Wait many days to feed my Jackson or release him?

rj1204

New Member
I'll be real quick because I'm sure many of you have seen my lame posts. I live in Hawaii. Bought an adult male Jackson (wild caught) on Tuesday night. Fed him 4 crickets in a dish the next day. Waited 2 days and fed him 3 crickets. Waited 2 days and now he ate just 1. He is definitely nervous and scared. I have only handled him 2 times and that was to move him.....once to eat and once because I made a slight modification to his enclosure. My family has completely refrained from handling him and keeping our distance so he adopts. I was excited he ate on day one but a little concerned he hasn't slowed down. He does try to bite when I did pick him up those two times.

His enclosure is 24 x 24 x 48. His environment is perfect. I feed him out of a clear acrylic bug keeper and it worked just fine the first two feedings.

I figured my options are:

1. Leave him alone. Try feeding him in 2 days. That would mean he would have had just 1 cricket over 4 days so he should be hungry. Maybe he will see, over time, that me and my family are not a threat. Should I wait longer to feed him? Maybe 3 or 4 days?

2. Put 2-3 crickets in his feeding dish and leave them in his enclosure for a few hours. Hopefully they won't get out as it is about 5-6" deep. They (the crickets) slip and slide all over it but they can move around and occasionally get a good hop. The dish is actually in there now with 2 crickets but again, if I come back in a few hours and they are gone, that could have meant they escaped......or he ate them.

3. Take him up to where there are many Jackons in the wild here (Oahu) and release him. Maybe try finding another Jackson that is captive born, younger, or been in captivity and has been feeding for a while.

As always, advice is appreciated.
 
Welcome.

Firstly use this template when asking for help.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

It gives other members very specific information about your particular husbandry techniques and problems, and allows better troubleshooting.

I have no experience with Jackson's Chameleons. I do know they have some very specific housing and environment needs that must be provided.

Its also extremely helpful if you can provide a good quality fairly close shot (Pic) of your cham.
 
When chams are stressed sometimes they dont like to eat, might be stressed from the transition. also chams go on hunger strikes, if the cham is used to eating wild bugs it might take some time to adjust to the diet you are supplying

-a tip for a feeding container, its called the sunny d death trap works great crickets never escape and really inexpensive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1acx7nkCLg
 
I can tell you what I would do. I would put a number of crickets, and what ever bugs or worms you can get lose into his cage. You should be able to tell if he is eating, but coming from the wild a feeder cup must be really strange to him. If he looks like he is getting skinny or losing weight, I would return him to the wild. Best of luck what ever you do.
 
I believe I put most of the "How to ask for help" info in there but not all. Thanks for the template.

As for eating, he ate 4 crickets day one and 3 day 3 so I don't think its stress......but of course it could be.

Thanks for the link on the Sunny D container, that is a great contraption and I've heard it referenced.

My question is about how long is long enough for him to build an appetite without "starving" him?
 
Gonna let him go. Not sure where but he's not a pet. I'll just put him over by a local cemetery here. Rains a lot and not any houses around so I'm guessing that works. I've heard people have seen one oar two around this area.
 
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