If you decide to keep a reptile for a pet, you need to learn everything about reptile food and treats. Different species have different nutritional needs. So, you need to know exactly what to feed your reptile. In addition to the different foods, there are reptile food pellets available in the market which can be used to supplement the diet of your pet. Find the best reptile food for turtles, snakes, frogs, geckos and lizards.
Choosing the correct reptile food for your pet
Diets for different reptiles
Here is a short summary of the different reptile food:
• Be sure that your turtle food and tortoise food includes a variety of plants and animal matters to fulfill all their nutritional needs. Supply of calcium in turtle food and tortoise food is especially important. You can give ground up eggshells and cuttlebones to supply extra calcium. Aquatic plants, veggies like okra, squash, sweet potatoes, flowers like dandelions and geraniums, silkworms, earthworms, crickets etc are all part of turtle food. Dried shrimps and little bits of live food make excellent turtle treats. In addition to these, tortoise food includes zucchini, broccoli, wheat, alfalfa etc. The type of tortoise food depends on age, species and activity level of your pet.
• Bearded dragon food includes both plant and animal matter because they are omnivores. Greens like collards, parsley, turnip greens etc, veggies like sweet potato, bell pepper, zucchini and broccoli and fruits like fig, kiwi, apricot, strawberries etc are common types of bearded dragon food. You should include meat like crickets, cockroaches, earthworms etc to obtain a balanced diet.
• Insects are the favorite frog food. So, you will need crickets and grasshoppers to feed your frog.
• The hermit crab food is a judicious mixture of the healthiest human foods. Fresh fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds are the common hermit crab food. Frozen fruits, meat, seaweed, fish flakes etc are other hermit crab food that these creatures love.
• The main gecko food is crickets. They also enjoy wax worms and meal worms. You can give a pinkie (day-old mouse) as adult gecko food.
• Snakes are almost always carnivorous. Your snake food consists of pre killed preys though some species still insist on live preys. You can get frozen pre killed preys for snake food. Ants, termites and mice are common live preys.
Things to remember while getting reptile food
You should know that reptiles eat different types of things in the wild to get a balanced diet. That is not possible in captivity. So, many reptile food supplements are there to help your pet stay healthy. For example, you can dust the cricket for your gecko in calcium powder. You can give turtle treats which are nutritious as well as tasty.
When you are giving a live food, be nearby and watch for injuries. The insects given as gecko food and bearded dragon food should be small enough for these animals to handle. Live prey for snake food can also fight back. Finally, you should thoroughly understand the requirement of the species of your pet before you begin to buy reptile food.
