How old is my Jackson’s chameleon? What species of Jackson’s is he?

[Lindasjackson]

How old and what species or sub species of jacksons is he? I bought him at petco last Friday and yes I know I should have gone to a reputable breeder but I saw him in the pet store and couldn’t leave him there. Can you tell how old he is and what sub species of Jackson’s he is? Should I fill out one of those forms I see other new people filling out?

 

[JacksJill]

Judging but the shape and spacing of the spines on his back you have a male Yellow Crested Jackson's or xantholophus. I haven't raised a lot of these so I will tag some people who are more familiar to guess his age. @Mendez @Kaizen

 

[Lindasjackson]

Thank you! I really appreciate it!

 

[leedragon]

Xantholophus, and he is 21 so he is legally allow to drink now.

 

[Lindasjackson]

Thanks for the ID but I really would like to know approx how old he is. Seriously! He is about 4 inches long not counting his tail.

 

[Mendez]

Definitely xantholophus. Age is hard to estimate as it's based on many factors. He looks close to one year old, but it's the length that is confusing. If his snout to vent length is 4 inches, he's either younger than a year old or is stunted. He looks mature but is on the smaller side, so I assume he still has some growing to do. So if that's the case, he's probably a little under a year--maybe 6-8 months-ish?? 4 inches snout to vent is still super small. If @Kaizen ever shows his face on here, his guess would probably be the best.

Regardless, his age/growth rate only affects his feeding schedule. If he's still growing, you can feed him every day as much as he wants. He looks healthy for his size, and you don't want him to look puffy. Take a mental note (or keep the picture you posted) of what he looks like now. You want him to look proportionally the same as he looks now. If you feed him as much as he wants and you see that his arms, casque, and back are starting to get poofier/fatter compared to the picture, you want to ease off the food to every other day @ 3-5 food items. If he is growing, you want him to be proportionally bigger than he is right now. You don't want him to become obese, so keep the picture you posted to use as a comparison.

Edit--this is only an estimate. I'm not super confident about this guy's age.

 

[Lindasjackson]

Thank you so much! I appreciate it a lot!

 

[Kaizen]

Definitely xantholophus. Age is hard to estimate as it's based on many factors. He looks close to one year old, but it's the length that is confusing. If his snout to vent length is 4 inches, he's either younger than a year old or is stunted. He looks mature but is on the smaller side, so I assume he still has some growing to do. So if that's the case, he's probably a little under a year--maybe 6-8 months-ish?? 4 inches snout to vent is still super small. If @Kaizen ever shows his face on here, his guess would probably be the best. That quip is both well-deserved and about as diplomatic as a ghost like me should expect: props, and sorry for being so absent. I shall endeavour to be more, um, around!

Regardless, his age/growth rate only affects his feeding schedule. If he's still growing, you can feed him every day as much as he wants. He looks healthy for his size, and you don't want him to look puffy. Take a mental note (or keep the picture you posted) of what he looks like now. You want him to look proportionally the same as he looks now. If you feed him as much as he wants and you see that his arms, casque, and back are starting to get poofier/fatter compared to the picture, you want to ease off the food to every other day @ 3-5 food items. If he is growing, you want him to be proportionally bigger than he is right now. You don't want him to become obese, so keep the picture you posted to use as a comparison.

Edit--this is only an estimate. I'm not super confident about this guy's age.

 

[Kaizen]

further to my last,

Get him well hydrated, and weigh him. That’ll be another helpful indicator.

 

[Kaizen]

Judging but the shape and spacing of the spines on his back you have a male Yellow Crested Jackson's or xantholophus. I haven't raised a lot of these so I will tag some people who are more familiar to guess his age. @Mendez @Kaizen

@JacksJill ,

While I appreciate the tag, you’re far better than I am at jax ID by dorsal spine spacing. My first gut-reaction to the image is that he doesn’t conform to the xanths that I’m used to. I’m showing my ignorance here, but Im not confident on subspecies.

 

[JacksJill]

@JacksJill ,

While I appreciate the tag, you’re far better than I am at jax ID by dorsal spine spacing. My first gut-reaction to the image is that he doesn’t conform to the xanths that I’m used to. I’m showing my ignorance here, but Im not confident on subspecies.

I haven't raised any xanths from birth yet so I was hoping for your help with aging rather than subspecies.

 

[Lindasjackson]

The hydration thing, I’ve set up the drip per but I never see him drink. I also mist him 2-3 times a day but again ive never seen him drink. I have seen him eat though. He doesn’t eat all his prey items in the morning either, he saves some for the afternoon. he Seems to like worms more than crickets, wax to be exact but I’ve only given them to him twice.

 

[JacksJill]

I rarely see mine drink. Keep an eye on the white portion of the poops if it is more white than orange than he is hydrated.
Wax are fine as an occasional treat. Think of them as Twinkies. You might want to try Black Soldier Fly Larva. They can be fed more often and are more nutritionally balanced.

 

[Lindasjackson]

Thank you! I’ve been looking at those on the rainbow mealworm site. Yes Eustis’s poop today was white with of course the other half being brown. I posted a pic in the health clinic forum asking if it looked ok. Thanks!

 

[Lindasjackson]

@Kaizen I actually measured him today and he’s 4 inches snout to vent. he weighed 30 grams when I took him to a Cham vet a month ago and he got a clean bill of health but it was a drop off situation so I didn’t get to ask a lot of questions. Is this small for a xanth? How old do you think he is? I feed him 5-6 small crickets or Dubia every other day and he’s eating well. Is this enough or should I still be giving him as many feeders as he’ll eat? Sorry for all the questions. I’m just concerned I’m giving him enough to eat and id really like to know how old he is as close as possible without knowing his exact birth date. I’ll include pictures but he doesn’t like me close to him so they’re not very good. The first two pics are from the past few days. The other two are within the last month. I’ve had him for a little over a month now. He’s in the process of his first shed with me.

 

[Kaizen]

@Kaizen I actually measured him today and he’s 4 inches snout to vent. he weighed 30 grams when I took him to a Cham vet a month ago and he got a clean bill of health but it was a drop off situation so I didn’t get to ask a lot of questions. Is this small for a xanth? How old do you think he is? I feed him 5-6 small crickets or Dubia every other day and he’s eating well. Is this enough or should I still be giving him as many feeders as he’ll eat? Sorry for all the questions. I’m just concerned I’m giving him enough to eat and id really like to know how old he is as close as possible without knowing his exact birth date. I’ll include pictures but he doesn’t like me close to him so they’re not very good. The first two pics are from the past few days. The other two are within the last month. I’ve had him for a little over a month now. He’s in the process of his first shed with me.

Sorry I’m such a slow-poke at responding: I’m putting in a 650 square foot patio, and it’s sucking the life out of me. So, my xanths all hit ~30 grams between 6 and 8 months. My last litter were at 23 grams at 6 months, and the last two females I have are around 30 grams at 8 months. However, the two hold backs from a previous litter are still putting on healthy weight at 16 months. The male is ~100 grams, and the female ~ 90. Both are still very lanky. My experience with xanths is that they grow slower for longer—something that squares with their slower metabolism and cooler temps. As for feeding, you can probably feed him as much as he wants until he hits the 70 gram mark.

 

[Lindasjackson]

Ok, so you think he might be like 8 months old? I’ll start feeding him more then. I thought he was a mature 1 year old so I stopped feeding him every day and went to every other day. Also I have been using reptical no D3 every feeding and once a month I use reptivite with D3. I hear people talking about repashy loD that’s supposedly designed especially for Jackson’s chams. Should I switch to that and how would that work? I mean would I use that instead of the reptivite with D3? Sorry for all the questions but I really want this little guy to do well. I had a couple Jackson’s 25 years ago and even with the best info I could find they only lived maybe a year each then they developed edema and other issues and died. It was heartbreaking! Thanks for your time and help!

 

[Kaizen]

Ok, so you think he might be like 8 months old? I’ll start feeding him more then. I thought he was a mature 1 year old so I stopped feeding him every day and went to every other day. Also I have been using reptical no D3 every feeding and once a month I use reptivite with D3. I hear people talking about repashy loD that’s supposedly designed especially for Jackson’s chams. Should I switch to that and how would that work? I mean would I use that instead of the reptivite with D3? Sorry for all the questions but I really want this little guy to do well. I had a couple Jackson’s 25 years ago and even with the best info I could find they only lived maybe a year each then they developed edema and other issues and died. It was heartbreaking! Thanks for your time and help!

Ok, just so we’re clear, weight is a decent indicator of age, but genetics, feeding and other factors can skew weight-based aging. At any rate, if he’s over 6 months, feeding every other day is fine. Remember he’s a jax not a veiled, so his metabolism is slower, as is his growth rate. Better to go slow and steady.

As for supplementation, this is a complicated question that depends not only on your species, but your uvb levels, your feeder nutrition regime, and other factors. My humble opinion is that anyone who says there is only one right way to approach supplementation either knows way more than me, or else hasn’t done his/her research. There are a ton of good resources for tried and tested supplementation regimes for Jax, and I would encourage you to look at all of them, and try to understand why they work, what they share in common, etc. @JacksJill has a regime for her jax that has stood the test of time. Also, the Chameleon Academy website is a great resource. I am loath to give any more advice here, since I think that the more exposure you have to different supplementation schedules for jax, the better off you are. I would caution against making big changes all of a sudden. I’ll give you a quick and dirty version of my supplementation regime, but again, this works for me because of my uvb situation, my insect feeding regime, etc. Please do not take this as gospel, and please stick with what’s working for you right now until you’ve researched enough to feel confident that you’re making an informed decision.

Very simplified:

- Arcadia Earthpro A mixed 50/50 with plain calcium with no d3

That’s it for me. However, I recommend using a monthly multivitamin that has both d3 and preformed vitamin A such as calcium plus LoD, as a safety net. I don’t do this, but I use a solar meter, have a solid bug nutrition regime, and am constantly monitoring my chams.

 

[Lindasjackson]

Ok, thanks so much!

 

[Kaizen]

Ok, thanks so much!

You’re all sorts of welcome. Sorry for my obvious penchant for verbosity: I am obviously a narcissist who loves to hear himself talk/write.