They are not too small - my adult panthers love them.
Yes, the shell is somewhat hard to digest, thus you would not want to offer these on a regular /daily basis. Unlike mealworms, they do have a good nutirional value so they are worth it. Ive been using these as an enrichment feeder (about once or twice a month in winter, once a week in summer and fall) for over ten years and have never had any problems resulting. In nature chameleons do eat beetles and things with shells. So long as there is balance in the diet and enough water, a hard shell now and then is no problem. Plus chameleons do LOVE eating these. These and stick insects are by FAR the favourite of EVERY chameleon I have ever owned. They love these more than moths, more than hornworms, more than silkworms, more than roaches, more than everything else. This alone is reason enough, I think, to offer these now and then.
Of course I advocate for not offering any one insect on a regular daily basis, but rather mixing it up with a different bug each meal. So for me (or rather, for my chameleons), there's no staple feeder but rather as wide a variety as possible. Isopods are just one of many choices.
I have found that if you DONT mix the keep the types of isopods in a container, they breed faster. I dont know why. I have a tank with the type that rolls up into balls (often called pill bugs or rollie pollies) only, and another container with flatter wood lice only, and these two tanks produce much better than the container in which I've got three types mixed. There's always plenty of food, so that's not the limiting factor.
If using fish dog or cat food or any other high animal protien/fat stuff as part of the isopod diet, remember to switch to a veggie gut load for several days prior to feeding off the isopod to the chameleon.
