{"id":668,"date":"2019-02-17T06:46:37","date_gmt":"2019-02-17T06:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reptilefollower.com\/?p=668"},"modified":"2019-02-17T06:46:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T06:46:37","slug":"do-cats-eat-lizards-are-they-toxic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reptilefollower.com\/do-cats-eat-lizards-are-they-toxic\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Cats Eat Lizards? (Are they not Toxic & Dangerous?)"},"content":{"rendered":"
If you have a cat, or a pet lizard, you may have wondered if cats eats lizards. I was interested to see if or why this happens and if domestic cats are in danger of poison or toxic venom from eating lizards.<\/p>\n
Do Cats Eats Lizard? Yes, they do. Depending on the specie of lizard it may or may not harm your cat. The common house lizard, for example is not venomous or toxic, but they can carry diseases such as salmonella and parasites.<\/strong><\/p>\n So, now you know that lizards can be eaten by cats. The next thing that I was interested in knowing was more detail. For example, what diseases might a cat get if it eats the wrong lizard, what other predators may put your pet lizard at risk, how to avoid your lizard getting eaten by predators such as cats, and more. Please read on to get this information.<\/p>\n To answer your question directly yes, they can be toxic (I will explain more in detail within the rest of the article). In particular venomous. But, they are definitely not poisonous.<\/p>\n The reason why I say they are not poisonous is because people tend to confuse venomous and poisonous. An easy way to understand this differentiation is this, venom is injected when you are bitten. Poison, on the other hand, is when you eat something and it enters your body.<\/p>\n Some lizards carry salmonella on their skin and also have parasite on them inside of the body, which can be dangerous if consumed by your cat.<\/p>\n The parasites on a lizard can come from animals it eats, such as mice. These parasites, while they are not toxic, can cause harm to your cat if it ingests them.<\/p>\n In reality venom and poisoning are both regarded as toxins, so if your question is on lizards, or can lizards be toxic, then the answer is yes.<\/p>\n The distinction between poisonous is if you consume something and it goes into your body that is deemed as poisonous.<\/p>\n However, if something is a venomous it is come from when you are bitten and injected with toxins. This is an easy way to differentiate between poisonous venomous.<\/p>\n This depends on the size of the lizard, you can get small lizards, like the Chipkali<\/a>, or some are absolutely enormous, like the Komodo dragon, which is almost 10 feet in length. Therefore, the types of predators can vary quite significantly.<\/p>\n In reality humans are probably the biggest threat to any lizard specie, simply because they have a tendency to steal their eggs and antagonise all species of lizards.<\/p>\n Other predators to consider are larger lizards that tend to attack smaller lizards, small parasites that prey and live on lizards themselves. As discussed earlier, these parasites are believed to come from animals such as mice, rats or even in insects that the lizards eat.<\/p>\n One of the tactics that they use is breaking off their tail to escape from their enemy<\/a>. They also change colour, also on a more drastic level, some of them actually squirt blood from their eyes<\/a> to completely confuse and scare their predator.<\/p>\n Another tactic that they use is hissing, an example of this is the Frilled dragon, it hisses to frighten off its predator and make it look intimidating.<\/p>\n Bearded dragons are known to puff up their throats to make themselves look bigger and intimidate their attacker.<\/p>\n Tail whipping is another tactic that lizards use to protect himself. The green iguana is known to lash its tail to inflict harm on its predator. In fact, big lizards can lash so hard that they can even break the skin of their attacker.<\/p>\nWhat can happen if your cat eats a lizard, are they not toxic?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What is the difference between toxic, venomous, and poisonous?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
So, what animals\u2019 prey on lizards?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
How do lizards protect themselves from danger?<\/strong><\/h2>\n