[ichthyogeek]

Ok. I've heard of feeder fish, no big deal. Feeder chickens/birds, for those large birdivorous snakes, sure no problem. Rats, mice are staples, ok. But FEEDER LIZARDS? Can somebody explain to me what would eat a lizard, and why it would be better than a bird/mammal/etc.? i just can't visualize something eating an anole unless it was some sort of large mammal/bird, like a pig...or a dog/cat.

 

[Raymond S.]

I would think the main place they end up is food for snakes. Any Python/Boa
that has the name "Tree" in the front of it's name will eat them.
Don't forget a 10' snake starts out at about 15" long. Then they would look for
something smaller than a chicken.

 

[Nordic]

I don't even wan to guess how many geckos my one cat eats in a day. Doesn't seem to make a dent in how many you see on the outside walls and gutters. At least he doesn't eat birds and fish, and sleep indoors every night.

 

[Joe Fish]

Chinese water dragons, monitors, pac man frogs, basilisks, etc. will eat anoles. Last time I was in Florida I saw a large anole eat a small anole.

 

[JanePetersg]

It's amazing to me, this is the first time I've ever heard of a cat eating lizards. Traditionally, cats eat mice. In fact, I love nature, but I can't get used to the fact that there is a life cycle and that the strongest survives. And if we talk about pets, I prefer dogs and cats. I can say that I like chameleons (my friends have one), but they eat cockroaches and all sorts of insects, so I only have a dog at home, a Yorkshire Terrier. By the way, I have a beautiful garden, and recently I found an interesting idea in a blog that you can find on faunafeeders.com. So I decided to install a bird feeder in my garden and it will diversify my life. Do you think this is a good idea?

 

[varanidguy]

Ok. I've heard of feeder fish, no big deal. Feeder chickens/birds, for those large birdivorous snakes, sure no problem. Rats, mice are staples, ok. But FEEDER LIZARDS? Can somebody explain to me what would eat a lizard, and why it would be better than a bird/mammal/etc.? i just can't visualize something eating an anole unless it was some sort of large mammal/bird, like a pig...or a dog/cat.

There are certain species of snakes, typically rear-fanged colubrids, that specialize in preying upon other reptiles, namely lizards. Feeder anoles are a good staple for them as either a primary prey item, or they use them to scent other prey items in order to switch them over to say a diet of rodents. As pointed out earlier, there are also species of monitor lizards that are specialized reptile hunters. While typically not required as they're easily fed a staple diet of insects and rodents, people sometimes opt to use feeder lizards as part of their diet as well.

Then you also have some snakes that will only eat other snakes in some situations. Such as king cobras. They are snake hunters in the wild, and occasionally a keeper will have a specimen that will only accept prey items of other snakes. In this case, ball pythons are typically used as the prey item.

There are many reasons to utilize feeder anoles and house geckos, actually.

 

[PlantedRich]

I have to say, it really sounds like folks need to get out a bit more! What eats lizards? Most anything that can catch one and get it in their mouth as they are great nutrients and totally safe to eat when speaking of the simple gecko or anole. Blue birds feed them to their young. It's a pretty marvelous thing and we have seen it several times. The young bird does a big gulp and is immediately standing there waiting for more!
Gecko are a very common little lizard in the Central Texas area and most anything will eat them. Bluejays are good at catching them and they often fly to top of our privacy fence to eat them. Some birds have the big expandable neck, just so they can eat big things without tearing them down.
Maybe think of pelicans to see there is something out there designed to eat almost everything else! Something that comes in as small a size as a lizard is definitely on the menu if something catches them.
Cats that live inside are the only one who doesn't eat lizards!

 

[RCB]

National Geographic had a special on snakes that dined on lizards. These snakes were ultra fast as were the lizards. I mean super fast !! The snakes would run up rocks and boulders chasing the lizards. One of the wildest Nat Geo Specials Ive seen.

 

[varanidguy]

Honestly a big reason why feeder lizards aren't utilized more in the reptile hobby mainly comes down to price. It's simply more cost effective to feed insects, rodents, and small birds.

For instance, I have a colony of blaptica dubia roaches that serves as the staple diet for my lizards. My monitors will get some fuzzy mice and baby quail mixed in, as well as some worms. Because they're all readily available and cheap (the roaches being damn near free since I breed them).

And newborn nymph roaches are good for the fish too!

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[PlantedRich]

There are fast lizards then some that are not so fast. I closed the wooden gate on one a few weeks back and they often get mashed in the door frames hre as there are so many and they don't seem to understand the mechanics of a door closing!

 

[Bandit1200]

When I was younger, I had a small Speckled King Snake that I had caught. One of my buddies used to bring Green Anoles over from his house as he was fascinated watching the snake hunt, constrict and eat the lizards. The king snake also ate any other smaller snakes that turned up in and around the yards. The king snake was native to the area as well as everything we fed him as they are all natural prey items for king snakes

 

[Blue Ridge Reef]

Wild caught lizards almost always have a parasitic nematode load to some degree and I usually caution against feeding them unless absolutely needed for the predator's survival. This is compounded when they are collected en masse and kept in close quarters until selling/being fed off. Freezing and thawing will usually render them safe though. I tried my hand at rhino ratsnakes many years back and had to scent hairless mice with lizard to get them to recognize them as prey at all. Gross as it is, you can make a mush of a frozen lizard and scent scores of prey items with that though.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Whoa this was an old thread of mine. Thanks @varanidguy for the info!