Reptile Water & Food Dish Products

In their natural habitat, reptiles are accustomed to lurking somewhere to wait for prey. Sometimes, they are actively pursuing prospective food. After all, some reptiles, especially the larger species are predators. And in the wild, reptile food ranges from mealworms, to insects, and rodents and a whole lot of fauna that thousands of years of evolution have taught them to feed on.

However, once you start taking care of some of them as your ‘lovable green friend’, it is your responsibility as a pet owner to provide them not only food, but food containers as well. Most reptiles, especially lizards, might get sick because of impaction. These critters often examine their surrounding by licking whatever they could get their tongues on. So if you use loose substrate, such as sand, as substrate in your vivarium, your pet’s stomach would be crawling with the very particles that he was supposed to crawl on. To avoid this problem, you may use reptile carpeting as a protective layer. However, some people want their pets to be in a place that looks as natural as possible. An alternative would be getting reptile food dishes and reptile water dishes for your pets so when it’s feeding time, you can be sure that your pets will not be in danger of ingesting substrate particles.

Feeding the Food
The importance of gut loading cannot be emphasized enough. Gut loading is the process of fortifying your pet feed (such as insects) with essential nutrients and vitamins by feeding them turnip greens and other ‘healthy’ stuff. This is before you feed them to your pets. You might wonder why this is important when in the wild, your pet would have been able to eat non-fortified food and live quite well. The answer is that, in his natural habitat, your pet’s diet would probably be varied. They can get pretty much all the essential nutrients that their body needs. In captivity though, no matter how hard you try to give them the food they need, you won’t have much choice.

Products which fall under this category are cricket shakers and cricket feeding ‘rocks’ that would allow you to easily coat crickets with vitamins before feeding them to your pets. There are also cricket drinks that provide a clean moisture source for your feeder insects.

Reptile Food Dishes
When choosing reptile food dishes, you have to keep your pet’s nature in mind. For example, ramp bowls would prevent box turtles and tortoises from “drowning” as they allow these types of pets to easily move in and out of the food dish. These products range plastic ones to those with surfaces simulating granitic rock. Some even has a remote-controlled vibrating function which some manufacturers claim to simulate in-the-wild feeding. Reptile food dishes should also be gnaw-resistant to avoid impaction.

Reptile Water Dishes
Some reptile food dishes can also be used as reptile water dishes. However, some pet reptiles would actually like soaking in reptile water dishes because soaking makes skin shedding easier for them. So, when choosing a water dish, you might as well go for those that can be utilized not only as a water dish, but as a pet lagoon as well. Some of these products actually look good and would not look out of place when, well, placed on your vivarium. There are also products that act as a ‘water reservoir’ that regularly refills your reptile water dishes. However, a pet in captivity should not be let in his own devices. You should always check on his pet to find out if he has everything he needs when it comes to any of the reptile accessories that are available for your pet reptile.