What Does Lizard Eats?

There is various kind of lizards. Some of them are big, and some of them are small. Lizards are primarily a carnivore, but some of them are omnivores. Their size plays a vital role in choosing their diet.

So, what does lizard eats? Carnivore lizard depends on meat whereas omnivore lizard will eat both meat and plants. Small carnivore lizard satisfies their hunger by eating small insects, whereas big lizards satisfy their hunger by eating rodents, deer and even water buffalo.

Lizard is an opportunistic creature, so they will satisfy their hunger with whatever meat they can. The prey can be small, or the prey can be large.

Why Most Lizards Eat Meat?

There is an evolutionary benefit to eating meat. If you look at a lizard, you’ll see that their teeth are designed to tear and swallow the meat. Meat provides protein, and this protein is beneficial to evolution and functioning. Meat provides a lot of energy and is easy to digest, so it requires less energy.

Since lizards ancestor was meat eater, they evolved in that direction and became meat-eater primarily. That said few species of lizard eat both meat and leaves. This is also due to evolution because omnivores have lots of benefits, and it can be a key to survival when there is scarcity.

The omnivore lizard can shift from meat to plant-based diet, and again back to meat when there is adequate meat. This increases the chances of survival exponentially. 

Can Lizard Eat Big Animals?

There are few lizards like a Komodo dragon that can kill deer, water buffalo and eat them. Komodo dragon cannot take these big animals head-on, so these Komodo dragon bites these big animals and injects their venom in their body.

This venom stops the blood clot, and the animals will die eventually. Once the animal is unable to move, the Komodo dragon tracks them down and then eats them. Not just one but a lot of Komodo dragons joins the feast. Most of the time, these animals are alive, yet these lizards start eating them. 

Common House Lizards Eats Insects

Insects are the only food that the common house lizards are capable of eating. Because these lizards are small and they are not capable of hunting down small or big animals. Their diets include various kinds of insects like moths, cockroaches, butterflies etc.

House lizards prefer to eat insects like a moth, butterflies because they are relatively easy prey. A cockroach can be a struggle. They don’t die easily.

When the lizard is not getting enough food, then they resort to cockroaches. Usually, a lizard sticks to the wall and waits there for the insects to come near them. Once these insects are close enough, they strike at an excellent speed to catch the insect.

What Do Small Garden Lizards Eat?

Small garden lizards eat flies, small insects, worms, mites, spiders and ants. Small garden lizards are not very significant in size, so they have to eat these to survive. Compared to their body mass, these insects provide them with enough nutrients to sustain their life. 

These small lizards will hide whenever they see, something bigger than their size. They will eat almost whatever insects they can. During the evolution, lizards found that they are more successful by being small.

Being small means, you can survive with little food. There are many animals species which were previously big but became small over time and on the other hand bigger animals which needed a significant amount of food got extinct.

What Do Baby Lizards Eat?

Carnivore baby lizards eat insects, worms and anything smaller than them. In contrast, omnivore baby lizards will eat insects, worms and fruits. Lizards are found everywhere, so what kind of insects or fruits they are going to eat will be different, but they will eat something small.

Small Lizards Babies: Small lizard babies eat small insects, and they avoid big insects like butterfly, moths, cockroach etc., and once they get bigger they start eating bigger insects. They cannot eat animals or eat rats because they are significantly bigger or almost the same size as adult lizards.

Medium Sized Lizard Babies: Medium-sized lizards babies will start off by eating small insects, ants and as soon as they get a little bigger they will start eating a mouse, other lizards (which are smaller than them) and as they grow even older their diet will change and will eat small snakes, smaller animals etc.

Big Lizards Babies: Big lizard babies will start off by eating small insects, eggs, small gecko, among other things. As they get older, they start eating bigger animals like rabbit, snake, baby alligators etc. 

Lizard Can Eat Sweets

Lizards can eat human food if they are kept in the open and are kept uncovered. Some foods have a lot of sugar content, and these lizards want those; as a result, they will come to eat that food. Food like sweets can attract lizards if they are nearby.

Although they may not be actively looking for sweets, they can definitely eat those when they are in the human territory, and once they get the taste of sweets, they can often come to eat those.

Although they are carnivores, they can eat sweets because of the excess amount of energy it can give, and it’s an easy meal for them since they don’t have to hunt. Some sweets also contain milk so those sweets will attract lizards even more.

Big Lizards Can Come Across Human For Food

Komodo dragon and monitor lizards have an excellent sense of smell so they can come into human territory if they smell food. For example, let’s say you go camping and you are eating chicken. The Komodo dragon can track that smell and will come across if that smell lingers.

The Komodo dragon can smell it from miles away. The best way to avoid it is to know whether there are big lizards nearby and secondly after eating the food dump that in a way so that the smell won’t come out. That trick might do well, and the smell will linger in the air. As a result, the Komodo dragon will not come to eat that food. 

Lizards That Eats Plants And Fruits

Some lizards are omnivores, and they eat both meat and plant, so if these lizards come into the garden, they can damage your plants and fruits. Lizards like iguana are relatively big and can be aggressive, and they can damage a garden if they come in numbers.

The iguana problem has been recorded many times when many iguanas get inside the garden and damage it. Since they are medium-sized lizards and can be aggressive people, don’t approach them easily, and these lizards keep on damaging their garden. 

If this situation occurs to you, then call the authority and let them deal with the group of iguanas. It’s hard to chase this group of iguana away because they will become aggressive and will try to attack you. They eat plants, fruits and can entirely damage your garden.

Even a 2,3 iguana is more than enough to cause severe damage to the garden, but it can become troublesome if there are more than ten. These attacks don’t happen everywhere, but wherever it happens, it causes massive problems.

Apart from iguana, there are other lizard species which also eat plants and fruits, and they can also do significant damage to a garden. However, the most destructive one is an iguana. They are big, aggressive and prolific eaters. There are many reported cases of iguanas doing this sort of thing.

Lizards Can Eat Pet Animals

Many big lizards can eat big animals, and if those lizards are near your area, they can specifically target your pet like cat, dogs etc. These lizards are venomous so a bigger dog can be in trouble against these lizards. Their poison stops blood clotting, thus killing the victim.

If your dog or your pet gets bitten then immediately take them to doctor before the poison starts spreading. These big lizards are very fast and agile, and most of the time they don’t directly fight an animal they wait for them to come close, and then the lizard strikes the animals at incredible speed.

After biting the animals, the lizard retreats and waits for the animal to suffer from the venom. Later on, when the animal starts suffering, the lizard tracks the prey using its extraordinary sense of smell and then starts eating the animal.

At that time more than one lizard joins the feast. I hope this scenario gives you an idea of how dangerous these lizards are. So if your pet animal gets bitten then immediately take them for treatment and also make sure to let the authority know because these lizards will come back to get its meal, but this time there can be more than one.

Lizards can also eat snake, so if you keep a snake as a pet; then be careful. It’s hard to say who will win in a fight, but both can suffer injury, or your pet snake can also die if they are small. They are very skilled in killing a snake, so it’s hard to stop them.

Once they are out for hunting, there are very few things that can be done to stop them. The lizards that I am talking here is the Komodo dragon, the largest and the most ferocious lizard alive. They have a vast range of diet, and they can eat any meat.

Dead, alive doesn’t matter; they will eat everything to survive. They are prolific carnivore hunters as well as scavengers. These abilities had allowed them to survive for so long during evolution when many other species got extinct.