definitely keep a dripper in the cage, but keep the drip rate slow, but not so slow that you cant tell that the water is moving, sometimes the anticipation of a slow drip rate, (say maybe once every 10-15 sec ), will get them to drink when a faster rate wont ,you want to mist any way because you need him to get used to it, but try not to freak him out with it any more than neccessary, question; do you heat your misting water, misting water needs to be heated and to be monitered (at least until you get your program down)this means cold water brought up to temp not warm water from the faucet,when you atomize water the temp drops considerably, if he is basking,lets say 84 , and you manualy spay him with an unheated spray bottle then you are starting at say 74* water then when you spray it, your 74* water almost instantly drops at least 6 or 7 degrees depending on several variables,add another degree or two for evaporative cooling and your got an almost twenty degree drop in temp for a cold blooded animal whose temp is controled primarliy by eviromental sources thats a pretty substantial drop in temp, it would be the equivalent of some body chasing you with a spray bottle of ice water,about a 95* is a good temp it doesnt make much different beyond that (up to a point),for now try not to spray him directly , but manualy spray his cage every part that he is not in, so he doesnt feel chased by the spray bottle,then as soon as he moves , spray those areas,try and keep most of his cage moist until you get it handled ,even if he wont drink it slows down his dehydration, another thing you can try is the head down trick , jacksons can are notorious non drinkers if they are feeling the slightest bit under the weather, sometimes they may stare at dripping water for hrs and decide not to drink , the way that usualy gets you past this is something i call the head down trick, but first you have got to get him over his aversion to spraying by spraying discretely and regularly with heated water,if you can get him to a point where you can spray him semi directly without freaking out, you are half way there, then the idea is to manually mist him from above keeping a close eye on his behavior, try and slowly COAX him into travelling downward,in the firs second or two of his travelling down ward try and load him up with water but you dont want to freak him out, as soon as you have enough water on him to drip of his chin (while in a facing downward position) then stop , step back so he doesnt get nervous or antsy, the idea is to get him to stay for a few moments in that downward position, if he needs more water to get it dripping off of his chin you can do a long distance single spritz, when water drips off of his chin (while in a downward position and not freaked out by other things)there is a good chance he will drink , its like chinese water torture, the sensation of the water dripping off of thheir chin usualy sooner or later cases them to drink even if they are not thirsty, its like if you have water dripping down your face, sooner or later you are going to try and wipe it off, also if he is still eating, you can water load his feeders with a syringe and very fine needle , you could even inject an appetite stimulant or reptaid ,of course if it reaches emergency status you can always do the emergency fall back , just grab him in a way that pisses him off to the point of gaping and have a dental syringe (the type with the curved plastic tip ) and as soon as he gapes at you, just squirt some into the back of his mouth (not the front thats where his treachea is)and of course the last method is recomended only as a last resort i know hes not a jackson, but jacksons can be stubborn, i feel strongly if it will work for a jackson's ,it will work for a mellors

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