What Do Lizards Eat

The short answer to what do lizards eat is that it depends entirely on which lizard you mean. Some species hunt insects their whole lives.

Others chase down rodents and birds. Some graze almost entirely on leaves and flowers, and plenty fall somewhere in between. Knowing a lizard’s natural feeding style is the first step to feeding any pet lizard correctly.

As an Amazon Associate, Lizardist earns from qualifying purchases. Some product links on this page are affiliate links.

The Four Basic Lizard Diets

Veterinary references generally sort lizard diets into four categories. These are insectivorous, carnivorous, omnivorous, and herbivorous. They are not rigid boxes.

Many species shift diet with age. A handful eat outside their usual category when the chance arises. Knowing a species’ category tells you a lot about its lizard food needs before you even open a care guide.

What Insectivorous Lizards Eat

Insectivorous lizards eat almost nothing but feeder insects. This group includes some of the most popular pet species. Leopard geckos, day geckos, and most chameleons build their entire diet around crickets, roaches, mealworms, and similar feeders.

The trouble is that feeder insects are a poor calcium source on their own. Crickets and mealworms typically run between 0.03% and 0.3% calcium. Phosphorus sits far higher, around 0.8% to 0.9%, and that imbalance can cause metabolic bone disease if it is not corrected.

Keepers fix this two ways. Gut loading means feeding insects a high calcium diet for one to three days before they become food. Dusting means lightly coating insects in calcium powder, such as Zoo Med Repti Calcium without D3, right before feeding, and vets stress that dusting alone cannot replace proper gut loading.

Insectivores generally eat daily or every other day as juveniles. Adults eat slightly less often. Portion size matters too: keepers commonly size insects no wider than the space between a lizard’s eyes to avoid choking or impaction.

What Carnivorous Lizards Eat

Carnivorous lizards eat whole vertebrate prey rather than plants. This group is dominated by monitor lizards, along with the two venomous lizard species, the Gila monster and the Mexican beaded lizard. In the wild these animals take rodents, birds, eggs, fish, and other reptiles depending on size and habitat.

Keepers replicate that with appropriately sized whole prey. Mice, rats, day old chicks, and quail eggs are common staples for monitors. Gila monsters and beaded lizards are typically fed rodents and eggs under specialist care.

Whole prey already carries a workable calcium to phosphorus balance, since it includes bone. Heavy supplementation matters less here than it does for insectivores. Overfeeding is the real risk with carnivorous lizards instead.

Large monitor species kept as pets are far less active than their wild counterparts. Obesity shortens lifespan and stresses joints and organs. Adult monitors are commonly fed just once or twice a week rather than daily.

What Omnivorous Lizards Eat

Omnivorous lizards eat a genuine mix of animal protein and plant matter. The exact balance shifts with age. Bearded dragons are the clearest example: hatchlings eat mostly insects, and adults flip toward a plant heavy diet.

A widely used adult bearded dragon ratio comes from veterinary hospital guidance. It runs about 50% dark leafy greens, 20% other chopped vegetables, and 25% animal matter such as roaches or crickets. Fruit stays under 5% and works best as an occasional treat.

Safe greens include collard, kale, dandelion, and turnip greens. Safe vegetables include squash, carrot, and sweet potato. Insects should be gut loaded and dusted with calcium just like they are for pure insectivores.

Tegus are also omnivores, but they lean harder toward protein and fruit than bearded dragons do. In the wild they take insects, eggs, small animals, and fallen fruit. Many captive tegus show little interest in leafy greens at all.

Hatchling tegus eat daily. Juveniles taper to a few times a week. Adults commonly settle around once weekly, since obesity is a known issue in captive tegus, and body condition should guide portion size more than a fixed schedule.

Good protein sources include dubia roaches, earthworms, egg whites, and fish. Whole prey style commercial diets work well too. Dust meals with calcium and a multivitamin, such as Zoo Med Reptivite, once or twice a week.

What Herbivorous Lizards Eat

Herbivorous lizards eat almost entirely plant material. The green iguana is the best known pet example, alongside species like the common chuckwalla and uromastyx. These lizards need a diet built around dark, calcium rich leafy greens.

Many new keepers assume iguanas want a fruit heavy diet. That is a mistake. Veterinary guidance puts calcium rich greens at roughly 40% to 50% of an adult iguana’s diet, with other vegetables adding another 30% to 40%.

Fruit stays under 20% and works best as a topping rather than a staple. Animal protein should stay under 5% of an adult iguana’s diet. Some vets recommend skipping animal protein entirely for adults.

Not every green vegetable is equally useful here. Celery and iceberg lettuce are mostly water with little real nutrition. Spinach, chard, and beet greens contain compounds that bind minerals if fed as a steady staple rather than an occasional item.

Cabbage, kale, and mustard greens are fine in moderation. Overfeeding them can affect thyroid function over time. Herbivorous lizards also need a genuinely high fiber diet, since much of their nutrient extraction happens through fermentation in the gut.

Young, growing iguanas typically eat daily. Adults often do well on daily or every other day feeding. Overweight adults benefit from stretching that out even further.

Calcium, Vitamin D3, and Other Supplements

Calcium and vitamin D3 come up in nearly every lizard food discussion. Captive diets rarely match the mineral balance of wild feeding. Insectivores need calcium added through gut loading and dusting.

Omnivores need calcium worked into both insect and plant portions. Even herbivores need a dietary calcium boost, since plant calcium is not always well absorbed. Vitamin D3 helps a lizard’s body actually use that calcium.

Vitamin D3 can come from supplement powder, UVB lighting, or both, depending on species and setup. Full spectrum UVB bulbs should be swapped on a schedule, commonly every six months. UVB output fades well before the bulb stops producing visible light.

Multivitamin supplements fill in gaps calcium alone cannot cover, particularly vitamin A. They are typically dusted onto food once or twice a week rather than every feeding. Oversupplementing is possible too, so a species specific care guide beats guessing at frequency.

How Often Lizards Eat

Daily versus weekly is the other half of what do lizards eat. Feeding frequency tracks closely with age, size, and metabolism. It is not one fixed rule across all lizards.

Hatchlings and juveniles of almost every species eat more often than adults, since they are putting on new tissue quickly.

Small, fast metabolism insectivores like leopard geckos and day geckos often eat every day or two throughout life. Larger omnivores and herbivores commonly shift from daily as juveniles to every other day as adults.

Big carnivorous species like monitor lizards go the other direction. They move from frequent small meals as hatchlings to just one or two larger meals a week as adults. Watching body condition is the most reliable way to judge whether a feeding schedule is working.

Choosing the Right Lizard Food

Once you know which diet group a species belongs to, choosing lizard food gets much simpler. Insectivores need a rotating stock of feeder insects plus calcium and vitamin powders. Herbivores and most omnivores need fresh produce on hand several times a week.

Buying feeders in bulk and gut loading them yourself is usually cheaper than buying pre dusted insects. A small kit of calcium powder, a multivitamin, and a few staple greens covers most species’ baseline needs. Species specific guides go into exact portions and schedules in more detail.

Answering what do lizards eat for your particular pet always starts with confirming the exact species, not just the general shape of the animal. Two lizards that look similar can have completely different diets. A quick species check before you buy feeders or produce saves money and prevents real health problems.

Common Feeding Mistakes

Overfeeding fruit is one of the most frequent mistakes across nearly every diet type. Fruit is sugary, and lizards find it irresistible compared to greens or insects. A little fruit as a rare treat is fine for most species, but it should never crowd out the core diet.

Skipping gut loading while relying on dusting alone is another common shortcut. Over time it leaves insectivores calcium deficient. Feeding insects that are too large for a lizard’s head width can also cause real problems, including choking and impaction.

Assuming every species eats the same way is probably the biggest mistake of all. A diet built for a bearded dragon will slowly starve or sicken a green iguana. A monitor fed like an insectivore will never get the protein it needs to thrive.

A reptile veterinarian is worth consulting whenever a lizard stops eating normally or loses weight unexpectedly. Diet related illness is common, and catching it early makes treatment much easier. This is especially true for younger animals still building their skeleton.

Enclosure setup ties directly into feeding success too. A tank that runs too cold slows digestion and can leave food sitting in the gut. Checking your enclosure setup and temperature gradient alongside diet is worth doing whenever a lizard seems to be eating poorly.

Where to Go From Here

This guide covers the broad patterns behind lizard food, but every species has its own quirks. The species guides section breaks down exact diets, portion sizes, and feeding schedules animal by animal.

Pair diet with the right setup for the best results. The gear guide covers feeding dishes, gut loading supplies, and supplement brands, while the health hub explains the warning signs of diet related illness.

Anyone still deciding which lizard to bring home should also check the choosing a pet lizard guide. Matching a species’ diet to what you can realistically source and afford matters just as much as matching its size or temperament.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do pet lizards eat in general?

Pet lizards eat feeder insects, whole prey, plants, or some mix of the three. There is no single lizard food that works for every pet lizard, since diet depends heavily on species.

Do all lizards eat insects?

No. Insects are a major or total food source for insectivorous species. They are a partial food source for omnivores, and a minor or absent one for true herbivores like green iguanas.

How often should you feed a lizard?

Juveniles of most species eat daily or every other day. Adults eat less often, sometimes just once or twice a week for large carnivorous species. Frequency depends heavily on species, size, and age.

Why do lizards need calcium supplements?

Common feeder insects and many plants do not naturally provide enough calcium relative to phosphorus. Gut loading, dusting, and appropriate lighting all help correct that imbalance. Together they help prevent metabolic bone disease.

Can lizards eat fruit?

Many species can eat a small amount of fruit occasionally. It should stay a minor part of the diet because of its sugar content. Herbivorous and omnivorous species typically tolerate a bit more fruit than strict carnivores or insectivores.

What is gut loading?

Gut loading means feeding feeder insects a nutrient dense, calcium rich diet for one to three days before offering them to a lizard. It raises the insect’s own calcium content. That way the lizard gets more benefit from each meal.