Jackson's Advice/Health

[crablekris]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Sold as a Jackson's, male, no age besides "not adult yet" basically
• Handling - I've been moving, so I take him out to clean his cage and recently to move. Besides that, he comes out of his cage if I open it so I only pick him up to put him back inside again.
• Feeding - I've been giving him crickets, but we can't really tell if he's been eating them. We had quite a few in there (which I regret because we couldn't monitor his eating as well) but took them all out to restart again when I cleaned and moved two days ago. He also had 2 hornworms (not dusted) that day and ate those immediately. He now has about 5 calcium dusted crickets in the cage. There is also a vitamin (package image shown) dusted hornworm in there now. Crickets are getting the quencher in the photo, as well as some kale, and I just added some apples.
• Supplements - Calcium and vitamins shown in images.
• Watering - I got a Little Dripper, it's only been in the tank for two days. I try to spray his cage a couple times a day. He's had times where he keeps drinking (like he wants it out of a bottle like the big baby he is), and other days where I worry he hasn't drank all day (but maybe it's just when I'm not looking/home?).
• Fecal Description - He actually just went, and I have a picture! My partner watched and said it looked watery, but I don't see the urea. It's seemingly normal besides that (finally, it was watery about a week ago and I was panicking). I don't think he's been tested, so I'm looking to do that once the only exotic vet in my area answers.
• History - I got him from a pet store in the area who seemed to not know a lot about Jackson's; no vines in his cage, a large piece of driftwood and seemingly orchid bark substrate for some reason. He was in a glass tank, so he was trying to reach cords outside it (image shown) so I think that might be why he thinks everything is going to hold his weight (no Monty the leaf cannot hold you).
• I've been in the process of moving, and just got him on the 23rd of February. His cage was reorganized on the 8th. I added 2 new pothos to the bottom, took out the blue day bulb, and added an incandescent in a bigger dome for heat basking, and just added the Little Dripper.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Rebtibreeze Medium - 16"x 16" x 30" I didn't think the moisture was staying in the cage well so I did just add window insulation to three sides.
• Lighting - Mini Reptisun 5.0 UVB and a 40W incandescent bulb in a large dome (8.5in diameter I think?) He's been on a schedule of 8am to 8pm but we sometimes turn out his lights early when he seems to be sleeping slightly before bedtime. I'm thinking of trying to move his schedule back a bit, maybe 7am-7pm instead.
• Temperature - He usually has around 70-75ºF measured at his cage door, roughly 1/3 of the way from the top. At night the drop goes down to about 60-65ºF.
• Humidity - Humidity is roughly 40% during the day and I haven't been able to check at night yet (I will try tonight I'm sorry!) I also have a humidifier pointing at his cage that runs all night (the AC sucks moisture to the point I'm thirsty when I wake up too). I also try to supplement humidity during the day with my spray bottle if I see the humidity is below 40%. I use the Imagitarium thermometer and humidity gauge shown in the image.
• Plants - I have three pothos in the bottom of the cage (they're heavy and in kind of large pots currenly) that stretch up towards the top. I had just one but added two new ones in the remodel. I also have fake vines and fake branches with leaves on them for more coverage in the mid-top levels.
• Placement - Fair warning, this is temporary and also new. He is in a hotel room with me in the corner against the same wall as a window. The window has the AC/heater at the bottom. Because of us being in a hotel, there is sadly more traffic than I'd like since it's only one room. The highest table I currenly have is a card table, so the cage is roughly 2ft. off of the floor, and his basking area is under eye level (it will certainly be higher in the future!).
• Location - Central Pennsylvania

Current Problem - Oh god, I'm like the most frazzled new parent possible right now. His name is Montel (Monty).

He has been closing his eyes sometimes when I open the cage - which I understand means he's just really stressed out. On the other hand, sometimes during the day he'll just be fully asleep. Research told me it may have been that blue day bulb (basicslly blinding him) so I replaced it with the incandescent with a dimmer, so I hope that that stops soon and he can have a regular circadian rhythm again.

His non/random eating is freaking me out, but I hope that's just moving stress. I plan to go get a parasite check, even though the store said he should be captive bred.

I really want to figure out a better hydration solution, and am planning on getting rid of the plant vining trellis (it has square edges which terrify me) and replace that with dowels and branches.

I also think it's very very important to note that this is an interim cage, and was bought for a small veiled chameleon that we took care of for about a month. Due to that, I'm planning on either building a custom cage or just buying the XLarge Reptibreeze when thats becomes possible. I also want to find a better fogger and/or mister, and a linear T5 for better UVB for the little man. Moving is also still happening (like he will need to be moved, cage and all again) so stress is probably playing a large factor in some of this.

I'd love for someone to be able to help me age him, and really any other advice is super appreciated. I've been doing tons of research and everyone in the community is so generous with communication and help so I appreciate it in advance!

 

[Beman]

@JacksJill would you be able to help this member?

 

[JacksJill]

I’m away with spotty internet. Definitely get him into total darkness at night to reset his clock and consider the vet check sooner rather than later. I’m getting side eye for being on my phone. I will review more next week.

 

[Beman]

@Mendez @Kaizen @SteveH @Alycia Could you go through there husbandry for this Jacksons?

 

[SteveH]

It appears that you have an adult male of a year or older. Here's a link that you will find very helpful along with some photos of things I use and recommend ...
https://chameleonacademy.com/the-jacksons-chameleon-trioceros-jacksonii/

 

[crosscutts]

Just a quick couple of notes I see right off the bat you need to swap out that circular fluorescent light for a T5 6% linear bulb you’re providing little UVB make sure your humidity levels are high at night and your temperatures have a significant drop from my experience these are
two things that lead to Jackson deaths

 

[Lindasjackson]

Hi there and welcome to the forum. I to have a male Jackson’s Xanthalophus That I’ve had for two years now. I used to keep Jackson’s years ago as well. It sounds like everything is in turmoil right now. This is going to affect your beautiful guy. He looks to be a year old at least. The first thing I would do is put a clear plastic shower curtain around his cage and cut it to size and use some Velcro dots to affix it in place this will greatly help his humidity levels at night. His daytime humidity at 40% is fine but at night it needs to be 80-100%. You can undo the sides during the day to lower humidity. He needs a t5ho long linear light fixture with an Arcadia 6% or a reptisun 5.0 bulb to fit. The little round compact uvb bulb you have now will not penetrate more than 2-3 inches into his cage so he isn’t getting enough uvb at all. You’ll need to change this asap! Since you’re planning to either buy him a cage or build one go ahead and get the length bulb you’ll need for his bigger cage. It doesn’t matter if it’s bigger than the cage he has now. I would also try to get him into the bigger cage as soon as you move. His basking temp should be no more than 79-82 degrees. Your supplements look great and your feeding him a variety of insects which is good. The only thing I will say about that is loose crickets in the cage can get hungry and actually bite your guy at night. I would recommend getting or making a feeder run that some what contains them so they aren’t all over the place. I believe there is instructions on making one her e in the forum if you search the threads using the search tool. For now just place a piece of carrot into the bottom of the cage so the crickets will munch on that and not on your Cham. Limiting the number of crickets in his cage is very important. Stop feeding the crickets the orange gel cubes. They are garbage. A better way is to just gut load them with fresh fruits and vegetables and I’ll will link a safe gutload chart below. Your feeder insects are more nutritious for your Cham if they have been gutloaded. Another important thing is to make sure he has complete darkness when his lights go out. Any light will disturb his sleep and over time this effects him and can cause death. He should have a 12 hour schedule of lights on and off such as 7am on and 7 pm off. As for plants, it looks good. When you get a bigger cage, a small tree or two would be great Along with his pothos. Now a fecal test would be good to make sure he has no parasites. I hope this info helps and please ask any questions you may have and I’ll do my best to answer them. I’m sorry I wasn’t around when you first posted.