You can feed them anything if you want to feed them. They do require a certain moisture level though.
I ranch them in the summer months when things are warm.
To get started I ordered a bunch of larvae and put them in my container. I used a garbage can with lots of holes drilled in the bottom, 2/3 buried into the ground (no drain pain that way- everything goes directly into the earth a couple of feet below ground level and I don't have to worry about larvae escaping through the drain holes). Several inches of pine shavings are placed in the bottom and then food and larvae are placed on top of that. At first I dampen the shavings- the larvae have to be kept damp, and their food needs to be damp as well.
The larvae put off pheromones that attract gravid wild females in from the surrounding neighborhood and they lay their eggs in the garbage can and I get more and more larvae all summer. I keep a lid on the can, but have drilled 1" holes all the way around beneath the lid lip on the garbage can so that soldier flies can fly in and out, but the holes are too far above the ground for rodents to reach.
You can feed them soft foods- long and hard fiber foods (many vegetables) are not accepted so well, but if you have a food processor, shredding really makes a big difference in what they can eat.
You can also put cricket food in there and dampen it. I'd be willing to bet the company advertising how theirs are fed a special food and are more nutritious than other brands are probably using some kind of chicken food in the same way. Which is not so great for a chameleon! But any dry gutload could be fed damp like that and will be readily consumed. They like fermented foods, and dampening most dry foods like cricket food into something the consistency of pancake batter gets that process going and they will eat it. Old bananas and fruit and the like also, and melons and cucumbers, etc.
Or you can keep them in your basement in a cool location and opt out of feeding them altogether.
