Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello
Currently my chameleons (Furcifer Pardalis) primarily eat crickets, butterworms, silk worms, meal worms, stick insects, and wood sows (isopods). Additionally, babies get fruit flies and the adult males get king worms and roaches.

Anyone know the nutritional value of walking stick insects or pheonix worms? My chameleons LOVE stick insects, but as I'm not sure what nutritional value they have I hesitate to offer them more than once a week.

I believe a variety of feeder insects is best, and am thinking of adding pheonix worms to the mix. Has anyone ever fed these to their chameleons and/or know anything about the value of these larva or of stick insects?

I don't know much about the nutrition of stick insects but I have done a bit of research on the Phoenix worms. These worms are the larvae of the black solder fly and are very high in calcium and low in phosphorous, especially the medium to large sized versions. The website for phoenix worms has some basic info about their nutritional content but further research lead me to the site below:

www.wormman.com/pd_phoenix.cfm

I had also found a more detailed breakdown of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) nutrition awhile back but can't seem to find it now. But I did find this breakdown for the larvae, though the chart only lists the scientific names. Its the pupae though in it's analyst but its the larvae that has the most nutrition for reptiles.

It is eluding me now for some reason but the above link does give a basic breakdown of the nutrition of the phoenix worms. The use of black soldier flies in agriculture is actually quite interesting, definitely worth reading if you have an interest in such things.