Im new and I have some questions.

[salvatore369]

ok so i bought 2 jackson chameleons, one is a male and the other is a female. I have a wire mesh cage that is about 3ft tall and about 1 1/2 ft wide. I made a large ladder made out of wooden dowells. I have a uvb 5.0 bulb and another bulb that puts off some heat. I dont have a drip system but I do spray the cage down before I go to work at 5:00 am, when I get home from work at 2:30 pm and several times after that throughout the evening. I feed them small crickets that i gut load and put mineral powder on. At night I shut off the lights. Is what im doing correct? Is that enough water for them? I dont have very many plants but i did glue fake leaves on the wooden dowell ladder that I made and when is spray the cage they go to the leaves and drink the water. So if anyone knows of anything else that I should do or that in forgetting to do please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[brandychams]

theyre not together are they?! theyre solitary animals and easily stressed out! also should be sing three supplements calcium withoutd3 5-6x a week cal withd3 twice a month and a multivite twice a month

 

[Silkyslim]

ok so i bought 2 jackson chameleons, one is a male and the other is a female. I have a wire mesh cage that is about 3ft tall and about 1 1/2 ft wide. I made a large ladder made out of wooden dowells. I have a uvb 5.0 bulb and another bulb that puts off some heat. I dont have a drip system but I do spray the cage down before I go to work at 5:00 am, when I get home from work at 2:30 pm and several times after that throughout the evening. I feed them small crickets that i gut load and put mineral powder on. At night I shut off the lights. Is what im doing correct? Is that enough water for them? I dont have very many plants but i did glue fake leaves on the wooden dowell ladder that I made and when is spray the cage they go to the leaves and drink the water. So if anyone knows of anything else that I should do or that in forgetting to do please let me know.

Thanks!

First off, welcome man! You will find an incredible amount of useful information on this website plus lots of folks willing to help you out. It sounds like you are on on the right path but you should take the time out and fill this form out so we can get as detailed image of your enclosure as we possibly can without physically being there.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

Jacksons need more humidity than panthers or veileds. You are going to want to get a way to get them water and humidity when you are away at work first thing! 5am is early too, Yuck I would hate to get up that early. Although it doesn't just rain when the sun is up in the wild you will find members telling you to only mist when the lights are on.

I remember reading that Jacksons are better suited for incage pairings than other chameleons but I couldn't give you a really good reasoning as to why.

Also, from the sound of it and without seeing any pics of the cage itself. I wouild guess that you are going to need more pathways in your cage.

You should really fill that form out for us and yourself. Save it on your desktop so you can access it easily and adjust it if you have any future issues. Take some picutres and post them up here too cuz we are all photo geeks.

 

[melric]

Post pic's. I mist my jackson's around 2-3 times a day. Plus, I have a humidifier for them. They need the extra humidity. Adding live plants helps with that too. You can get plants really cheap at home depot. You may want to seperate them, my female gets really stressed when the male is around. If your female turns black, or spotted black then she is stressed. Other than that sounds like you're off to a good start. Welcome.

 

[Julirs]

I have heard the same thing about Jackson's cohabitiating-however everyone I know that has them has far more sucess keeping them separately.

 

[salvatore369]

ok ill definetly have to fill that out.

 

[laurie]

Welcome to the forum. I keep my jacksons in different cages. The males will tend to bother the females and stress them. (wow sound like guys i know). What kind of temps and humidity are you keeping? The humidity is pretty important to jacksons and it may get to low while you are at work. A dripper, plastic around the cage and some live plants will all help that problem. You do need a digital read of the temps & humidity. You can get a cheap one at walmart or Home depot.

Now if you give us more info, we will give you more and on it goes.

 

[salvatore369]

when I get home today i will post some pictures.

 

[svinyard]

If you want to keep your Jacksons together you will need a MUCH larger, VERY well planted cage. At least 4x3x4 with a couple of different basking spots. Tried this years ago in a 2x2x4 and the male constantly harassed my female all the time (oh come on babay...don't give me that "tail ache" stuff). Had to split them quick.

I'd say get a humidifier hooked up for sure in your case. If its to warm try the cool mist ones. Trick is to make sure whatever you do for the humidifier stays clean (if piping it into the cage).

 

[salvatore369]

pictures

these are some of the pictures that i took

 

[salvatore369]

my cage demensions are 1 1/2ft wide x 1 1/2ft deep x 3 1/2ft tall

 

[Ace]

welcome to the forums...

i cant really tell, but it seem your chams are rather young? maybe 4-6 months each?

if thats the case than you have some time to find another cage to seperate them Jacksons that young can tolerate eachother, but as they get older it can stress both of them....

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Your cage is so naked! Your chams probably feel exposed and vulnerable and since they're prey animals that will really stress them out. You have a good start but you need lots more foliage and climbing opportunities. Adding a potted plant (with natural soil on the top or large rocks covering the soil so your chams can't eat it on accident) will make your chams much more comfortable and help maintain humidity. You can use schefflera arboricola, hibiscus or pothos plants. The plant can be nearly as tall as the cage itself! If you have something like that in the cage your chams will also be able to get closer to their basking lights, which they'll need to be able to do to regulate their body temperature. Chams need to be sufficiently warm to be able to digest food properly.

If you fill out that form we can offer some more advice to get you started. Cute little chams!

 

[jrh3]

Add plants they will be fine. I know many keepers that house them together. Jackson's will do fine together if you add tall plants to fill the top. But, keeping them together, you will have babies, often. Jacksons are one species that will do ok together. better in a trio. 1.2

 

[salvatore369]

thanks! im definetly gonna get a plant tomorrow for the cage. Ill get one that is tall enough to reach the top of the cage. Im not sure what kind of plant yet. Plus my drip system will not only give the cham water but it will also water the plant at the same time

 

[Silkyslim]

Ahh if you drip into your plant your are going to want to make sure that the pot itself has good drainage so water doesn't build up in the soil and overwater the plant and kill it. Most folks mix up a little sand at the bottom part of the planter to aid in this.

 

[Cainschams]

theyre not together are they?! theyre solitary animals and easily stressed out! also should be sing three supplements calcium withoutd3 5-6x a week cal withd3 twice a month and a multivite twice a month

Not all chameleon species go with the same supplement schedule as panthers and veileds. Actually, more species than not should have a lighter supplement schedule than this. What you suggested could quite possibly cause edema and problems with the organs very quickly for a montane species. This is why it is important to post opinions and suggestions at the level of ones experience. So many times there is parroted information slung out by a keeper, who has only been keeping veileds or panthers for 6 months, that could be dangerous to a chameleon of the same or different species. We all want to help but some of these keepers need to learn they can do more harm than good.

What I would suggest.

One is lots more foliage!!! Schefflera (umbrella plants) ficus and pothos are my favorite plants to use. Repot the plants in organic soil. I also mix quite a bit of sand in my plants. Actually 1/3 topsoil and 2/3 sand now. It gives the plants much better drainage which is needed because of the amount of water that gets pumped through a cage. Schefflera are especially prone to root rot. Also thoroughly wash the plant in the shower or outside before repotting incase any pesticides are still on the plant. One nice bushy live plant that fills up a good deal of the cage and some fresh sticks from outside works great for an enclosure that size. Set the sticks up so there are multiple levels to bask and receive UVB lights. This will give them a choice of how close they want to get to the basking light.

Feeding and supplements.

Appropriate sized crickets are good for them. You can try and add different worm type feeders but I would only try one at a time. None of my animals will eat worm type feeders so you dont want to spend a ton of money on a bunch for them not to eat them. You can get flies from mantisplace.com. They are easy, cheap and I guarantee your jacksons will go nuts over them!! They look like they should be able to handle the blue bottle flies which are much larger than the house flies. Using a good gutload is very important. Things like dark leafy greens (kale, kelp, mustards, collards etc), squash, bell peppers etc. and fruits like melons, strawberries, apples, pears, oranges etc. Stay away from veggies high in oxalates like spinach and broccoli. Mix it up often. You can also get a good gutload from tikitikireptiles.com called Cricket Crack. Get the montane mix. This is good to use along with the fresh fruits and veggies. Just be careful. If you notice swelling in your chams chest and neck region back off on the crack some. Some of my animals get edema (swelling) from using it too much and some dont. Just got to see how the individual animal is.

Depending on where you are at you can catch wild bugs to offer. Just be sure you know what you are feeding off and that it comes from a pesticide free area. If you are unsure of the species of bug find out what it is before feeding and if it itself is toxic or if it eats toxic plants. Wild caught food that I use. Moths, non toxic butterflies, hoppers (locusts and katydids also) but not lubbers which are toxic, spiders such as wolf, orb weavers, crab species, and jumping spiders. I have heard counts of jacksonii eating black widows but personally I would stay away from those and brown recluse.

I supplement my montane species with very very light calcium without D3 at every feeding. If my animals are not housed outside they get calcium with D3 once every month to two months. I do not use a multivitamin. Montane species are very susceptible to edema from these powders. A nutritious gutload is the key for vitamins for montane species.

For lighting a 25 watt basking bulb should do the trick. Also some compacts can cause issues if they are not the right brand or the older ones. There is a way to tell if the ones you have are safe or not. Its also recommended to have a UV meter when using them so you know how much UV the animals are getting. Too much or too little. Most recommend using the linear style 5.0 reptisuns. This is what I use and its just easier to put the bulb in and set on top of the cage. Someone else may be able to help with the compact style better than I

A general range for temps. Daytime around 70ish at the bottom of the enclosure going up to mid to high 70s at the top. Basking site of around 80 to 85. Daytime humidity around 70%. Night time temps should get lower than low 60s. They can handle a very large temp drop at night and benefit from this greatly. 50s would be ideal. Night time humidity higher than 70%.

The temps and humidity are very very important. You need something to measure them. I use a digital thermometer with probe from walmart for around 10 bucks. use the probe in the basking site and the base around the middle of the cage. These also measure humidity.

Also housing them outside is very beneficial if temps are at good levels. If you can house them outside for more than quite a few hours a week you wont need to supplement with D3.

Here is a great article on the three types of Jacksons chams. Im not sure of the exact species you have? This goes more into temps and such.

http://chameleonnews.com/10JulManchen.html

The cage needs much more foliage as I said. Also, the first animal you pictured looks great. However, the second animal hiding in the little "vegetation" they have does not look so well. NOt a great picture but.... If it is staying down there it is more or less probably stressed out by the other. You really need to get another cage ASAP if you want it to do well. If you cannot get a cage very quickly you can go to walmart and along with picking up something to measure the temps get one of those plastic tubs. Put some stuff in there for it to climb on and let them share the lights until you get more for the second cage. Set it up so there is a barrier between the two cages so they cant see each other. IMO you need to do this quick!!!

You can get cheap UVB tubes at lllreptile. Get the 4 foot tube. They are the same price as the 18 inch. Go to walmart, lowes etc and get a 4 foot fixture along with a 6500k rated tube for plant growth. This will save quite a bit of money and you can span it over 2 or three cages depending on their size.

Hope this helps some and please feel free to ask any and all questions

 

[Cainschams]

Add plants they will be fine. I know many keepers that house them together. Jackson's will do fine together if you add tall plants to fill the top. But, keeping them together, you will have babies, often. Jacksons are one species that will do ok together. better in a trio. 1.2

As was suggested its much easier to house them separate. I would not suggest this since the pictures the OP posted are of one looking quite fine out and about while the other is hiding in the small amount of hiding space it has. These two animals need separated quickly.

 

[salvatore369]

for now im going to get a plant but in 2 weeks ill get another cage. Any good cheap plants that will be big enough for my cage? Something that is easy to find.

 

[salvatore369]

This picture is of both of them. Lilo (the female on the dripper) and Tiki (the male at the bottom).