Green Anole Feeding: Two or Three Insects Smaller Than Its Head, and Water It Can Lap
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A green anole is small, quick and cheap, and the diet that keeps one healthy is simple in outline and unforgiving in the details. The portion is set by the size of its head, the supplement has to go on every time, and the water has to arrive as droplets. Here is each of those, and how to read an anole that stops eating.
Feeding Schedule by Age
| Age | How often | How much |
|---|---|---|
| Hatchling and juvenile | Daily | As many appropriately sized insects as it takes in one sitting |
| Adult | Every other day | Two or three insects, each slightly smaller than the head |
The head rule is the portion, and it is the number most care sheets leave out. A green anole has a small mouth, and an insect larger than the space between its eyes is a choking and stress risk rather than a generous meal. Fruit flies carry hatchlings and the smallest juveniles until a small cricket fits.
What Green Anoles Eat
An insectivore, and a small one. The feeders that suit it: crickets, dubia and discoid nymphs, red runner and red head roaches, small grasshoppers and locusts, flightless fruit flies, black soldier fly larvae, and the occasional mealworm. Farm-raised maggots and other soft-bodied insects work too. Variety across that list is the closest thing to a balanced diet an insect eater gets, so rotate rather than settling on crickets alone.
Gut-load first. Feeder insects are hydrated and gut-loaded for 24 to 48 hours before they go in, so the nutrition the anole gets is the nutrition the insect ate. The gut-loading guide covers what to feed the feeders and why a cricket straight from the shop tub is mostly shell.
Dust every time. A light dusting of a 50/50 mix of calcium and multivitamin powder on the insects at each feeding corrects the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio of the insect and covers the vitamins; an all-in-one calcium-plus-vitamin powder does the same job in one tub. Consistency matters more here than for a larger lizard, because a small animal runs out of margin fast. Metabolic bone disease in reptiles comes from a low calcium-to-phosphorus ratio or missing vitamin D3 in the diet, and from a lack of UVB, and in an anole it progresses in weeks. The UVB lighting guide covers the light half of that pair.
Wild insects, carefully. Grasshoppers and leafhoppers from the garden are a good supplement to the diet, and the one condition is that they are free of pesticide, herbicide or any other chemical. An insect from a treated lawn poisons the lizard that eats it, which is the same rule the invertebrate pesticide hazards guide applies from the other side.
Water arrives as droplets, not in a bowl. Wild anoles lap water from leaves after rain or from early dew, and every green anole will drink water misted onto the leaves and walls of its enclosure. Mist once or twice a day and watch it drink. A dish, if you keep one, is shallow and up on a ledge: an anole cannot climb out of deep or steep-sided water and will drown in it.
Foods to Avoid
Superworms and kingworms, whose sharp, powerful mandibles can injure an anole from the inside. Any insect large enough to be a mouthful rather than a bite. Wild-caught insects from anywhere that may have been sprayed. Fireflies, which are toxic to lizards. And nothing from the fruit bowl: an anole is an insect eater, and the fruit-and-nectar mixes sold for other small lizards are not its diet.
Why Green Anoles Stop Eating
It is cold. An anole that cannot reach its basking temperature does not digest and stops taking food. The basking spot is the first check.
It is dehydrated. An anole that is not being misted stops eating before it shows any other sign, and a brown, dull, sunken-eyed anole is the picture. Misting resumes, and so does the appetite.
It is shedding. A day or two off food around a shed is normal. A shed that sticks to the toes and tail tip is the humidity, and the health guide covers what to do about it.
It is stressed. A new enclosure, a cagemate, a cat at the glass, or a male displaying at his own reflection. Anoles are prey animals that hide their trouble, and appetite is the first thing to go.
It is a female with eggs. A gravid female slows down and may refuse for a few days before laying. She needs a moist patch of substrate to lay in, and her calcium dusting matters more than ever.
When to Worry
A day or two off food in a warm, misted enclosure is nothing. A refusal that runs a week, or any refusal with a swollen jaw, a kinked tail, trembling limbs, or a lizard that stays brown and still all day, is the point to see a reptile vet, and the reptile emergency plan guide has the signs sorted by urgency. An anole weighs a few grams and has no reserve to wait on.
Fed two or three small, dusted insects every other day and misted twice a day, a green anole is one of the easiest lizards there is. The size of the animal is the whole difficulty: every rule above exists because there is no margin in a lizard that fits in a matchbox.
Sources & Further Reading
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How often and how much should I feed a green anole?
A juvenile eats daily, as much as it will take in a sitting. An adult gets two or three insects every other day, each slightly smaller than the anole's head. The head rule is the portion: an oversized cricket is a choking risk for a lizard this small, not a bigger meal.
What insects can a green anole eat?
Crickets, dubia and discoid nymphs, red runner and red head roaches, flightless fruit flies, black soldier fly larvae, small grasshoppers and the occasional mealworm, gut-loaded for 24 to 48 hours first. Skip superworms and kingworms, whose jaws can injure an anole, and never offer a wild insect that may carry pesticide.
Does an anole need supplements?
Yes, and consistently. A light dusting of a 50/50 calcium and multivitamin mix, or an all-in-one calcium-plus-vitamin powder, on the insects at every feeding. A small lizard runs into a calcium deficiency fast, and metabolic bone disease in an anole progresses in weeks.
Why will my anole not drink from its bowl?
Because anoles lap water from leaves, the way they take dew and rain in the wild, and many never recognize standing water at all. Mist the foliage and glass once or twice a day and the anole drinks the droplets. If you keep a dish, make it shallow and put it up on a ledge, since an anole cannot climb out of deep or steep-sided water.
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Written by Michael Ryan
Mike keeps two rescued bearded dragons, Dex and Cera, and writes the care guides on BeastlyFacts from his own research and mistakes. He is not a veterinarian.
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