First Jackson's Chameleon

[chromewolf7]

Her name is Cha as in Chameleon! We just got her about a week ago. We have a fogger we run for 10 minutes a few times a day. 5.0 13w reptiglo uvb bulb. and a 60 watt daylight blue reptile bulb for her basking spot. A few questions, how many crickets should we be feeding her a day? we are using large but they are smaller than between her eyes so she doesn't choke. we are going to get a ficus plant for her to nibble on and to keep humidity up in the cage. And she has been shedding for over a week, is that normal?

 

[Chameleonmaster]

Around how old is she

 

[chromewolf7]

i think 3 or 4 months she is 4" from snout to the start of her tail.

 

[Solid Snake]

Hello! Welcome to Chameleon Forums!

I have found that my jackson takes longer than my panther to shed, but a week is a long time. Giving her a good shower once a day, and keeping the humidity up, will help with this. Dont spray her right in her face or anything, but misting her with warm water at least three times a day is necessary. Mist everything in the cage until its wet, it will evaporate and raise the RH, then wet the animal, being gentle, trying to replicate rain.

Here are some great reference materials I feel are mandantory to jackson owners. If you have any questions after going over them, please ask!

Again, welcome to CF!

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/hoj/634-montane-chameleon-care-info.html

 

[Solid Snake]

Oh, it will depend on what size crickets she is eating, as to how many she will eat a day. I would release no more than 10 in her cage, and if she eats them all, add some more. If she only eats 5 or so, then just give her that many.

I think she is older than 4 months. Likely around 6mo. I could be wrong about that though.

What supplements are you using on her?

What do you gutload her crickets with?

 

[chromewolf7]

Fluker's Cricket Quencher is what we are gutloading the crickets with, and we were using a calcium with D3 every day, but we stopped yesterday because too much D3 is a bad thing this forum says. So we are moving that to twice a month and we have a regular calcium dust on its way for her every day. I was going to ask if i should be doing a vitamin supplement for her? Whats a good brand and how often should i be using it. Also that red stripe down her side... any idea why she has it?

 

[chromewolf7]

Zoo Med Repti Calcium WITHOUT D3 Just got this, how often should i be dusting the crickets with it?

 

[Solid Snake]

Fluker's Cricket Quencher is what we are gutloading the crickets with, and we were using a calcium with D3 every day, but we stopped yesterday because too much D3 is a bad thing this forum says. So we are moving that to twice a month and we have a regular calcium dust on its way for her every day. I was going to ask if i should be doing a vitamin supplement for her? Whats a good brand and how often should i be using it. Also that red stripe down her side... any idea why she has it?

Her red stripe is what is referred to as "red phase". Its common for them to be of that coloration when younger, called "cinnamon"
She will become more and more green as time goes on, and loose her red.

Flukers makes many products that are made to be fed to crickets.
In my opinion (and many others) you should not use any of them.
They will keep your crickets alive, but will not provide anything that the cham needs, and certainly not in appropriate ratios.
Gutloading and supplementing will likely be a challenge at first, as there are many things to take into account. After you get it though, its not so bad.
Gutloading is vitally important, and you can not neglect this area of care without repercussion.
I would recommend getting a good pre-made gutload, that you can order. Such as Cricket Crack. This can be purchased here:http://tikitikireptiles.com/products.php?id=48

Repashy makes a product called bug burger, that also gets good reviews.

You will also need to provide fresh greens, vegetables, and fruits for them to eat.

To keep them hydrated, I find orange slices is the best way to go.
They are cheap, easily replaced, and add more nutrients into the crickets than water, or some chemical gelatin cube(which I found to be a hassle)

Sandrachameleon wrote the bible on gutloading, its a must read and can be found here:https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/(on the left hand side of the page is a Blog Categories Box, that will make it easier to navigate)

Zoo Med Repti Calcium WITHOUT D3 Just got this, how often should i be dusting the crickets with it?

Ok, supplementing them is a point of issue. Some people(like me) seem to have great difficulty getting it just right.
Jacksons are just more touchy about supps.
Seeing as how I have issues with it myself, I would recommend you follow the instructions in Hoj's blog, that I linked to in my first post up there/\ Also doing a search on here for jackson supp info will yield a wide variety of information, you will find useful.

I would also do some googling on D3, and calcium, and how they interact. As well as vitA in reptiles. Its important to understand how these things work in their bodies. The more you know, the more it will help you spot problems, and resolve them faster, thereby prolonging the life of your animal.

Hope that all made sense

 

[chromewolf7]

Thanks for the info! working on most of this now. I also just bought a mister for her, the Exo-Terra Monsoon RS400 Rainfall System for Reptiles. A little expensive but its working awesome. Last night, she got to the top of her cage and was hanging upside down, i watched and she let go with her two front arms and started trying to reach to get down but nothing was there to grab! i had to help her down, boy does she have a strong grip though! Few more questions on basking. In his video his basking spot is really low. But her basking spot was up to almost 90 and she would go in it for a little and come out. I changed the bulb and now the basking spot is around 75 but she seems cold. Should i just let her get used to it at 75?

 

[Solid Snake]

She wont 'get used to it" Im afraid.

Being cold blooded, they need heat to move, and to digest food.

The thing is, you dont want too much heat. This will dry the animal out, and they will start to show signs of heat exhaustion, like holding their mouth open, sunken eyes, super brite colors(trying to reflect as much heat as possible) and dry skin. Its especially important for this species to stay hydrated, well its not any more important than any other species, but they come from a wetter climate, so they dry out easier.

During the day, no matter what temps are, my female jackson keeps her body temp at 83-85F. When trying to digest food (basking) she will raise it to 87F but never over that. Now you dont need to provide a basking area of 87F for the animal to be able to heat itself to that temp. They can change their color, and absorb more, or less heat as needed.

So a basking area in the low 80s is perfect, because it does not dry out the animal, or raise the ambient temp in the rest of the cage up too high, yet it allows the animal to heat up as much as they like.

You want to focus on creating a temperature gradient as well.
Dont have a hot, and a cold side. Have a warm side, that gradually gets cooler, as you move away from the basking area. This means the temperature in the room the animal is housed in, is very important.
If you have an ambient temp of 60F, and a small basking area of 95F, the animal WILL choose the heat, instead of the cold.
If you provide a proper temp/humidity gradient, the animal will virtually care for itself. Your goal is to provide it as many options as possible, as far as heat, humidity(your basking side will naturally be a lower RH), cover, food, and water. The animal will do what its made to do, and get what it needs to keep itself healthy.

Try different watt bulbs, and if one is close to what you want, but a little too high, just raise it up away from the cage further.

Id recommend having your main basking branch, come from the top corner that the basking light is at, to the dead center of the cage.

This will ensure the animal has access to a smooth gradient, as it can just go up, of down the branch.

Keeping her at either 75 or 90 is going to cause health problems eventually.

 

[Solid Snake]

Im not sure if this will be helpful, but this is a cage tour vid of a xanth setup I did, based on the "diagram" above. Its a bit too dense maybe in some areas, but there are plenty of open areas as well. She really liked this setup. You can see in the vid, that she is resting under the basking area up top. This area was at about 80-83. most of her day would be spent hunting and hanging out beneath the "canopy" layer, then she would come up top to warm up and bask. Maybe it will give you some ideas of how to set her cage up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz0nnvaNmkk

 

[chromewolf7]

Alrighty, more questions!

1. We bought the monsoon system as a sprayer that we have going off. The water is
room temperature. Should we be warming it up at all? She seems to hate when the water hits her, its a very light mist.

2. How active should she be? Last night for a few hours from 6 to 8 she sat in one spot under her basking side which is at 80 degrees.
Then from 8 to bedtime at 9 she was roaming her cage. Is that normal? To put it better is that okay for her to do that?

3. I am hooking up a computer fan to a old laptop 12v power supply since she is in a terrarium to give her proper airflow.
It is going to push air in through the top screen. Should that be enough ventilation?
In Colorado the humidity is very low and we have to use a terrarium to keep it up.

 

[Solid Snake]

Alrighty, more questions!

1. We bought the monsoon system as a sprayer that we have going off. The water is
room temperature. Should we be warming it up at all? She seems to hate when the water hits her, its a very light mist.
I do not heat my automated systems water supply. Room temp is fine. I would suggest trying to aim it on a plant thats situated up high, and have the water collect there, and "rain" down.
If you are going to heat the water, an inline heater is recommended, as opposed to say a fishtank heater. The reason being is that stagnant heated water, will start to grow bacteria. The inline heaters heat the water as its moved through the tube.

2. How active should she be? Last night for a few hours from 6 to 8 she sat in one spot under her basking side which is at 80 degrees.
Then from 8 to bedtime at 9 she was roaming her cage. Is that normal? To put it better is that okay for her to do that?

They are generally not very active, compared to say panthers. What schedule are your lights on? When is sun-up and sun-down where you live? You should shoot for the lights to go on, and off with the sun.

3. I am hooking up a computer fan to a old laptop 12v power supply since she is in a terrarium to give her proper airflow.
It is going to push air in through the top screen. Should that be enough ventilation?
In Colorado the humidity is very low and we have to use a terrarium to keep it up.

If you hook up this fan, I would only have it come on for maybe a min. at a time, maybe 3 times a day. Once in the morning, once at noon, and once before bed. Maybe once at midnight.
Ive never used fans in my setups though, there are however people that do, and recommend it.
The heat from the basking bulb is moving air through her terrarium though.
Hot air escapes through the mesh top, this pulls fresh air in through the holes in the front.