Jackson's babies!!!

[Matt Kolmann]

I bought a female xanth Jackson's at the Daytona herp show and low and behold, she was gravid and I have a bunch of little bundles of joy this morning. Pics later - right now I have some options.

12x12x12 Exoterra - planted or unplanted?

or

16x12x20 Screen cage - with schefflera

What's better for the munchkins?

Thanks! Ahhhh the excitement!

Also, what should I be doing for momma - she looks good, but I figure some extra calcium should be in order.

-Matt

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Go with the screen cage and a big live plant.
You're going to need some D. hydei flies and pinheads as well.
Good luck, these are not the easiest neonates to raise up.
I mist at least twice a day and free range the flies.
A little sandwich container or something shallow that the pinheads can't climb would be a good idea so the pins don't hide.
I would place it on the soil at the base of the plant.
A reptisun 5.0 tube is the only lighting you will neeed.
Don't let them get too hot (I have been keeping mine at around 72 degrees f.)

-Brad

Edit: Mom should have some calcium (no D3) dusted feeders and good access to water.

 

[Fearaffect]

Brad, r u using a humidifier for them? Or is 2 mistings adequate?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

First of all, I got these when they were a month old, so they weren't born here and I was not involved in the first month of raising them.
Just needed to add that disclaimer

I do not use a humidifier, however, there are a dozen cages in this fairly small windowless basement room.
Two mistings of all these cages per day raises the relative humidity in the room significantly.
I do let things dry out in the middle of the day and the humidity is fairly low at that time.

-Brad

 

[xanthoman]

personally, i would go with the exoterra for the first two months and switch to the screen cage after that. neonates will need a high concentration of feeders, see my public album "welcome to the jungle" for some pics of feeder concentration and my early setup , my guess is you will need a minimum of 3 heavily producing hydei culture , i wouldnt even waste your time with the melongasters, feel free to pm i you have any problems and i dont notice coming posts. good luck

 

[merumontanus]

Although people have success in raising neonate jacksonii in solid-wall enclosures, I have had better results in fully-ventilated enclosures, granted there are a lot of other factors influencing their survival from the start, such as their size (based on clutch numbers), strength upon birth, etc.

To me, the ability to mist them more often while allowing dry-out times in between is a big plus. Of course, this can also be accomplished if your aquarium-type enclosure has adequate drainage.

A reptisun 5.0 tube is the only lighting you will neeed.
Don't let them get too hot (I have been keeping mine at around 72 degrees f.)

Brad, does the temperature in your room fluctuate any higher during the day? All my jacksonii, including adults and neonates, love to bask throughout the day. In fact, the feeding response clearly increases after they've had their morning bask, which they actually utilize to thermoregulate constantly throughout the day-- moving in and out of the area many times each day.

Have you tried adding a low-wattage bulb in the mornings to see whether it has any effect on their behavior? I use 35 watt bulbs to increase the gradient slightly. I'd love to see how yours react.

Congratulations on the young, Matt. As mentioned above, makes sure you have a steady supply of small insects immediately, as ensuring they eat as soon as possible is key to their survival.

Cheers,

Fabián

 

[Matt Kolmann]

thanks for the quick replies!

I've got them in the exoterra as of now - unplanted, with some scheffelera and a ficus benjamina in pots. Tons of vines for them to get around on and the temp in the area is around 75C. Gonna try to drop it down lower however. I have a reptisun 5.0 in there. Does the temp need to go much lower? Since this was a surprise - I don't have any flies or pinheads yet. I rushed shipment so I should have some tomorrow and my grad cronies work in a genetics lab with tons of access to fresh (non-fly napped) fruit flies (no hydei atm, just melanogaster).

This should be interesting.

I have paper towels in the bottom as of know for cleaning - good idea? bad idea?

 

[Chris Anderson]

Matt,

I've had the best success raising baby montane chameleons (both live bearing and egg layers) in Exo-Terra Glass Terrariums fully planted like you would keep pygmy chameleons in. I start newborns in 12x12x18" Exo-Terras and once they get slightly older, move them up to an 18x18x18". I believe the planted enclosures like this are better then unplanted because it prevents standing water buildup in the bottom and a very natural environment. In these enclosures, I misted them once a day (in the morning) and added a large number of fruit flies shortly after misting. I use a 5.0 bulb as my only light source with ambient temps in the room in the mid 70s to very low 80s during the day and dropping into the low 70s at night. Make sure you order at least 3 or 4 good sized hydei cultures to cycle through so that you can feed them plenty each day. They should basically have constant access to food. This has worked great for me raising T. hoehnelii and T. montium, both of which I would say are fairly comparable to T. jacksonii neonate care.

Best of luck with the babies, Matt. Give me a call if you need any help.

Chris

 

[tkilgour]

It is always a treat to get a gravid female when you didnt expect to. Every once in a while I get one gravid by accident. Good luck, these are neat chams. to have.

 

[CleaTheChameleon]

I think both will work fine. Post pictures of the babies, we are dying to see

 

[Matt Kolmann]

i'll try to post some pics soon - i have to downgrade the pixels on my canon first. everyone's doing well so far - got some unadulterated melanogaster for the time being from my friends in the cellular dept. the babies are quite inefficient in catching them however.