Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had my sheltopusik (European Leggless Lizard) for about two years now. I inherited him after my brother passed away. He is about 3' long and I keep him in a 4'x18"x24" aquarium. He seems happy. My real question is how much should he be eating as it seems that he will eat as much as we are willing to give to him. in the last two weeks he has eaten about 100 dusted crickets. He seems to enjoy hunting them down and devouring them. And he refuses to eat dead food now that he has had live food.

Does anyone have any suggestions for food quantity or types? We have used dusted crickets the most but in the past we have given night crawlers, wax worms and meal worms. But he ate the wax worms and meal worms like candy.

Thanks
Laura

Laura
I have one that I've had for years. I feed him every 2-3 days, but I feel confident he would eat every day if I offered food. I feed whatever I have at the time (superworms, crickets, frozen mice or rat pinks, roaches etc.) I have not found anything he will not eat. I will feed him approx a dozen bugs or 3-4 frozen thawed rodents per meal. They seem to have a rather high metabolism. Good luck.
Eric

Thanks, I was kind of worried that I would make him fat at this rate. I don't know if I have the heart to feed rat pinks as I also have pet rats. but the superworm or roaches are a good idea.

Superworms are exteremely convenient, but not as nutritious as crickets or roaches. What you might want to look into are hornworms. Very, very big, very muscular, and unbelievably high in calcium, so you can lay off on the dusting, which can be rough on their liver if they wind up getting too much for too long. The only problems with them are
a. You have to order them online or get them at reptile shows, and
b. They don't have a very good shelf life. Maybe two weeks before they die or pupate.
But once a month I hit a show, buy some hornworms, and for a week or two every bug-eater I have that I can use them for gets hornworms.
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