Choosing a Staple Feeder: Roaches, Crickets, Mealworms and Hornworms
Most keepers end up running one feeder as a staple and two or three others around it. Which one takes the staple slot depends less on nutrition tables than on what your animal will reliably eat and what you can keep alive.
Discoid roaches — the staple
Soft-bodied, high in usable protein, low in shell, and slow enough that an animal can catch one without a chase. They cannot climb smooth surfaces and they do not fly, so a bin with clean sides holds them. They do not chirp and they do not smell. Adults live one to two years, so nothing is wasted in a week when your animals eat less.
For Florida keepers there is a second reason: discoids are the feeder roach that Florida permits.
Crickets — movement
The movement triggers a feeding response in almost every insectivore, which makes crickets the answer for a reluctant eater and for animals like chameleons that hunt by sight. They are easy to dust with calcium and their moisture content helps with hydration.
They are also the most demanding feeder to keep alive, which is why buying the right quantity matters more than buying the cheapest tub. Order what your animals will eat in two weeks.
One rule: never leave uneaten crickets in an enclosure overnight. They will bite a sleeping reptile.
Mealworms — convenience
Easy to portion, easy to hold, no colony to maintain. They are higher in chitin than roaches or hornworms, so they work best as part of a varied diet rather than the only thing on the menu. Best offered in a shallow dish they cannot burrow out of.
Hornworms — a tool, not a staple
Very soft-bodied, almost no chitin, and mostly moisture. That combination makes them the first thing many experienced keepers reach for when an animal is dehydrated, recovering, or refusing food. The same moisture content makes them a poor everyday diet — once or twice a week rather than daily.
They also grow fast, so buy them close to when you intend to use them.
The thing that matters more than the choice
Whatever a feeder eats in the day before you offer it goes straight into your animal. A well-kept insect is a better feeder than a neglected one of a nutritionally superior species — see our Care & Storage guides.
General guidance only. Reptile dietary needs vary by species, age, size and health. Follow feeding recommendations appropriate for your individual animal.