Nutrition
The Jackson's Chameleon eats mainly insects and spiders.
The animal will catch prey with its remarkable tongue which
can extend about 1.5 times its body length. Its tongue has
sticky saliva at the tip which is able to catch the prey.
It does all of this by sitting completely still on a branch
and only moving its eyes until seeing an insect and then reacting by
extending the tongue.
The Chameleon will most likely not do any hunting until it is
completely warm. In the
morning it will completely stretch out its body to warm up by
sitting under the sun and letting the warm rays heat it up.
If the animal is cold, it will probably be very lethargic and
not hunt as much as if it was warm (Kundinger 2001).
Just like any other animal, the chameleon will feed relatively more when it is going through a growth cycle. When the animal is young, it will eat primarily fruit flies because they are small enough for it to ingest. As it gets older it will start eating larger insects that are about the size of a cricket. It can eat up to 15 crickets per day if it is going through a growth cycle (Kundinger 2001).