When I looked at wanting to keep a reptile, I needed to be conversant with their diet to ensure their good health in captivity. Generally, I found I needed to provide a natural, balanced, and complete meal. However, I also needed to understand what constitutes a natural and balanced meal when choosing your reptile’s diet.
So, can reptiles eat sugar? Reptiles cannot eat sugar since it is not a part of their natural diet in the wild. Also, their bodies cannot handle sugar in its raw form; therefore, it may do more harm than good when given to them. However, you can feed your reptile on sugary fruits and foods such as sugar snap peas but on rare occasions and maximize essential nutrients such as calcium to ensure a healthy pet.
If you want to know whether reptiles can eat sugar, this is the guide for you. We will help you understand whether reptiles can eat candy and whether reptiles like lizards eat chocolate. Read through the rest of the sections to find out all the answers you need.
Do Reptiles Eat Candy?
Even the slow-moving chameleon, tortoise, and turtle need the energy to survive and perform essential body functions such as digestion and metabolism. The energy requirements will vary depending on the animal’s growth stage, with the juveniles requiring more rations of energy-rich foods. Therefore, feeding your pet a variety of foods is necessary to meet these requirements.
Reptiles do not eat human candy, and you should not give it to them as their digestive system cannot handle it. Sugar is something these pets do not get naturally from their food sources and giving them could result in digestive problems.
Reptiles, especially lizards like bearded dragons, geckos to iguanas, utilize the fermentation process to digest food. This implies that the bacteria in their digestive tract break down the food. Therefore, if you supply your pet with too much sugar, it will interfere with the gut flora balance, resulting in digestive problems and stomach aches.
Due to the sugar rush, your pet will likely get stressed easily. Your pet may also get stressed if it does not like the flavor of the candy in its mouth. A stressed reptile is likely to bite you or experience adverse health side effects. Thus, to calm your reptile, avoid picking it or running after it, as this may increase its stress levels. You should also keep your house quiet and approach your pet calmly for the next few days until it completely calms down.
While some reptile candies are available in the market, it is not a good idea to give your pet candy. Instead, provide fruits as treats, but even this should be a rare treat. This is because too many fruits can also cause problems with their digestion due to the high sugar content.
However, compared to the reptile treats, which have high sugar content, fruits have plenty of water that neutralizes the sugars, which is why they are better than raw candy. Another alternative to candy is edible flowers or worms, as these will not make your reptile sick. Also, these options are readily available in the wild, and your pet’s system is naturally adapted to digest them without any complications.
Despite being a suitable replacement for candies, it is worth noting that too many fruits could harm your pet’s health due to the high sugar content. These sugars could cause obesity and tooth decay in teethed reptiles. Obesity is mostly a problem in reptiles due to their low physical activity.
Reptiles are inactive due to their exothermic nature and spend most of their time resting to preserve as much energy for essential body functions such as digestion. Also, in captivity, reptiles have limited space to exercise, contributing to obesity.
Fruits also contain compounds that could affect the intake of essential nutrients, affecting your pet’s health. For instance, blueberries, cherries, and mangoes are rich in oxalates, which bind calcium, preventing its uptake into your pet’s system.
Thus, it is not a good idea to feed them whether your pet loves these fruits or not. Bearded dragons, for instance, love bananas perhaps for their sweetness. However, this fruit is not good for them, as it is very high in phosphorus which binds calcium, preventing its metabolism.
Thus, while feeding your reptile these treats will make them happy, regular feeding will predispose them to Metabolic Bone Disease, which is fatal. On the other hand, acidic fruits like tomatoes and citrus fruits will affect the balance of gut flora, affecting the digestion of other foods.
The combination of sugar and acidity on these fruits may also cause diarrhea; hence, dehydration, which could be fatal. Thus, if you want to feed your pet on fruits, consider those less acidic and sugary and only provide them as treats. Alternatively, sticking to healthy vegetables as your pet’s staple diet is highly recommended to prevent the above health problems.
Finally, while feeding your pet on fruits, ensure that you chop them into small slices to prevent the risk of choking and constipation. This is because candies pose a choking hazard to your reptile, especially if they are big. Thus, to be safe, confirm that the piece of candy your pet has ingested is not big enough to choke it and that it can safely pass through its digestive system. After confirming this, you can stay put and provide plenty of water for your pet while monitoring its health.
Your pet may also experience a sugar rush like human kids, but this behavior may vary depending on your reptile. You should also provide more vegetables or worms to neutralize the effects of the candy and push it out of your pet’s system. Given the high levels of excitement your pet may have from the sugars, it may move around too fast, and confining it within its tank or closing off the area it is in is advisable to prevent it from wandering away.
Do Reptiles Like Lizards Eat Chocolate?
Chocolate is a favorite snack for most people, and, if you own a lizard, you might consider sharing this treat with it. However, before doing this, it is important to know whether your lizard likes chocolate and the health implications associated with chocolate.
Lizards do not like chocolate, and you should not give this snack to them. This is because chocolate is not a naturally occurring food in the wild. Chocolate also contains chemicals and ingredients that could potentially harm their health. One such ingredient is Theobromine; a toxic compound that causes poisoning in cats and dogs if ingested in large amounts, given their slower metabolism than human beings.
Reptiles have an even slower metabolism due to their exothermic nature and low activity. Feeding them chocolate will do more harm than good. While some owners feed their lizards without any adverse side effects, this does not mean that you should go ahead and feed yours.
If a lizard eats chocolate, the toxic Theobromine could find its way into its nervous system and brain, allowing circulation of the ingredient throughout your pet’s system. Theobromine usually overloads the cardiac and nervous systems in animals with a slow metabolism. The longer these toxins stay in your pet’s body, the higher the chances of irreversible damages. In some cases, this overload could result in death.
Besides the effect of Theobromine in lizards, you should avoid chocolate on your lizards due to its dairy content. Lizards have difficulties metabolizing dairy products; therefore, feeding dairy products to them can result in serious digestive problems, including diarrhea. If your lizard had an underlying illness, for instance, mild dehydration, feeding them on chocolate could cause severe illness or even death.
The other disadvantages of chocolate as food for lizards emanate from its nutritional content, which does not align with your pet’s requirements. Generally, lizards will get all their nutritional supplies by feeding on natural food comprising vegetables and insects. In captivity, owners balance these nutrients through gut loading the insects and feeding them to their reptiles. Whatever your preference, you should ensure your pet gets a balance of all the essential nutrients and provide essential calcium by providing this supplement on their food.
Chocolate has most of the essential nutrients that your pet requires for survival, but it is not an advisable food option due to the concentrations of these nutrients. To start with, chocolate is high in energy, with an average of 540kcal per 100grams. While high energy levels are good, lizards in captivity do not require high energy levels to survive. This is because they are exothermic and have a smaller space to roam than those in the wild.
Therefore, it is advisable to feed your pet low energy foods to prevent obesity, resulting from the stored calories. Chocolate is also rich in proteins, and you are likely to be tempted to give your juvenile lizards this snack. However, while young lizards require high protein levels for growth, chocolate is a processed food that is not advisable as a substitute for natural protein sources.
Chocolate is also unsuitable for lizards due to its high sugar levels, resulting in obesity, among other health issues. Given its high-fat content, chocolate is an unhealthy addition to your lizard’s diet. Whether in the natural or processed form, fats are unsuitable for lizards in captivity due to their minimum activity. These pets do not burn these fats fast and will become obese and unhealthy. Thus, while opting for natural foods for your lizard, you should equally avoid wax worms high in fats.
High vitamin A content in chocolate is another disadvantage. Lizards will get enough vitamin A if you supply them with a variety of worms and vegetables. This means that they do not need vitamin A supplements. Some owners, however, insist on giving their lizards vitamin A supplements. Feeding such lizards with chocolate could result in vitamin A toxicity, which could be fatal.
Chocolate also contains caffeine, and while there is no scientific study indicating the side effects of caffeine on lizards, caffeine has no value to your pet. Finally, the ideal calcium to phosphorus ratio for lizards is 2:1. On the other hand, chocolate has a disproportionate ratio of these minerals, with the phosphorus ratio being way higher than calcium. Therefore, feeding your pet on chocolate will disrupt calcium metabolism, resulting in metabolic bone disease.
A lizard suffering from this disease will appear weak with brittle bones and may eventually die. It will also experience loss in appetite, stress, and difficulty in movement. Thus, to be safe, you should avoid feeding your pet chocolate if you do not want to see it suffer or die.
In addition to raw chocolate, chocolate products are equally unsafe for your lizard. These include chocolate cakes or any other processed food containing chocolate. First, processed foods are unsuitable for reptiles, which is why you should stick to natural and fresh foods. Secondly, most snacks containing chocolate are sugary; hence, unsuitable for your pet, especially in captivity where they have reduced physical activities.
Therefore, among the early signs of chocolate poisoning are hyperactivity due to sugar rush, vomiting, and diarrhea. These symptoms, if untreated, may progress into seizures due to dehydration, affecting the heart rate, or even causing death. If you suspect poisoning, contact your vet as soon as you can. While waiting for your vet, hydrate your lizard by giving it water and its natural treats to reduce the symptoms.
With the above dangers of chocolate in mind, it is advisable to replace cooked or processed foods containing chocolate with raw, fresh fruits and vegetables. These include mustard greens, cactus pear, alfalfa, escarole, silkworm, collard greens, and squash, among other options. If you are unsure of the foods to give your lizard, you should talk to your vet for assistance instead of experimenting with unsafe foods that could cause irreversible damages.
Finally
In the wild, reptiles rely on wild fruits, vegetables, and insects to meet their nutritional demands. Therefore, if you want to treat your pet in captivity, you should stick to natural options such as fruits, but this should be on rare occasions. This is because the reptile digestive system contains gut flora and bacteria, whose function and balance can be affected by high sugar diets comprising candy or chocolate. These foods can cause digestive problems and stomachaches, which can be fatal.
In addition to digestive issues, the sugars in the above foods could cause sugar rush and obesity if converted into fats since reptiles in captivity have minimal physical activity. Also, chocolate has toxic ingredients such as Theobromine and dairy that could potentially kill your pet if ingested in large amounts, given their slow metabolism. Thus, to be safe, replace processed foods with raw, natural fruits and vegetables.
