How old is my Jackson’s?

[gage25]

I bought this guy from petco about a month ago. I think he’s doing pretty good so far just got done with his first shed. Can you guys give me some insight on how old he could be and about how big he will be as an adult?
Thank you!

 

[Sonny13]

@JacksJill could probably give you the best answer/guess.

 

[elizaann2]

Oh my goodness he is adorable! Jackson’s are sensitive to husbandry being off. Are you open to doing a husbandry review to ensure you have everything right for him?

 

[elizaann2]

This is my xanth at 9 months old. Maybe that will help give you a general idea.

 

[gage25]

Oh my goodness he is adorable! Jackson’s are sensitive to husbandry being off. Are you open to doing a husbandry review to ensure you have everything right for him?

Yes! is there something I fill out?

 

[gage25]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon -male Jackson’s chameleon
• Handling - twice in the passed month, not planning on handling unless needed from what I understand Jackson’s get more stress from handing than other chameleons
• Feeding - I mix between crickets Dubai roaches horned worms and super worms
• Supplements - rep cal no phosphorus no d3 every feeding reptivite with d3 once a month
• Watering - I have a large dripper dripping onto his leaves all day and I mist before lights come and and after they go off I have a cool mist humidifier that goes for a couple hours in the middle of the night
• Fecal Description - small squishy poop irate has some yellow
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Screen cage 2’x2’x4’
• Lighting - 60 watt clear basking bulb uvb I have a 2 foot long zoo med fixture with a t5 5.0 reptisun bulb 22w Arcadia jungle dawn
• Temperature - basking spot is 80-85cage lowest temp at night is 60
• Humidity - humidity is at 60- 70 percent
• Plants - 2 pothos, monstera, Swiss cheese philodendron, polka dot plant
• Placement - upstairs hallway low traffic
• Location - Idaho

Current Problem - just Wondering how old he is

 

[gage25]

This is my xanth at 9 months old. Maybe that will help give you a general idea.

He’s cool! Maybe our harry (our three year old son insisted his name be harry) is 6-7 months old? There is so little info and videos out there about Jackson’s

 

[elizaann2]

I’ll happy go over all this tomorrow.

For now an excellent resource for Jacksons care is the Chameleon Academy website. They have a section on Jacksons. There is also a chameleon academy podcast where I learned all my care from too.

 

[gage25]

I’ll happy go over all this tomorrow.

For now an excellent resource for Jacksons care is the Chameleon Academy website. They have a section on Jacksons. There is also a chameleon academy podcast where I learned all my care from too.

thank you, I will look at chameleon academy!

 

[elizaann2]

Ok Im back! Good morning! See my answers below in bold.

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon -male Jackson’s chameleon
• Handling - twice in the passed month, not planning on handling unless needed from what I understand Jackson’s get more stress from handing than other chameleons. Fantastic! Chameleons in general are shy lizards. I think Jackson's are more passive in their communication than a panther and a veiled who typically will have no problem telling you they don't want you to hold them. Jackson's tend to just buckle down and wait for you to eat them. My Jackson's I can always tell when he is had enough of me (usually doing gardening in his enclosure) by his eyes, if he starts to squint them at me, he is done. He has never gaped at me, or flared out his gular.
• Feeding - I mix between crickets Dubai roaches horned worms and super worms. Good, I'd consider more of a variety if you possibly can, other great feeders are grasshoppers, crickets, silkworms, bsfl and flies. Keep in mind that superworms are high in fat and should be fed rarely. They are basically the Snickers candy bar of bugs . I'll attach a document with variety info and another one with good gut-load info. You want to feed your food healthy food so its got lots of nutrients for your chameleon Some questions I have for you:
• 1. How many do you feed and how often?
• What do you feed your bugs?
• Supplements - rep cal no phosphorus no d3 every feeding reptivite with d3 once a month. Beautiful
• Watering - I have a large dripper dripping onto his leaves all day and I mist before lights come and and after they go off I have a cool mist humidifier that goes for a couple hours in the middle of the night. Great, do you ever see him drink?
• Fecal Description - small squishy poop irate has some yellow. Good
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Screen cage 2’x2’x4’. Perfect!
• Lighting - 60 watt clear basking bulb uvb I have a 2 foot long zoo med fixture with a t5 5.0 reptisun bulb 22w Arcadia jungle dawn. Good, just make sure that there is a branch running about 6-9 inches below his UVB light so he can have good opportunities to utilize his uvb
• Temperature - basking spot is 80-85cage lowest temp at night is 60. Jackson's are a montaine species, meaning they live in the mountains. This means cooler temps not only during the day but also especially at night. Your boys basking spot should not hit higher than 80 degrees, anything above that is too hot for him. The ambient temps of his enclosure should be 76-68. Do not let his ambient temp go above 76 degrees, Jacksons' easily get temporal gland infections with warm temps. I manage all my temps with a Govee hygrometer at the basking branch and another one near the top/middle of his enclosure. These sensors are nice because you can set an alert for if temps get to high/low. Mine are set to go off at 77 degrees, if I get that alert on my phone then I can turn any lights off necessary with the KASA smart plug I am using to control his lights. I also have a reptile dimming thermostat that I use for his heat lamp, this is set to 79 degrees. The dimmer has a probe that I have near my Govee sensor on the basking branch, that way if the dimmer malfunctions, I know because of that Govee sensor. As far as night temps to 60 is freaking fantastic!! Your darling little boy needs a drastic temp drop of 65 degrees or lower if you can. During the hotter months where I live I do have to utilize a room AC unit to get his temps where they need to be. (Just a little tip if you ever need down the road)
• Humidity - humidity is at 60- 70 percent. You'll want closer to 50% during the day, at night you want to get as close as 100% as possible, chameleons get their hydration in the wild by fog banks that roll in in the early mornings.
• Plants - 2 pothos, monstera, Swiss cheese philodendron, polka dot plant. Awesome! I'll attach a safe plant list so you can know what other great options are if you decide to ever add more
• Placement - upstairs hallway low traffic. Good. How high up is his enclosure? You want his top branches to be at your eye level or ideally higher, height equals safety to chameleons.
• Location - Idaho. I love Idaho

Can you share a photo of his entire set up with me?

Current Problem - just Wondering how old he is

 

[gage25]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon -male Jackson’s chameleon
• Handling - twice in the passed month, not planning on handling unless needed from what I understand Jackson’s get more stress from handing than other chameleons. Fantastic! Chameleons in general are shy lizards. I think Jackson's are more passive in their communication than a panther and a veiled who typically will have no problem telling you they don't want you to hold them. Jackson's tend to just buckle down and wait for you to eat them. My Jackson's I can always tell when he is had enough of me (usually doing gardening in his enclosure) by his eyes, if he starts to squint them at me, he is done. He has never gaped at me, or flared out his gular.
• Feeding - I mix between crickets Dubai roaches horned worms and super worms. Good, I'd consider more of a variety if you possibly can, other great feeders are grasshoppers, crickets, silkworms, bsfl and flies. Keep in mind that superworms are high in fat and should be fed rarely. They are basically the Snickers candy bar of bugs . I'll attach a document with variety info and another one with good gut-load info. You want to feed your food healthy food so its got lots of nutrients for your chameleon Some questions I have for you:
• 1. How many do you feed and how often? I throw in 3 dubia roaches or 5 crickets every day every now and then he will get a horned worm or super worms with that
• What do you feed your bugs? Bok choi collard greens and carrots
• Supplements - rep cal no phosphorus no d3 every feeding reptivite with d3 once a month. Beautiful
• Watering - I have a large dripper dripping onto his leaves all day and I mist before lights come and and after they go off I have a cool mist humidifier that goes for a couple hours in the middle of the night. Great, do you ever see him drink? Only once, but his eyes have never been sunk in
• Fecal Description - small squishy poop irate has some yellow. Good
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Screen cage 2’x2’x4’. Perfect!
• Lighting - 60 watt clear basking bulb uvb I have a 2 foot long zoo med fixture with a t5 5.0 reptisun bulb 22w Arcadia jungle dawn. Good, just make sure that there is a branch running about 6-9 inches below his UVB light so he can have good opportunities to utilize his uvb
• Temperature - basking spot is 80-85cage lowest temp at night is 60. Jackson's are a montaine species, meaning they live in the mountains. This means cooler temps not only during the day but also especially at night. Your boys basking spot should not hit higher than 80 degrees, anything above that is too hot for him. The ambient temps of his enclosure should be 76-68. Do not let his ambient temp go above 76 degrees, Jacksons' easily get temporal gland infections with warm temps. I manage all my temps with a Govee hygrometer at the basking branch and another one near the top/middle of his enclosure. These sensors are nice because you can set an alert for if temps get too high/low. Mine are set to go off at 77 degrees, if I get that alert on my phone then I can turn any lights off necessary with the KASA smart plug I am using to control his lights. I also have a reptile dimming thermostat that I use for his heat lamp, this is set to 79 degrees. The dimmer has a probe that I have near my Govee sensor on the basking branch, that way if the dimmer malfunctions, I know because of that Govee sensor. As far as night temps to 60 is freaking fantastic!! Your darling little boy needs a drastic temp drop of 65 degrees or lower if you can. During the hotter months where I live I do have to utilize a room AC unit to get his temps where they need to be. (Just a little tip if you ever need down the road) I will look into getting those sensors!
• Humidity - humidity is at 60- 70 percent. You'll want closer to 50% during the day, at night you want to get as close as 100% as possible, chameleons get their hydration in the wild by fog banks that roll in in the early mornings.
• Plants - 2 pothos, monstera, Swiss cheese philodendron, polka dot plant. Awesome! I'll attach a safe plant list so you can know what other great options are if you decide to ever add more
• Placement - upstairs hallway low traffic. Good. How high up is his enclosure? You want his top branches to be at your eye level or ideally higher, height equals safety to chameleons. the top of his cage is 6.5 feet off the ground
• Location - Idaho. I love Idaho

 

[elizaann2]

Well I'm not going to lie but it looks like you have everything squared away for him! Really the only thing is his basking temps are too high. Great job!!!

Just for reference these are the gadgets I use for my Xanth:

Govee Hygrometer
Reptile Dimming Thermostat
KASA smart Power Strip

 

[gage25]

I’m going to build him a 6ft tall pvc board enclosure this winter with a screen front the plants are new it’s pretty open in there

 

[elizaann2]

He is so stinking cute!!!! Thanks for sharing photos of your enclosure. What I would recommend seeing this is adding many many more sticks and LOADS of plants for coverage. Jackson's are quite shy and having a 'curtain' of plant coverage is a necessity for them. Give me a second and I'll share my boy's enclosure with you for reference.

 

[JacksJill]

I’m late to the party and short on time but you do have a male jacksonii jacksonii. I would guess close to a year in age give or take a few months. He is probably close to fully grown. He isn’t a xantholphus so won’t be as big as the other Jackson’s pictured. He should be more like this male (see picture)

 

[elizaann2]

So first with branches, you can get corrugated plastic from Home Depot, cut it to size and attach it to the sides of your enclosure. This will give you the option to attach branches to the enclosure without putting weight on the screen (which will eventually rip due to the weight)(also example attached in a photo below). Another excellent option are Dragon Strand ledges. Once you have a way to add branches, you'll want to collect sticks from trees outside, do not use any sticks from sap producing trees or trees that have a strong smell to them. Wash them in your bathtub with soap and hot water to remove dirt and other yucks. You can attach branches with zip ties, cut off the excess and then use a lighter to melt down the sharp edge.

 

[elizaann2]

Now that you can attach branches, you'll want to add a lot (as I mentioned before) and get a lot of plants for coverage. Again you want a 'curtain' of coverage in the middle/bottom of the enclosure, the top section you want open so he can get proper UVB and heat. I've attached pics of my enclosure for reference. One of his top branches runs 7-8 inches directly below his UVB light. Thats super important.

Let us know if you have any questions!!

 

[elizaann2]

I’m late to the party and short on time but you do have a male jacksonii jacksonii. I would guess close to a year in age give or take a few months. He is probably close to fully grown. He isn’t a xantholphus so won’t be as big as the other Jackson’s pictured. He should be more like this male (see picture)View attachment 358946

I didn't realize Jacksonii Jacksonii were so small!

 

[gage25]

Now that you can attach branches, you'll want to add a lot (as I mentioned before) and get a lot of plants for coverage. Again you want a 'curtain' of coverage in the middle/bottom of the enclosure, the top section you want open so he can get proper UVB and heat. I've attached pics of my enclosure for reference. One of his top branches runs 7-8 inches directly below his UVB light. Thats super important.

Let us know if you have any questions!!

Great thank you for the help!

 

[elizaann2]

Great thank you for the help!

You are very welcome!