The hatchlings come out wild and ready to fend for themselves; they catch their own bugs [the usual food of a hatchling] and they flee from danger and hide to protect themselves, and they find warm and cool areas in the environment to regulate their temperatures. Even captive-bred lizards are wild when they hatch, and have to learn to be tame. This is very different from birds and mammals, which typically are fearless and helpless when they are born, and have to be cared for.
Alligators and crocodiles do feed and protect their young, though. They feed them the same things they themselves eat.
Lizards don't feed their young. Neither do snakes. Mothers of some crocodile species allow their young to feed from the mothers' mouth.
Most reptiles are carnivores that feed on small invertebrates, mammals and other reptiles. A few reptiles are herbivores that feed on plant material as varied as grasses, fruits, shrubs and marine plants such as algae and kelp.
I'm not entirely clued up on biology but I hear that lizards don't feed their offspring milk because the latter is a mammalian thing because i'm pretty sure certain types of mammals do have 'breasts' or something akin to that. But what is it that lizards feed to their young?
