Food and Feeding

Getting any animal’s diet right is obviously important to its health and welfare, and when it comes to feeding time, exotic pets are no different.

On the whole, most of the commonly kept exotic pets are carnivores, which usually means that some kind of live food is going to be necessary. However, there are types, such as tortoises, some species of iguana, millipedes and cockroaches which are largely or entirely vegetarian and many others will eat a little fruit and leaves at times.

Crickets and Mealworms

Both crickets and mealworms are handy food items for a wide range of reptiles, amphibian and carnivorous invertebrate pets, including spiders, scorpions and centipedes. Crickets are particularly popular, mostly because they are available in a variety of different sizes from small young ones to their much larger elders and are readily sold in pet shops and by mail order.

Mealworms – and the flour beetles they will hatch into – are also ideal for feeding to a range of exotic animals, but they shouldn’t be used as a sole diet since they are naturally quite low in calcium.

You can buy both crickets and mealworms from a wide range of outlets, or breed them yourself at home if you prefer – but do be aware that crickets are very good at escaping.

Bigger Items

Many snakes and some of the larger lizards will need bigger items of food, usually in the form of dead day-old chicks or various sizes of rodents. Exotic suppliers and many pet shops sell frozen chicks, rats, mice and 'pinkies' – young un-furred mice – which will meet most needs. Make sure that the meal is fully thawed before feeding to your pet – chilling a snake’s digestive system down from the inside is a real recipe for disaster.

With so many snakes now bred in captivity, it is fortunately increasingly rare to encounter the stubborn refusal to eat dead food that was once a big problem with wild-caught specimens. However, if your animal does show reluctance to eat a stationary meal, moving the rat around on the end of a stick can encourage it to strike – but keep your hands out of the way if you do have to resort to this approach!

Feeding Aquatic Pets

Aquatic shops are a good place to try for suitable foods for feeding water-living pets. The most common options sold are Tubifex – tiny reddish worms – and Daphnia (water-fleas), both of which are ideal for many small amphibians and other suitably sized exotics in the aquarium. Tubifex are particular favourites with hatchling terrapins and many of the smaller aquatic frogs.

Unfortunately, the supply is not always guaranteed throughout the year, so it is highly advisable for the keeper of these kinds of pets to make sure that alternatives such as whiteworms – or even garden dug earthworms – are available.

Vegetarian Fodder

Although it might seem that feeding vegetarians should be easy – given the ready availability of fruits and vegetables from all over the world at the local supermarket – in reality keeping plant-munching pets fed healthily requires a fair bit of effort.

The trick is to provide a balanced and varied diet that caters for all the animal’s needs, provides enough nourishment, minerals and vitamins and is available in sufficient quantity to satisfy their appetites. A range of garden plants can be helpful to achieve this – with dandelion leaves, cress and parsley being particularly useful, largely because they are very nutritious and have a high vitamin and mineral content. At the other end of the scale, lettuce and cabbage should only be included sparingly in the diet; lettuce has very low nutritional value – it’s mostly water – and some tortoises seem to find it addictive, while large amounts of cabbage has been shown to slow down the activity of the thyroid.

It’s also important to remember that fruit grown in your own garden may be far more valuable in food terms than something imported and artificially ripened, even if your iguana would never have come across it in the wild – but only if it hasn’t been doused in pesticides!

Feeding is a vitally important part of keeping exotic pets in top condition. Whatever the species – and with the exception of specialist feeders that naturally eat only a very limited range of foods in the wild – the key to providing a proper diet lies in variety. No one food contains the perfect balance of everything that an animal needs, but if you make sure you’re feeding them a good mix of different things, your pets should thrive.

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