Do All Reptiles Eat Crickets?

Reptiles are fascinating animals that are found in the wild and are also kept as pets. Reptiles are different from us in so many ways, they’re cold-blooded, they shed their skin, and they eat pretty weird things! Among the many eccentric food items your pet reptile might consume are insects. Some reptiles need insects added to their meals while others survive on insects alone!

So out of all of the reptiles that eat bugs, which reptiles eat crickets?

Crickets are a great source of protein and nutrients for both wild and pet reptiles. Crickets are easy to catch and hunt for wild reptiles and easy to purchase for pet reptiles. Many reptiles like bearded dragons, leopard geckos, and green anoles eat crickets. Some snakes, like garter snakes, even eat crickets!

Though many reptiles eat crickets, not all of them consume these little insects. Some reptiles are complete herbivores and will only eat bugs accidentally. Sulcata tortoises, Russian tortoises, and Uromastyx are all examples of reptiles that don’t eat crickets. These animals don’t consume any live food and instead, survive on plants for their entire lives. Bugs aren’t easily digested by herbivores and these reptiles generally aren’t fast enough to hunt and catch something like a cricket.

On the other hand, you have larger reptiles that are carnivores. While some medium-sized carnivores will eat bugs, large carnivorous reptiles like Komodo dragons will not. Crickets are too small to give them any real nutritional value and a large predator won’t usually spend its time hunting such a small meal. Even though these reptiles won’t often eat crickets, they might go after a small bug in a life-or-death situation. Emaciated animals in the wild would probably eat anything they could get their teeth around just to survive.

So, now that we have some examples of turtles and lizards that don’t eat crickets, what about snakes?