Isopods instead of crickets and roaches?

[Chellia]

How great are isopods for a hard shell part of a cham diet? I'm going to be varying my cham's diet quite a bit, but I am having trouble with the main hard shell staple.

My original plan was to breed roaches, but my husband and I recently moved into an apartment complex and I just couldn't justify doing that anymore. I'm terrified of management finding out we have roaches.

I'm not a huge cricket fan because of the noise and smell, can I do isopods frequently?

I will have crickets now and then, but I would prefer to not have a colony of them I can't stand the smell or noise.

Other than that the diet will rotate with silks, supers (occasionally), butter/waxworms for an occasional treat, mantids, stick insects, phoenix worms (and flies), and house flies.

 

[TobiasP]

I thing isopods would be a good alternative, but how would you be able to feed them consistently? I keep Panama isopods, small brown and really fast. Catching them would be a pain

 

[Carlton]

How great are isopods for a hard shell part of a cham diet? I'm going to be varying my cham's diet quite a bit, but I am having trouble with the main hard shell staple.

My original plan was to breed roaches, but my husband and I recently moved into an apartment complex and I just couldn't justify doing that anymore. I'm terrified of management finding out we have roaches.

I'm not a huge cricket fan because of the noise and smell, can I do isopods frequently?

I will have crickets now and then, but I would prefer to not have a colony of them I can't stand the smell or noise.

Other than that the diet will rotate with silks, supers (occasionally), butter/waxworms for an occasional treat, mantids, stick insects, phoenix worms (and flies), and house flies.

Some chams like isopods but others ignore them. My jax LOVED pill and sowbugs. If you are going to use them get a colony going. Don't collect them from outdoors as they tend to bioaccumulate some soil contaminants. It will take a lot to feed a larger cham species as they won't get very large or have a lot of "meat" to them.

Have you considered the B. dubia cave roaches? They are slower moving, the adults are easier to contain (poorer climbers), and so not as notorious for escaping into the house. They also require temps above 80 F to breed successfully. A little less likely to colonize in your region as winter may kill them off.

You don't necessarily need to have your own cricket colony if you have a consistent local source. Just get enough to feed off on a routine. Gutload them well for a few days to get rid of the less-than-great food the store may be using before feeding them to your cham.

 

[Lathis]

My Jax loves isopods. My previous colony collapsed and now I am starting over with giant canyon isopods. They are expensive for the starter batch and take several months to get a colony going. At two months now, I am just now getting babies. They are very easy to care for.

 

[TobiasP]

How do you catch the isopods for feeding?

 

[Chellia]

How do you catch the isopods for feeding?

I'd be ordering them online


I also moved across country (I'm in TX now) and so the cold winter won't be happening this year

 

[TobiasP]

Yeah but for giving it to the chameleons i guess you keep them in some kind of substrate

 

[Carlton]

Yeah but for giving it to the chameleons i guess you keep them in some kind of substrate

Yes, set up a critter carrier or other type of bin for the isopods. Use a kitchen strainer or sieve to scoop them up when you want to feed them.