Diet selection

For most smaller species of lizards, appropriate-size crickets should be the primary food. If you raise mealworms, smaller "white" mealworms that have just molted can al so be used. Mealworms can be a useful food for lizards, as long as the right size is selected. Larger insect-eating lizards should be fed a varied diet of crickets, mealworms or king mealworms, and occasional pink mice. Some species may refuse the above, yet will feed on cockroaches.

Certain species are specialized feeders and require experimentation to determine a suitable diet. For example, the toadheaded agamid (Phrynocephalus mystaceus) often refuses most standard cornmercially raised insects, yet readily consumes mealworms, beetles, and dewinged and stunted flies. There are quite a few species not usually recornmended for any but the most devoted and expert of herpetoculturists: lizards that are specialized ant feeders. These inc1ude most of the horned toads (Phrynosoma), several of the agamines and the Australian spiny moloch (Moloch horridus), which thrives only on a diet of specific ant species.