Jacksons chameleon QS

Question
I have just rescued/rehabilitated a adult male Jackson's chameleon from my high school classroom. He was in a bad environment and the teacher never found time to spray or keep up with his feeding. he got so weak that he couldn't catch anything and he was a skeleton! so i took him home for the summer and hand fed him crickets to get his health up, built him a new home.... anyway He has gained weight and is very alert now and seems to be perfectly fine the only problem is that he can't seem to land a cricket with his tongue. he has once but the cricket was almost dead. I have to constantly pick the cricket up off the bottom of the cage and place it back on a branch in front of him, because every time he tries his tongue goes way off the side or way above. and the cricket jumps and he gives up. It seems to me maybe his eyes are bad? or maybe his horns are messing him up? i don't really know it just seems very odd that he has such bad tongue eye coordination. So i have been hand feeding him them and i place it on his tongue when he opens his mouth. they have to be right under his nose for him to stick crickets on the twizers. I worry that when i give him back and the teacher doesn't want me to permanently have him ( i would like to keep him) that she won't spend the time, and that who ever gets him next summer will have no idea! do you know what is going on with him? One more thing is there anyway to tell a adult Jackson's age? maybe by the rings on his horns or their length? I think he is old, he has good sized horns so hes no baby. ~Thx~

Answer
Hi Stephanie, sorry for the late reply

His eye sight may be bad either way keep hand feeding him or you can pull the back legs off the crickets to slow them down and make it easier for him to catch them. They wont jump and he may not give up as easily.

I am not sure if there is an easy solution or anything else you can do.

There isn't any way of telling his age unless you know his hatch date. You can estimate by the size though.

The best you can do is talk to your teacher about his special needs and you are willing to keep him healthy. Hopefully she will understand.

Good luck
Yexalen