Reptile And Diet

Every reptile species is different from the other based on their physical features, habits and their diet. By considering each reptile their eating habits can be broadly classified into carnivores, herbivores and omnivores diets.

A Healthy Diet for The Crocodilla Order : Reptiles like crocodiles, caimans, gharials, alligators belong to crocodilla order. Feeding on water birds, pigs, raccoons, rabbits and at times even on their own species is supposedly best for them.

Ideal Diet for Testudines: They generally feed on both plants and animals. Turtles mainly feast on larvae, eggs, insects, duckweed, crayfish and algae on the other hand tortoises eat only plants.

Suitable Diet for Mollusks: Mollusks relish jellyfish. The snakes and lizards which come under the squamata order follow up next. Some lizards only eat plants while some eat insects, spiders and snails as well. The jaws of lizards are so defined that they can hold their prey firmly in the jaws.

A Perfect diet for Snakes:Snakes appreciate diets including frogs, lizards, birds, salamanders, eggs, rodents and mammals. They swallow their prey alive. The poisonous ones inject venom into their prey through their fangs, while the non-poisonous ones strangulate their prey to death and then swallow it. They are capable of swallowing prey which is bigger in size than them. This is made possible by the easy dislocation of the snake’s lower jaw from the skull. Pit viper snakes track warm-blooded animals with the help of pit organs, which are heat sensitive and are placed right above their heads.

A Delightful Diet for Tuataras: Tuataras are very fond of beetles although the mostly prey on insects. Like all other lizards, they are also fond of birds and their eggs. The young tuataras usually hunt during the day to protect themselves from the adult ones which are generally nocturnal predators. Thus we see that the reptiles can be broadly classified as follows:

1. Most of the reptiles relish a wide range of foods except for a selected few like striped Crayfish snake which thrives only on Crayfish.
2. Reptiles usually are carnivorous by nature that enjoys mice, rabbits, slugs and insects. It is rare for a reptile to show herbivorous traits.
3. Lizards are mostly fond of spiders, snails and other reptiles but some of them are herbivorous. For example, the desert Iguana and the Chuckwalla are leaves and plant eaters
4. Alligators are the most ferocious meat-eaters. Animals ranging from water birds, other small alligators, mammals, adult sea-turtles are their favorite food. Alligators are capable of swallowing their prey alive
5. Turtles are basically carnivores while tortoises are herbivores.
6. Snakes strangulate their prey to death and then eat them. With every breath the snake tightens its grip on the prey, till it finally dies of suffocation and is then eaten up by the snake.

Reptiles when kept as pets should be provided with clean and fresh drinking water. A large shallow dish containing water should be provided to the reptiles. As anoles and chameleons that cannot drink water from a bowl should be provided with a drip system. Besides this, reptiles as pets should also be fed with nutritional food required by them to thrive. The insectivorous reptiles should be fed with crickets, earthworms, cockroaches while the herbivores should be fed with green leaves, fruits and mixed vegetable salads. A high fiber diet should also be provided to them. Care must be taken that if fresh grass is provided to them, it is free from herbicides and pesticides. Hard boiled eggs are also a good substitute for herbivores and omnivores.