How much should my Jackson's eat & drink?

PappaRONzi

PappaRONzi

New Member
I have had my male Jackson for 10 days and he is all over the place with eating and drinking. He will not eat out of a cup, seems scared of the cup. Will only really eat crickets that free range in his general area ( he doesn't move much),got him to take a few roaches. He is eating 4 - 6 medium crickets a day. I don't know his exact age, guessing 8 to 12 months. He is approx. 10 inches long, purchased him at a expo in Indianapolis. Seller only knew he was captive breed and came from the US. He was not much help! Also I have only seen him drink one time. I am dripping, misting, and humidifying so the water is there. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
 
Jacksond dont normally eat alot of food. but Id say what hes eating is normal.

Hes afraid of the food cup because hes not been trained to eat from the food cup. Thats just going ot take time and patience.

As for water, he should drink alot, they normally do, but you may not always see it. SO just make sure you mist alot, and watch his urates, if they are white, hes drinking.

you can post a pic too and people with jacksons can guestimate age.
 
If he is on the younger side of that guess the food amount is appropriate, but if he is looming somewhere around a year he really doesnt need to eat that much. Have you weighed him? Sounds like he is getting adequate water amounts so like Camimom said, as long as his urates are nice n white, he is drinking.
If you could post a pic we could possibly give you a better guess on his age if you'd like.

Are you supplementing him? If so what are you using, and how often are you using it?
 
Yea, my Jackson's wasn't ever a big eater either. When he got closer to 2 years old I was lucky if he was eating 1-2 feeders daily. But he drank soooo much! He was what started my 20 minute misting sessions, because it would take him about 3-5 minutes to decide to start drinking and then would drink up the rest of the time. After a little bit he would run over to the mister before it went off, close his eyes, and point his face towards the nozzle. And when it went off he would just sit there, soaking. He LOVED water.

He was a super sweet chameleon, he had a really beautiful temperament for a chameleon, but he started off very shy with cup or hand feeding. It took a couple months but I finally got him to start hand feeding and cup feeding. Although I still let him hunt down his food occasionally to keep him interested.
 
my male eats about the same if that. i have to feed him at 2 separate times in the day becuase he dosnt eat more than a couple in one sitting.

he also is the worst hunter ive ever owned preferring to be hand fed or out of a cup. he usually isnt interested in chasing things down.

he is also a terrible drinker and that concerns me, thats half the reason i purchased a humidifier. so im fogging, misting and dripping.

he tends not to care. he laps a few drops off of leaves, and ive seen him sit under the spray but ive never see him gulping it down.

the female on the other hand is the complete opposite. she would probably eat over 10 feeders a day if i let her, drinks constantly, and prefers to hunt her food.

the male also loves basking, another reason his lack of drinking concerns me. he wanders the cage every so often but stays near the basking spot for the most part.

i actually brought his basking spot closer to the light last night. im hoping this will incite more activity and thirst. get him back in the other half of the cage where i have the fog running.
 
DekuScrub said:
my male eats about the same if that. i have to feed him at 2 separate times in the day becuase he dosnt eat more than a couple in one sitting.

he also is the worst hunter ive ever owned preferring to be hand fed or out of a cup. he usually isnt interested in chasing things down.

he is also a terrible drinker and that concerns me, thats half the reason i purchased a humidifier. so im fogging, misting and dripping.

he tends not to care. he laps a few drops off of leaves, and ive seen him sit under the spray but ive never see him gulping it down.

the female on the other hand is the complete opposite. she would probably eat over 10 feeders a day if i let her, drinks constantly, and prefers to hunt her food.

the male also loves basking, another reason his lack of drinking concerns me. he wanders the cage every so often but stays near the basking spot for the most part.

i actually brought his basking spot closer to the light last night. im hoping this will incite more activity and thirst. get him back in the other half of the cage where i have the fog running.
Click to expand...

I dont want to start hijacking this thread but what are your ambient temps like? He may be spending most of his time basking because they are too low. My male will usually only bask for an hour or so first thing in the morning, and after feedings.
 
well as it applied to the original poster as well i wouldnt concider that hijacking.

right now according to my thermostat its 70 up here, and i dont think the heater has been running all day. so probably 68 down there.

the female is always active, and i dont see her basking often. so i dont know why it would be comfortable for her and not for him.
 
New Jax owner too

I have had my Jackson about 3 months now. I have noticed a few things that are becoming consistent with him. In the beginning he would eat about 8-10 medium crickets A DAY. Then it dropped off after a few weeks. I think he got sick of them! He didn't eat for several days until I introduced a super worm and he went straight for it, eating 3 of the nasty things. Then nothing for several days again. Then he shed. I tried wax worms and won't go near them. The whole time continued to drink plenty of fluid. Just reintroduced crickets the other day, 10 medium and zapped them off in two sittings. I have learned he eats like every other day or so. He is healthy and I keep Jax outside in a 4' tall cage with a Hibiscus, mostly because the weather permits it, and I believe that is the best environment. Not fond of handling but tolerates it when I transfer him to an inside cage if it is going to be too cold. He spends most of his day gazing out of his 4' tall Hibiscus. Almost impossible to see him and thought several times he got out only to see him staring right back at me after 15 minutes of panic...Mine is a male and so far everyone in the house thinks he is the greatest thing...

Temps seem to make a difference. Those lamps do not get the same reaction as the Sun does, a dramatic difference. He becomes a hunter after a few minutes of sun, otherwise the lamps he is always chilling it seemed. I did temp checks and everything was good to go. He just does better in the Sun.
 
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DekuScrub said:
well as it applied to the original poster as well i wouldnt concider that hijacking.

right now according to my thermostat its 70 up here, and i dont think the heater has been running all day. so probably 68 down there.

the female is always active, and i dont see her basking often. so i dont know why it would be comfortable for her and not for him.
Click to expand...

Well your temps are right on par with mine for the most part, mine are usually a little warmer mid day, but im not sure those few degrees are going to make a difference. Maybe hes just working on his tan?:p
 
mrguy said:
I have had my Jackson about 3 months now. I have noticed a few things that are becoming consistent with him. In the beginning he would eat about 8-10 medium crickets A DAY. Then it dropped off after a few weeks. I think he got sick of them! He didn't eat for several days until I introduced a super worm and he went straight for it, eating 3 of the nasty things. Then nothing for several days again. Then he shed. I tried wax worms and won't go near them. The whole time continued to drink plenty of fluid. Just reintroduced crickets the other day, 10 medium and zapped them off in two sittings. I have learned he eats like every other day or so. He is healthy and I keep Jax outside in a 4' tall cage with a Hibiscus, mostly because the weather permits it, and I believe that is the best environment. Not fond of handling but tolerates it when I transfer him to an inside cage if it is going to be too cold. He spends most of his day gazing out of his 4' tall Hibiscus. Almost impossible to see him and thought several times he got out only to see him staring right back at me after 15 minutes of panic...Mine is a male and so far everyone in the house thinks he is the greatest thing...
Click to expand...

Your lucky to be able to keep him outside most the time!;) my jackson has never been fond of any one paricular food item for long, with the exception of bb flies and hornworms. Which is fine, since i always keep loads of differentfeeders. Dubia consist of the majority of his diet due to their superior nutritional value, but ue still gets cri kets occasionally too
 
coldbloodedAL said:
Well your temps are right on par with mine for the most part, mine are usually a little warmer mid day, but im not sure those few degrees are going to make a difference. Maybe hes just working on his tan?:p
Click to expand...

yeah it gets a little warmer when the heater had been running a while since hes downstairs where the heater is.

i seriously think he does it to piss me off, hes like "oh justin is here! lets go sit under the lamp and not drink while he stares at me in frustration"

never know what hes doing the other 23 hours a day. probably drinks straight out of the misting head.
 
Feeders

coldbloodedAL said:
Your lucky to be able to keep him outside most the time!;) my jackson has never been fond of any one paricular food item for long, with the exception of bb flies and hornworms. Which is fine, since i always keep loads of differentfeeders. Dubia consist of the majority of his diet due to their superior nutritional value, but ue still gets cri kets occasionally too
Click to expand...

We are not allowed to have Dubia's here in Florida...it is illegal. Hornworms look dangerous, and where do you get flies?
 
That sounds like my guy to a tee! Only really eats food that I put in front of him. (prefers crickets) Only stays in 20% of his cage 90% of the time (close to basking light). His basking temp is 78 to 82 degrees. I have never seen him in the bottom part of his enclosure. Hoping with time he will start to get a little more active.
 
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mrguy said:
We are not allowed to have Dubia's here in Florida...it is illegal. Hornworms look dangerous, and where do you get flies?
Click to expand...

I forgot about that :p There are legal roaches which would be just as good. Hornworms are completely harmless. I get my bb flies from Mantisplace.com:D
 
I'm glad this one was posted now I'm not worried about my little guy eating 5-10 dubia babies a day or every other. He also is a terrible hunter :rolleyes: and has gotten lazy about it.
 
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