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I don't normally feed my chameleons mealworms but my ailing jacksons haven't been eating and I thought they would be easy to force feed which they are (their isn't much force involved I push one in their mouth and then than I put more in while they are chewing). I've fed a veiled chameleon I had a long time ago supermeal worms because it was cheaper and he did fine on them.
However, this morning when I cleaned the cage I found they have not been digesting the worms at all. The worms were completly solid and had gone in one end and out the other untouched the calcium was in the fecal mucus. Is this because mealworms are bad to feed Jackson chameleon's or are their stomachs not working right? I fed them crickets I prekilled today.

We have had this happen also. When you force feed a chameleon sometimes they just don't process the food you have given them. Not sure, but my thoughts on this are that when they don't actively chew, grind or what ever there may not be the needed saliva or digestive juices needed to aid in the digestion. So it just goes thru, sometimes partly digested, sometimes almost like it went in.

We don't recommend meal worms for chams as they are hard to digest. Silk worms would be a better choice. A good product to help aid in digestion if your force feeding is called Prozyme. It can be found at some pet supply places or on line. $20.00 for 400 grams is a regular price for this. Just dust the insect before feeding it. When we force feed we put all the added vitamins/minerals and digestive aid in a blender with various insects and blend them all together and then we tube feed the chams. Refrigerate this as it goes bad quickly if left at room temps. Also it takes a lot of insects to get enough volume to get the blender to mix it all up. We usually do about 200 insects at a time.

Hope this helps
Yosemite
Reptayls, Ltd

Just another note:

You might find that butterworms or waxworms are easier to feed when placing them in the mouth. These worms can be digested easily - much easier than any mealworm.

Let us know how the pre-killed crickets are digested. If we hand-feed crickets, we remove the rear legs too.
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I found more undigested crickets and when I was watching the female after feeding her she vomited. It isn't poop but vomited insects I was finding. I'm think I;m going to try the rept-aid or blend up the insects.

Oh.... not good.
Have you considered a vet visit??

If you get the Repti-Aid, be sure to get the insectivore/carnivore formula. You might also look for Nutri-Bac, a digestive enzyme aid (powder). Mix with the blended insects and use a needless syringe to feed. Be careful of the glottis - the hole in the bottom of their mouth which they breathe through. If she inhales any of this liquid - it could be certain death.

For this reason, we use stainless feeding needles (at pet supplies) or the rubber feeding tubes available through a vet. I fill the tube with the food and place the rubber tube in the rear of the mouth - you can see the opening of the throat back there - and administer down their throat.

If she continues to vomit, there is certainly a problem. You will want to consult your vet.

Last year, we experienced this behavior in a cham that was at the end of his years - and he knew it. Our vet advised that we couldn't do anything more than what we were doing (tube feeding) to save him. He continued to vomit everything we gave him, and his body finally surrendered to death.

I hope it is not the case with your female jax.
Please keep us posted.
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Try using Repta-Aid by Fluker to force feed your chameleon.
It will make your life so much easier especially since you are only preparing it for one chameleon.
It also does wonders for sick chams. I have had much success with it and it will also help you rehydrate him.
You can usually find it at a Petco

IT could VERY well be that they are NOT being digested aT ALL. I have seen this when I force fed some sick chameleons in the past. There is often a reason they are not eating, and when force fed, they'll puke. Crickets, mealworms, anything that sits for any amount of time in their stomachs will look pretty bad when regurgitated. They are covered in mucus, and are actually puked up in a shape similar to droppings.

I've seen it a number of times, and not until recently did I realize that it was vomit, not feces. I figured it out when I saw some of the undigested superworms still had SOFT SHELL, and I had just fed it a few hours ago--their systems are not that fast.

Mealworms are not good for a sick animal, unless they are recently shed. I like to include some regular mealworms in their diet, some roughage seems to be good for them. They chew for a reason, and they can digest the heck out of chitin like no other lizard I have ever seen. Look at their feces under the microscope, all you see is tiny hairs and claws--the hardest parts. Almost everything el;se is gone, or so softened, you cant identify it.

Eric A