🦗 Food + feeders
Reptile diet errors are slow killers — metabolic bone disease (MBD) develops silently over months on the wrong calcium ratio. Most pet shops sell the wrong feeders for the wrong species. Here's the species-by-species feeding logic + the calcium dusting routine that prevents the most common preventable disease.
Photo: Chris F / Pexels
The cheapest staple feeder. Brown crickets noisier + smellier than black. Always gut-load 24h before feeding (high-quality cricket diet). Dust with calcium + D3 before tipping into enclosure. Replace uneaten crickets — they bite reptiles overnight.
Higher protein, less smell, longer-lived than crickets, easy to breed at home. Excellent for bearded dragons, leopard geckos, larger lizards. Won't infest your house (only breed in 30 °C+). Slightly more expensive but worth it for serious keepers.
Bigger than crickets, leaner, easier to dust. Good variety food. Sized small/medium/large to match reptile size. Don't bite reptiles overnight (vegetarian). More expensive than crickets, less expensive than roaches.
Mealworms: high fat, OK as treat (NOT staple — chitin shell hard to digest). Superworms: bigger, can bite, only for adult lizards. Silkworms: nutritionally excellent (high calcium ratio) but expensive. Variety beats single-feeder diet.
Bearded dragons: 70% veg as adults. Tortoises: 90%+ veg. Iguanas: 100% veg. Variety: dandelion, rocket, watercress, butternut squash, peppers. Avoid spinach + kale daily (oxalates bind calcium → MBD). Wash veg, chop fine.
Live insects in a tub + sprinkle calcium powder + shake (the "shake & bake"). Plain calcium for daily dusting. Calcium + D3 (e.g. Repashy Calcium Plus) for animals on weak/no UVB — 1–2× weekly. ALWAYS dust insects, never the reptile directly.
Crickets/roaches eaten straight from the box are nutritionally hollow. Feed insects high-quality vegetables + commercial gut-load (Repashy Bug Burger, Cricket Total) for 24h before offering to reptile. The reptile eats the insect AND the gut content.
Hatchlings: most species daily. Juveniles: every 1–2 days. Adults: every 2–4 days for lizards, weekly for snakes (mice/rats), daily greens for tortoises. Overfed adult bearded dragons → fatty liver disease. Underfed = poor growth + immune issues.
Insect width should NOT exceed the gap between the reptile's eyes. Rule prevents impaction + choking. Snakes: prey diameter no wider than the snake's widest point. Hatchlings get tiny prey; adults get larger. Wrong-size prey is a top cause of preventable death.
For omnivores/herbivores: rotate 6+ veg types weekly. Each veg has different vitamins. Single-veg diets cause specific deficiencies (e.g. lettuce-only = no calcium, vitamin A deficiency). For carnivores: mix insect species + occasional pinkie mice (large lizards).
Wild-caught insects (parasites + pesticides). Avocado (toxic to most reptiles). Rhubarb leaves (oxalic acid). Iceberg lettuce (no nutrients, can cause diarrhoea). Citrus fruit (most species). Fireflies (deadly to bearded dragons + chameleons).
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Every feeding for juveniles + breeding females. Adults: 4–5 dustings per week with plain calcium, 1–2 dustings per week with calcium + D3 (if UVB is good) or 3–4 per week with D3 (if UVB is poor or absent). Over-dusting D3 is also harmful — match to species + UVB setup.
No — wild-caught insects often carry parasites, pathogens, and pesticide residues. Always feed captive-bred from a reliable supplier. The cost saving isn't worth a parasite outbreak that costs €100+ in vet visits and treatments. Same goes for "free" wild plants for tortoises — wash thoroughly + only from organic sources.
Common with juveniles raised on insects. Slowly increase greens, decrease insects: cut insects to 5 days/week, then 3, then 2 over a few weeks. Mix bright veg (red/orange peppers, butternut squash) with greens — wavers in colour vision attract them. Adult bearded dragons MUST eat 70% veg or develop fatty liver disease.
Cricket Keeper containers (Lugarti, Exo Terra) — escape-proof + ventilated. Don't store more than 1–2 weeks at a time (live shipping cheaper than holding in volume). Discard dead crickets daily — ammonia + smell. Or breed dubia roaches at home — silent, no smell, no escape risk in cool homes.
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