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Live food is living animals used as food for other carnivorous or omnivorous animals kept in captivity; in other words, small preys (such as insects, small fish or rodents) fed alive to larger predators kept either in a zoo or as a pet.
Live food is commonly used as feed for a variety of species of exotic pets and zoo animals, ranging from crocodilians (crocodiles and alligators) to various snakes, turtles, lizards and frogs, but also including other non-reptilian, non-amphibian species such as birds and mammals (for instance, pet skunks, which are omnivorous mammals, can technically be fed a limited amount of live food, though this is not known to be a common practice). Common live food ranges from insects (e.g. crickets, used as an inexpensive form of feed for reptiles such as bearded dragons and commonly available in pet stores for this reason; other examples are cockroaches, locusts, waxworms and mealworms), worms (e.g. earthworms) and crustaceans, to small birds (e.g. chickens) and mammals (e.g. mice and rabbits).
In angling, live earthworms are frequently attached to fishing hook and presented as a live food to bait and catch game fish. Worms are also used as fish food for aquaria and fish ponds.