there are several individuals in the terrarium, then you need to make sure that everyone has enough food and that the stronger lizards do not eat the weaker ones.

Teenagers

Once your pet reaches 4-5 months, you can reduce the number of feedings. By this time, the reptile has accumulated fat reserves, the rate of metabolic processes decreases, and if three meals a day are maintained, there is a risk of overfeeding and obesity. Carnivores are fed live food, supplemented with a vegetable mixture and vitamins with calcium.

Large lizards can begin to be given newborn mice. Herbivores are given insects only once a week, increasing the amount of green mixture. Vitamin D and calcium should be added three times a week, and a multivitamin supplement 2 days.

Adults

At the age of 1.5-2 years, the lizard becomes adult and sexually mature. Adult reptiles are fed twice a day. For omnivores, the amount of protein food is reduced to 20-30%, increasing plant food. Once a week you can have a “fasting day”, as adults are prone to overeating.

Pregnant females require a special diet. They are fed the same as young animals. Some large lizards (monitor lizards, serpentine lizards) eat only 2-3 times a week. The amount of food depends on the size and type of reptile, so you need to give live food one piece at a time, only when the lizard eats it - give another. A well-fed individual will refuse to eat.

You can find out what lizards eat at home by reading specialized literature or by observing your pet. Reptiles can also have individual eating preferences.

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

In this article we will look at what lizards eat. We will consider the diet of reptiles regarding small and large species of lizards.

Diet of small individuals

The most common on the planet small lizards, belonging to the true lizard family, mainly feed on insects. Larger species may 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 also those that are not carnivores. 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 coated with a special sticky substance. More major representatives They eat fish, turtles, frogs, crabs and other arthropods. Lizards often use poison for hunting, which may not be dangerous to humans, but can be fatal to other animals. These lizards include the Gila monster.

Diet of large lizards

Large lizards such as monitor lizards usually prey on large animals. Their diet may include large animals cattle or deer, antelope and gazelles. Let us emphasize that we're talking about about especially large lizards, these include the so-called Komodo dragons. However, among 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 is generally no different from the diet of their wild counterparts. Large lizards You can feed fish, small snakes, bird eggs, you can also give food of plant origin. In addition, many lizards can eat fruits and vegetables. The most common type of food for carnivorous lizards is insects, e.g. earthworms, moths, beetles, flies, larvae of various types of insects.

As for small species of lizards, for example, gecko, sand lizard, yellow-bellied lizard, green lizard, then insects, various mixtures of vegetables and fruits, as well as food of plant origin are perfect for them.

When feeding lizards, it is necessary to take into account their waking period. After all, lizards are divided into two species, 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 not eat for a long time, but 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 of the lizard, the bones appear at the base of the tail. Force feeding lasts for two to three days. After this, the animal should begin to feed itself. If this does not happen, force feeding continues.

The most common type of lizard is the common lizard, or, in other words, This species of animal is not the most popular for home breeding. If only because in captivity they reproduce extremely rarely. Of course, there are many advantages to having a pet mini-dinosaur: for example, you don’t need to walk it, and this animal is much quieter than cats or dogs. Although it still requires some conditions of detention.

So, you caught a lizard and brought it home. How to understand what gender a given individual is? Usually males are larger and brighter in color, and in the month of May they become completely green. The age of your lizard can be determined by its size: the older, the bigger. On average they reach a length of about 30 cm (including tail). Life expectancy is about 6 years.

Common lizard at home

Having decided on the gender and age of your captive, you need to create certain conditions for her life so that she does not die of hunger in the first week. The animal is quite small, so its requirements are appropriate.

First, you will need a long horizontal terrarium. Of course, it can live for some time in an ordinary three-liter jar, but the common lizard is a rather active creature, it needs to “walk around” somewhere. In addition, your terrarium should be high enough: you will be surprised how far lizards can jump. If you don't want her to simply jump out of the glass shelter, this condition must be met.

Secondly, you must create conditions that are familiar to her in the terrarium. First of all, this concerns the ground where she will dig her holes. The soil should be without any additives or fertilizers; you can also use sand or shavings for rodents, sold at any pet store. Be sure to throw it in new house your lizard different branches, because. This species, in the wild, loves to climb trees.

Required temperature, lighting and humidity

The common lizard requires a lot of heat to warm itself and not fall into suspended animation. The overall temperature of the terrarium at night should not be below 21°C, and during the day should be 30°C. But you definitely need an area where it will be 36°C during the day so that your pet receives the warmth it needs. This can be achieved using various lamps, such as infrared or glass-ceramic. With the same lamp you can give your lizard the necessary light. The soil should also be warmed up using a special mat, which you can find in a pet store. For the required humidity in the terrarium, you need to place a bowl of water in the coolest place, which would completely fit your lizard.

What do common lizards eat?

Of course, these are insects: spiders, earthworms, boiled ones are very nutritious for lizards chicken eggs. Young individuals need to be fed using tweezers, otherwise they will simply die of starvation. In addition, the lizard experiences stress when it is in captivity; it may refuse to eat. In this case, you need to put food directly into her mouth. This lizard should be fed three times a day. In two weeks she will get used to the situation and will eat regularly on her own.

Nimble and fast creatures - lizards are found everywhere in the garden and vegetable garden, in the forest and in garden plots.
IN warm days they quickly run among stones and plants, along rocks and walls of houses, deftly climb bushes and trees, or, spread out, bask in the sun.

Many rural, and even more so city residents, treat them with fear or disdain; some consider them harmful or even poisonous animals.

Like other reptiles, snakes, turtles, crocodiles, lizards They live mainly in southern latitudes, and only a small number of species are found in temperate latitudes. The largest variety of these animals is in the Caucasus.

Most often we encounter snapping lizard, which is also called ordinary. It is found throughout the European part of Russia, in the south and middle part of Western Siberia.
Lizards of this genus have well-developed limbs. They have sharp, slightly curved claws on their fingers, which help animals move quickly along vertical, rough surfaces. The body is covered on top with small, usually granular, scales. Small eyes are equipped with separate eyelids. When animals sleep, they close their eyes, which is something that snakes or other species of lizards, whose fused eyelids form a transparent “window,” cannot afford to do.

Lizards reproduce by laying eggs in the soil. Of these, after 50 - 60 days, newborn lizards emerge, ready for independent life.

The exception is viviparous lizard, common in the north and found even in the tundra above the Arctic Circle. She gives birth to live cubs, up to 12 in number. The existence of lizards that lay eggs, the development of which requires a warm “nest”, in northern conditions It's simply impossible. The size of adult lizards including the tail is no more than 15 cm.

In the south, in gardens and vegetable gardens you can see others, less common lizards - medium and green. All types of lizards living in our country are not only harmless, but also bring great benefits.

The legless spindle lizard is found in the Caucasus. She lives in secret and is not often seen on the surface. This completely harmless animal, unfortunately, is often confused with snakes and attempts are made to destroy it. Its brown body is covered with completely smooth, rather large scales, its eyes have separate eyelids, and its tail is blunt. The scientific name of this lizard is brittle spindle, which is associated with the ability to break off its tail. This is one way to avoid danger - sacrifice your tail, but save your life. This ability is characteristic not only of the spindle, but also of many other lizards. A new one will then grow in place of the severed tail. The border between the old and newly grown tails is often clearly visible.

Lizards feed mainly on invertebrate animals - worms, mollusks, spiders, centipedes, insects. The “menu” of lizards includes many different pests: mole crickets, various beetles, flies, butterflies and their caterpillars. Lizards also destroy various disease carriers. Depending on their habitat, the diet of lizards consists of 35–98% harmful insects and their larvae. Lizards eat quite a lot and in terms of the intensity of destruction of garden, vegetable or forest pests they are almost as good as many useful birds. Being hungry, for example, after a long period of inclement weather, lizards even grab and eat hairy caterpillars of the ringed cocoon moth and inedible Colorado potato beetles. The spindle is somewhat different from other species in terms of its range of food. It feeds on earthworms, naked slugs, woodlice, as well as insects and their larvae. Sharp, bent back teeth allow this lizard to hold slippery prey in its mouth.

Lizards are cold-blooded animals. Their body temperature depends on temperature environment. In the morning hours, they sunbathe and, only having warmed up, begin hunting, catching spiders, caterpillars, leafhoppers, grasshoppers, bedbugs, butterflies and other insects. During the hottest hours, lizards go into the shade, crawl into various shelters, and appear again in the afternoon when the heat subsides.

In cloudy, cold weather, lizards hide under the bark of fallen trees, in rotten stumps and holes. At this time, their body temperature decreases, the animals become cold to the touch, do not feed and do not come to the surface until warm sunny days come again.

Lizards are silent creatures and cannot communicate with each other through sounds, but they have well-developed color vision, thanks to which males and females of the same species find each other by color, and also recognize “their” different species.

But among the huge number of lizards, there are globe There are more than 5,000 species, a whole family of geckos that have the ability to make sounds - gentle melodic or loud abrupt ones, characteristic of each species.

A person must not only be tolerant of lizards, but also protect them from persecution, and even more so from unreasonable destruction. Indeed, nowadays lizards are found much less frequently in their usual habitats than several decades ago. There are many reasons for this: a decrease in natural lands, the widespread use of pesticides to combat pests and diseases of agricultural crops, from which lizards directly or indirectly suffer, and much more. It is necessary, if possible, to preserve those areas where these animals could live normally.

If lizards have settled in your garden or vegetable garden at your dacha, do not drive them away and do not allow children to catch them just to admire them. Learn for yourself and teach your children to observe these useful animals in their natural environment without harming them. Remember that these small nimble lizards bring us very tangible benefits in the fight to preserve the harvest.