This may seem like an
oversimplified guide to some of the more advanced keepers but the simple
questions of what, how much and how often are some of the most common questions
we get asked in store by new keepers. We will therefore structure this blog
post in a sort of Q&A style format to try and cover some of the most
commonly encountered questions.
1.
What size insects should I feed my new
lizard?
The general rule of “no
wider than the lizards head” is a good starting point, but it sometimes leads
people to panic over the size of insect and feed prey items that are on the
smaller side of what they should be. Using this general rule of no bigger than
the width of the head is appropriate in most cases, but we would allow an extra
25-50% leniency size wise on top of this without any cause for concern. Lizards
do have teeth and wouldn’t refuse food in the wild just because it may take a
bit more chewing to subdue and swallow.
2.
How often Should I feed insects?
This varies by species and
most importantly by age. Many popular species of lizard that fall into the
small-medium size category (Up to the size of a bearded dragon or most
chameleons). These species will often grow rapidly for the first year to 18
months attaining their maximum adult size by this age. Therefore, during the
first 6 months of life we suggest daily feeding, the next 6 months it should be
4-5 days per week, the next 6 months 3-4 days per week and over 18 months old,
2-3 times a week would be sufficient for most species.
3.
What time of day should I feed?
For diurnal species its
best to feed them in the morning, an hour or two after lights come on. For nocturnal
or crepuscular species feeding an hour or so before lights go out. That said,
many species that we think of as being crepuscular are very adaptable in their feeding
regimes so if you fed a leopard gecko at lunchtime everyday within a few months
it would have learned this routine and would be awake and actively hunting in
the afternoon. One final point to mention, no you don’t need to feed multiple
times of day, breakfast lunch and dinner are not required, one feed per day is
sufficient.
4.
How many insects should I feed?
For fast growing Agamids (E.g
Bearded/Rankins dragons), small monitor lizards (E.g. Ackie / Mulga) or most
chameleons (E.g Panther/Yemen), they are going to consume a minimum of about
10-15 insects per day, but the reality is that if you feed them more, they
normally just grow faster, so as long as there are no more than 5-10 insects
left in their enclosure at the end of the day you can feed them as many as they
will eat throughout the course of a day.
For most of the commonly
kept geckos, we would suggest around 6-8 insects per day as an appropriate
number, again they may eat a few more, they may eat a few less, try to ensure
there are somewhere between 6-10 insects in the enclosure at a time to ensure
they have ample opportunity to hunt throughout the evening/night but without
being overwhelmed.
If you put too few insects
in the enclosure you may think your animal isn’t eating, this could simply be
that it hasn’t been successful in hunting them as there were too few to give it
a sporting chance.
For omnivorous species you
may be replacing some of their insect feeds with other foodstuffs but remember
the younger the lizard the more frequently it will need insects in its diet to
fuel its rapid growth.
5.
What type of insects are best to feed?
Variety is always
beneficial, just remember that “worms” such as mealworms, morio worms, wax
worms etc are all the larval stage of an insect so contain much higher levels
of fat and as such for most species they should only be fed as a treat. Crickets
and locusts are the two most commonly used staple foods with dubia cockroaches
also gaining in popularity. In terms of fat content, cockroaches are slightly
higher but can still be used regularly as part of a varied diet.
Different feeder insects
will be favoured by different species either due to size, taste, or activity
pattern. Often larger species will prefer larger prey, hence why locusts and
Dubia cockroaches tend to be the staple for Bearded dragons and larger
chameleons. The difference in activity pattern is also important to note,
crickets will often remain active at night so often make a preferred food
source for nocturnal and crepuscular geckos, while locusts will climb during
the day so are often favoured by arboreal species.
6.
Do I need to feed the insects?
Absolutely, this is one of
the most often overlooked elements that separates an average reptile keeper
from a good reptile keeper. Whatever you feed to your insects ends up in your
lizard, this process is often referred to as “gut loading”, or making sure that
the insects’ gut is full of good nutrients at the time it is consumed. Not to
mention the added benefit of making your live food last longer. Locusts can be
a little tricky to gut load as they do best when fed on dark leafy greens such
as cabbage or kale, but they will often take specialist insect foods in
moderation. Crickets and cockroaches can be gut loaded on a wide variety of
table scraps such as vegetable peelings, carrots, apple etc and both will
readily accept commercial gut loading foods. Some of our favourite insect foods
that we use in store are Arcadia Insect Fuel and Repashy Superload. Both are
excellent choices.
7.
Is it safe to leave insects in the
enclosure?
Yes. The internet is awash
with horror stories of people saying their lizard got bitten by the feeder
insects, but the bit they don’t tell you is that in those cases I guarantee
that one of the following is true. Either the lizard was already ill and
therefore lethargic. They put far too many insects in the enclosure or of a
grossly inappropriate size. Or simply, that they hadn’t bothered to feed their insects,
so they put a bunch of starving insects into an environment where the only
thing for them to eat was by attempting to nibble on the very predator they had
been put in an enclosure to feed. If you use an appropriate number of insects
of a sensible size and well gut loaded there is no risk to a healthy lizard. If
you are concerned at leaving insects in overnight, simply place a dish with
some of the insect’s food on it into the lizards enclosure so that the insects
have something to eat while they are in there.
8.
What about calcium and multivitamin
supplements?
It is crucial to always
dust your insects before every feed with a high-quality calcium supplement like
Arcadia Ca, or our favourite is Arcadia Earth Pro A. The easiest way to dust
your insects is to tip a few into an empty container or Ziplock bag and add
about ¼ of a teaspoon of calcium powder then shake until coated. Do this just
before you feed the insects to your Lizard as over the course of several hours
the insects will clean the calcium powder back off themselves. You can also
leave a small dish of calcium powder in the enclosure with your lizard to allow
them to “self-supplement” their calcium intake but if you want to do this you
should still dust the insects as well, a dish of calcium is not a substitute
for dusting.
9.
How do I know what supplement to use?
This is almost a separate article
so we can only skip over it briefly, the main thing to be aware of is that some
supplements contain added vitamin D3 or vitamin A (among other preformed
vitamins), e.g Revitalise D3, while some don’t contain preformed vitamins but
do contain natural precursor chemicals and mineral clays E.g Arcadia Earth Pro
A. If you are using good quality UVB lighting you shouldn’t need to use additional
dietary Vitamin D3 for most species. All of our starter kits contain the
supplement we would recommend for specific species based upon the lighting selection
we have paired with it in the kit. Some species have more specific supplement
requirements such as for chameleons as can be seen by the multiple supplements
in our chameleon starter kits. Some amphibians particularly dart frogs also
have a requirement for elevated levels of Vitamin A in their diet, we recommend
Repashy Vitamin A+ for this. For specific supplement related questions please
pop in and have a chat with staff. Also remember that supplements with added
vitamins will degrade over time so you should always replace unused supplements
after 6 months from opening.
10.
Can I culture my own insects or feed them
from my garden?
Culturing insects can be
fun and rewarding but is also a time-consuming process for very minimal returns
with most of the commonly used live food species of insect. We can talk you
through how to do it, but I guarantee after a couple of months you’ll decide it’s
not worth the hassle. Despite having to purchase tens of thousands of insects
every week to feed our own animals we don’t culture our own insects as its just
not an effective use of our time, we buy ours as its just easier that way.
Regarding using wild
insects, technically this can be done, and if done in a responsible way this is
an excellent way to add variety to your lizard’s diet. However, there are some
important things to remember, wild collected insects can harbour parasites and
be carrying high levels of pesticides or pollutants so its important to gather
them from an area you know they will be free from these environmental contaminants.
Finally, you must be certain of what insects you are using as food, not only
are some insects potentially toxic, but the UK is also home to a wide number of
protected and critically endangered insects which you must not collect or
tamper with. Should you decide to collect wild insects, make sure you get a
good insect identification guide and only do this at your own risk.
11.
How
should I store my feeder insects?
It depends upon the species,
but all feeder insects will survive better if they are transferred to a larger holding
pen or enclosure than the small tubs they arrive in. We like to use the large Exo
Terra Faunarium or Exo Terra Cricket pen for this. Most feeder “worms”, such as
wax worms, mealworms etc will do best if stored in a cool environment at around
15C, for crickets, locusts, cockroaches etc they all prefer to be kept warm but
not hot, ideally 25C or more. You can always store the insects in a cupboard
underneath your enclosure or even on top of it to add a bit of warmth to your
insects. Wherever you store your insects make sure that they have good airflow,
if you try and store them in a sealed Tupperware with limited ventilation they
will perish rapidly.