A staple feeder is the insect that makes up most of what an animal eats, week after week, for years. Almost everything sold as a feeder is not one. This guide sets out what a staple actually has to do, runs the common feeders against that standard, and points at the individual comparisons where the detail lives. It is written for someone setting up a first insectivore or reconsidering a diet that has drifted into one item.
What a staple feeder has to do
Four things, and the fourth is the one people forget.
- Cover the animal's whole size range. A hatchling and an adult of the same species need very different prey sizes. A staple that only exists at one size is a phase, not a staple.
- Be nutritionally reasonable once gut loaded and dusted. No feeder insect is complete on its own. The realistic test is whether it becomes adequate with normal supplementation, not whether it is good raw.
- Be available when you need it. A feeder you can only get sometimes cannot be the base of a diet.
- Be tolerable to live with. Noise, smell, escapes, and the amount of work per week are what actually decide which feeder a keeper is still using a year later.
Judged that way, most of the feeder list fails on at least one point, and that is fine. Rotation feeders exist for a reason.
The candidates, honestly
| Feeder | Role | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Dubia roaches | Staple | Sit still, so poor for movement-hunters; a prohibited import in Florida |
| Crickets | Staple | Noisy, smelly, short-lived; supply has been unstable for years |
| Black soldier fly larvae | Staple or heavy rotation | Calcium content depends on how they were reared; short shelf life |
| Mealworms | Rotation | Low calcium, fatty, small; easy to over-rely on because they store well |
| Superworms | Rotation | High fat; they bite; cannot be refrigerated |
| Hornworms | Occasional | Mostly water; outgrow the animal in days |
| Silkworms | Occasional | Need feeding and cleaning most days |
| Isopods and springtails | Clean-up crew, sometimes food | Not a diet for anything larger than a froglet |
Each row has a guide behind it: dubia roaches vs. crickets, black soldier fly larvae vs. mealworms, mealworms vs. superworms, hornworms vs. silkworms, and isopods vs. springtails.
Start from the animal, not the insect
The question "what is the best feeder" has no answer. The question "what should this animal eat" usually does, and it is set by how the animal hunts and how big it is.
- Animals that hunt by movement need prey that moves. Chameleons and many small frogs come first here, and a stationary feeder in a dish will be ignored no matter what its nutritional profile says.
- Dish-fed animals can use feeders that stay put. Leopard geckos are the common case.
- Large-bodied omnivores need volume as well as insects. Bearded dragons eat plants too, and the insect share changes as they grow.
- Very small animals may need a feeder most people think of as a clean-up crew. See isopods vs. springtails.
Per-species detail is in the feeding guides linked above. Size grading against the animal's head width is on the dubia roach size chart.
Why the answer is usually two feeders, not one
Wild insectivores eat a very large number of species. A review of feeder insect nutrition (Finke and Oonincx, 2023) says the same thing in practical terms: feed a variety, not a single item. A keeper running two staples plus an occasional third is closer to that than a keeper running one perfectly chosen insect.
There is also a supply argument. A single-feeder diet means a bad delivery, a supplier gap or a colony crash becomes a feeding problem. Two feeders makes it an inconvenience.
Where the roach is the wrong answer
Dubia roaches are the feeder this site would be expected to push. They keep well, they scale, they are quiet, and they are easy to sell as the sensible upgrade. They are still wrong in several common cases.
- The animal ignores stationary prey. This is the big one, and no amount of nutritional argument fixes it.
- You are in Florida. Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services lists dubia as a prohibited import, and we do not ship them there. Every other feeder we sell ships to Florida.
- You keep one small animal. A colony is overkill; buying small quantities of something else is cheaper and simpler.
- Someone in the household will not have roaches in the house. This is a real constraint and it settles the question faster than any table does.
In all four cases crickets are usually the better answer despite being the older, cheaper, less fashionable option. We do not sell crickets. Dubia roaches are the staple we sell instead, which is why this list is worth reading before you order them.
What actually decides it: your house
Most keepers switch feeders for reasons that have nothing to do with nutrition.
- Noise. Male crickets chirp through a closed door.
- Smell. A cricket bin smells; a roach bin, kept properly, does not.
- Escapes. A cricket that gets out is a nuisance. A roach that gets out is an argument.
- Time. Silkworms need daily attention. Black soldier fly larvae need none.
- Storage. Mealworms hold cool for weeks. Almost nothing else on the list does.
Pick the feeder you will still be maintaining in six months. The best insect on paper is worthless if the bin gets neglected, and a neglected bin is how most feeder problems start. Our guide to setting up a feeder storage station covers where each bin goes and the routine that keeps it from being neglected.
Supplementation is not optional
Whatever you settle on, the calcium and vitamin side is a separate decision and not one a feeder choice makes for you. Gut load before feeding out, dust according to the animal's needs, and get the schedule from a vet or a species-specific source rather than from a shop. Figures and sources are in the bearded dragon feeder guide, which compares eight feeders, and how to gut load feeder insects covers gut loading and how it differs from dusting.
Anything clinical, including an animal that has stopped eating or shows signs of metabolic bone disease, is a conversation with an exotics vet. It is not something to solve by changing feeder.
Where to go from here
- Deciding between the two most common staples: dubia roaches vs. crickets.
- Deciding which worm: mealworms vs. superworms.
- Weighing the calcium argument: black soldier fly larvae vs. mealworms.
- Choosing a soft-bodied treat: hornworms vs. silkworms.
- Setting up a bioactive enclosure: isopods vs. springtails.
- Everything we stock: feeders.
Before a first order, read our shipping and live arrival terms, which include where we ship, and the shipping guide if you have not had live insects delivered before.