Are you thinking about purchasing a fresh baby lizard for your home?
Do you want to make sure you care for them properly?
Baby lizards are one of the most uniquely cute pets out there, but it’s critical to give them the correct diet.
With this in mind, you need to ask:
What do baby lizards drink and eat?
Baby lizards eat the same diet as adult lizards, including insects like crickets, ants, flies, worms, and plants like fruits and vegetables. However, these food items must be smaller than the baby lizard’s head for proper consumption and digestion.
Like any other pet, baby lizards require lots of love and care.
If you’re interested in learning more, read on.
Table of Contents
What Do Baby Lizards Eat?
Like many other reptiles, baby lizards can live independently from their mother when they’re born into the world.
This means they can hunt and capture prey from day one.
Their range of food is similar to an adult lizard, including insects like ants, flies, spiders, crickets, baby dubia roaches, and calciworms.
Avoid feeding mealworms as they have hard exoskeletons, which would be more challenging for a baby lizard to consume and digest.
Also, avoid any prey which could be venomous, as this is dangerous for your pet.
The only difference between the diet of an adult lizard and a baby lizard is the size of the food, which must be compatible with the lizard’s size.
They cannot be larger than the width of a lizard’s head, meaning baby lizards must eat the smallest insects.
Some lizards will be herbivores, meaning they only eat plants.
In this case, you must make sure you are feeding your pet lizard a wide variety of food to give them all the necessary nutrients.
When you buy fruits and vegetables, make sure they’re free of any pesticides or chemicals which could be harmful to your pet and wash them rigorously before feeding.
Good fruit options include:
- Figs
- Tomatoes
- Peaches
- Apples
- Strawberries
- Kiwis
- Plums
- Bananas
- Grapes
Vegetable options are leafy green vegetables like:
- Spinach
- Kale
- Collard Greens
- Broccoli
- Beans
- Carrots
- Squash
- Okra
- Sweet Potatoes
- Zucchini
- Bell Peppers
Frozen mixed vegetable packets available in the grocery store usually contain a good variety for your pet.
Additionally, some lizards like eating flowers such as roses and hibiscus.
Make sure you cut these plants into manageable portions.
Add calcium or multivitamin supplements as well to round out their nutrition.
When feeding your lizard, make sure you stick around to monitor their behaviors.
If there is any unfinished live prey in the enclosure, you will want to remove them after giving your lizard a chance to feed on them.
This will prevent any accidental injury to your pet from the prey and avoid the waste that may get left behind.
The same applies to fruits and vegetables, as you don’t want to feed your pet rotten food if it’s left unattended for too long.
What Do Baby Lizards Drink?
Baby lizards, like most animals, require a constant supply of water.
It’s a good idea to mist the enclosure frequently if you have things like plants inside, as your lizard can drink from this.
It also maintains a humid environment for your lizard, which is essential to keep them hydrated.
Make sure you replace the water in the water bowl daily, as your pet should always have fresh water available to them.
Even if it doesn’t seem like they’re regularly drinking, fresh water should always be present.
What Do Wild Lizards Eat and Drink?
This will range widely depending on the actual species of lizards.
Lizards have different dietary habits depending on whether they’re carnivorous, herbivorous, omnivorous, or insectivorous.
Insectivorous and carnivorous baby lizards will stick to smaller insects like crickets and roaches; however, when carnivorous lizards get bigger and older, they can start consuming animals like mice frogs.
Herbivorous lizards will only eat plants, including carrots, apples, and leafy green vegetables.
They need a large variety of plant-based foods to ensure they receive the proper nutrition they need.
Omnivorous lizards require a diet that includes both plants and live prey.
These lizards include blue tongue skinks, green iguanas, and bearded dragons.
What Do Garden Lizards Eat and Drink?
In the wild, garden lizards generally reside in Asia and are usually found in bushes, trees, plants, and grasses.
They can eat a wide variety of different prey and plants.
Garden lizards can eat baby snakes, butterflies, co*ckroaches, slugs, smaller lizards, snails, and insects in terms of live creatures.
They also enjoy eating fruits, especially berries and bananas, which are a great hydration source.
In more dire circ*mstances, garden lizards may elect to eat their eggs if necessary.
Though they have teeth, these are used only for gripping the prey and not for chewing purposes.
Garden lizards swallow their food whole.
Smaller garden lizards will usually limit themselves to smaller prey like insects, including flies and crickets.
Which Baby Lizards Are The Best Pets?
Several different lizard species make for good pets, and purchasing them while they’re babies allows you to watch them grow up.
Anoles are a social species with bright, happy colors.
They live for about five years and can grow up to 8″ inches (20 cm).
They’re perfect for beginner reptile owners, though they’re not super fond of being handled.
Another good option for beginners is the bearded dragon, which is great for handling.
These pets will grow up to 2′ feet (.6 m) in length and live for over ten years, so make sure you’re ready for a longer-term commitment and have the space to accommodate them.
Leopard geckos are also low-maintenance pets that are very friendly and calm with their owners.
They come in a wide variety of colors and patterns.
They’re nocturnal, so they’ll be more active at night.
Leopard geckos grow to almost 1′ foot (.3 m) and live for a long time, sometimes up to two decades!
African fat-tailed geckos are related to leopard geckos and have a sweet, docile nature.
Here’s a post dedicated to comparing the African fat-tailed gecko and the leopard gecko if you want to learn more.
They grow to about 8-14″ inches (36 cm).
Crested geckos are widely available and make great pets for beginners because they don’t require additional heat.
They stay small, around 4-8″ inches (20 cm) in length.
Blue-tongued skinks are another excellent option, reaching up to 2′ feet (.6 m) in length as well.
They can live to 30 years of age and love handling.
They require an omnivorous diet.
Water dragons are a great option if you’re ready for something a bit more high maintenance.
They’re beautiful and can grow up to 3′ feet (1 m) long.
How Should I Care For My Baby Lizard?
The first thing you need to purchase before buying a baby lizard is an enclosure.
While an adult lizard will need an enclosure of around 20-30 gallons, baby lizards can manage to be kept in a 15-20 gallon tank.
This gives them a sufficient amount of space to explore and walk around without making it difficult to locate food and resources.
The exception would be a complete newborn, which could be in a smaller container until it needs something larger.
The best option for baby lizards is paper towels in terms of the substrate.
They easily store humidity if you keep them damp and are easy to clean with a pet, which will likely produce waste often.
There’s also a lower risk of your pet accidentally consuming the substrate.
While setting up your lizard’s habitat, it’s important to include elements that will allow them to hide.
Especially when they’re younger, lizards are pretty shy and prefer not to be exposed.
Fake plants and non-sharp driftwood are perfect inclusions.
If you have more than one lizard, there are different suggestions depending on each lizard’s age and size.
Two younger lizards can usually cohabitate if they are the same age and size, though we still recommend housing them separately.
Many lizards prefer to be housed alone as they get older than six months, like leopard geckos, and should be separated at this time.
More social lizards like anoles often enjoy being kept together indefinitely except for two males, as they may fight.
You absolutely should not house a baby lizard with an adult lizard, as the adult lizard will attack and eat the smaller ones.
Conclusion
Lizards are great pets to keep, and it’s always fun to purchase a baby lizard, but you need to know what baby lizards drink and eat.
If you’re planning to purchase yourself a baby lizard, it’s essential to do adequate research to guarantee that you’re ready to provide for all its needs.
If you read through this article, you’ll have a solid understanding of how to feed, hydrate, and care for your new friend!
