my chams have been eating crickets as their staple diest along with the occasional silkworms, superworms, and waxworms, but i was just wondering what everyone else uses for a staple diet, because i am tired of stinky crickets, i was thinking of using praying mantises or locusts, but i think locusts cant be bought in the U.S., any ideas?

roaches. they dont stink, most cant climb, most are slow as heck, none can hop, only hissers make noise. and more. dubias are the best staple feeders. the females and the nymphs dont have the stereotypical roach look, but the males do.

__________________
Not to unlearn what you have learned is the most necessary kind of learning. -Antisthenes

Some people use roaches or dubia.

__________________
1.1 Veiled Chameleons & 1 Mixed Breed Dog

could one of you please list me good reasons to use roaches, my mom says anything but roaches, yes my mom, i am a young but experienced keeper

ha me to I'm only thirteen...oh yeah I would reccomend roaches(dubias) if you don't want the smell. Roaches are more meatier. Roaches are easy to breed. Roaches can't climb out of the plastic container. Roaches can't fly. They will eat more of a variety of food. They tend to like more sweeter foods. Both crickets and roaches are great but they both have there pros and cons. Also, go on my profile and find my post:Crickets or roaches?
I made it so everyone can look back to it and decide for themselves.

oh cool, what kind of chams do you keep?

I have one blue-barred(4 or 5 months) from screameleons. Here are two pics from a couple weeks ago:

Here is the sire(closest reference)

I see you have an awesome looking veiled.

yeah, i have a blue bar too and a baby high orange veiled

Roaches. I have hissers and (recently) Turkish. Easy to keep, quiet (even the hissers are usually quiet, and even when at their loudest they are not loud like crickets). The M Hissers dont look like common house roaches one might find in North America. Tell your mom they are Madagascar Hissing Beetles (not entirely untrue).

Other options for rounding out your variety, but not as staples, are: butterworms, stick insects / phasmids, hormworms.

I have pet mantids, so I cant bring mys elf to use them as feeders

haha good idea