Meet Ndnd

[Duhjoker]

What a long werk this has been. I ordered my cage last week on thursday and it got lost for a couple days but finally arrived tuesday with my UVB bulb. So i fixed it up with two pothos plants and a lattice of dowels tied together going every which way so theres plenty of move about space to explore. Then we ordered my cham that afternoon. I was originally goinv to get a veiled but i found some small jacksons ( which i always loved ) for $5 more at 3L. So i did that. Unfortunately he arrived DOA. His lil tongue was completely distended and had soiled it self. I immediately took pics and emailed 3L then called and they were very courteous and proffesional and were sad to hear it but said they would get me hooked up for a new one on friday. Well i was heartbroken and nervous anout ordering another baby so i asked for a medium sized female instead. Same price and i thought it would be heartier just in case. So now im a mess of nerves and have to get up super early ( for me ) again. Well noon comes around again and fedex truck. I check the travking and it says its still in cali. Well 3L called me two minutes later and explained to me that FE had forgotten to move it out so it would be today. I explained my worry but was teassured.So now its my third day and 9am rolls around no Fedex, 10, 11. Finally a lil after noon i hear the truck and step out side. It goes to my neighbors drops off a package and leaves. Im like WTF. So i check travking again and its still in houston. So i decided to call 3L again and they called me back and said it would be here by 5 pm definitely. Well that wasnt the case at all. So around 3:45 FE calls and says they "found" my package and that if i wanted it today i would have to drive and get it. Well of course i had to go. So now after getting dressed i have about an hour to get there. Well its the lonestar rally this weekend here on galveston island so traffic was crazy bad. But i made it. And opened the box to a red very unhappy female jacksons cham. Now i have to make it back home. I was able to make better time so she didnt have wait much longer. I get home and Ndnd pops in my head from futurama. And after the FE fiasco i thought that was perfect. So i ripped off the tape and took the lid off once inside the cage and she came out and immediately started exploring her new Hab. She pottied and the urate was clear but the poo was brown. Then she ate two crickets. Poor thing was hungry after being stuck in a plastic tub for two days.

Im a lil worried though. Her color is a dark brown and when i try to mist the cage with my water bottle she curls her tail and hides. But doesnt seem dehdrated. Eyes are poking out and working good.

Do i need to worry or is she just not thirsty?


Heres a pic.

 

[Duhjoker]

Day 2

Well its day two and im still a nervous wreck. But good news every one. I got up this morning and turned the lights on to warm her up and decided to make a drip bowl but the holes i made were to big and started making a huge mess so i removed it quickly. Then i got my mist bottle out amd tried again. She did real good and drank the whole time i misted. Yay!!! Im so happy. But still nervous.

I want to thank all the people at 3L that helped me. They are great folks and so nice and willing to do what it takes to get you straight.

 

[ataraxia]

Hi, congrats with your little one. Their is a lot of good information on the forum on how to care for them.

Main points with jacksons: Be sure to supplement/nutrition correctly, proper temps and provide proper hydration.

 

[Duhjoker]

Supplements

Thank you. And yea I did a tremendous amount of reading before and after making my final decision and of course ibe been following the forum.

I bought all three repcal supplements, calcium with D3, had to special order the calcium with out D3 and the multi. ( and of course im gut loading my crickets ) Im gonna contact 3L again sometime today and ask them how they have been using supplements so i keep her on the same schedule. I was reading about it here on the forum but every body was giving different schedules. So im a lil confused.

 

[ataraxia]

I wouldnt worry so much on how LLL was supplementing. From here on out i would recommend plain phos free calcium at every feeding. Multivitamins and D3 is where it gets tricky from keeper to keeper. Really it depends on the appetite of your animal AND how heavy you dust.

 

[Duhjoker]

Day 3 help cold snap coming!!!!

Well its day three and everythings still good. Except shes eaten today but i havent seen her drink. I'm misting about every other hour and i can tell she us moist but it worries me. Maybe shes drinking when i leVe the area. I know she doesnt like the misting bottle. Im thinking shes just not thirsty today. She drank ALOT yesterday.

Ok so 3L said about the same thing. I guess im gonna get a calendar and log book and start with the multi about every 5 days and the D3 cal every 6 with straight cal inbetween. Let me know if this is all right.

And lastly it stays pretty warm here in galveston all year round ( 60's-70's ) but we do get cold snaps last a day or two where it gets in the 50's to upper 30's. This particular cold snap is rangef between 50 and 45. I live in a lil apartment here with no central air so i have a window unit for air and an oil coil heater for heat. Im a lil low on cash so i need a way to keep my Cham heated over night. I have my cage really high and i could put my heater on low but im afraid of it sucking the moisture out of the area.

What can i do to help keep her warm during these two nights.

 

[kplatvoet]

Jackson's don't get the same supplements as Panthers or Veiled - they get less
Supplementation:
" As a montane species (native to higher altitudes) Jackson's have decreased supplementation requirements compared to tropical species due to metabolism differences. Use calcium (without D3 or phosphorus) twice a week, a multivitamin once a month, and calcium with D3 once a month."
Good gut loading makes a big difference with Jackson's -
As far as heating goes mine does better with a nice cool down at night - as long as it's in the 50's your ok - I would get a cool mist humidifier if your worried about the heat drying the cage out - I use this one with a tube out the top that I run to the top of the cage.
http://www.amazon.com/Crane-Ultraso...3&sr=8-1&keywords=crane+humidifiers+cool+mist
I've also heard of putting a shallow pan of water in front of where the heat come out of the heater - I'm not sure if it works.

 

[Duhjoker]

Thank you soooooo much for correcting me!!!!! I want to do everything i can to keep her healthy and happy. I solved the cold snap problem too. My landlord said i could bring her upstairs. They have central air so it will be warm enough.

 

[Duhjoker]

Is there an insect do not feed list? I get a few different kinds of moths and other flyers trapped in my room some nights so i tend to catch them and use them as feeders. And once my cat figures out whats up she'll bring me all kinds of stuff. When i had my beardie we rarely had to buy crickets at all. I know to watch for size but i want to make sure there arent any thats poisonous or dangerous to consume.

Also should i be misting after lights out before i go to bed?

 

[kplatvoet]

You don't have to mist at night - they need a bit of a dry out period - I have mine where the cage has drainage and use a dripper along with her spraying - check out the drainage thread in enclosures -
I don't know of an insect do not feed list - but you don't want to feed her anything that may have been sprayed with pesticides and with wild caught insects there's a bigger worry about parisites- mine likes blue bottle flies but I get them on-line and gut load them with "fly food" that she sells. (mantisplace.com) you can get 500 spikes for 15.00 with shipping - the spikes take a little longer to hatch but they also last longer -
She was eating a lot of silkworms this summer as I have mulberry trees so I was feeding them leaves and buying eggs - The chow is more expensive and I have much better luck hatching them and having them do well with leaves.

 

[Duhjoker]

Day 4

Ok i think i know whats going on with her drinking. Ive noticed when i mist her and after moistening her eyes ( which is freaky to watch ) i can see her opening her mouth and swallowing. So i think shes drinking the water that runs off her body or head. So i think i need to make some kind of bottle dripper that i can run a hose from.

Oh yea i know all about drainage. The day my cage came i built it up then took the flat piece of PVC that came with it and drilled a couple hundred holes in it with a 3/16" bit. Then i took a piece of ply wood and cut it to be as big as the cage. From there i took three 1x1" and screwed them to the ply wood into a U shape and set the cage on top.

 

[kplatvoet]

Mine will usually drink from a dripper - she and rarely drinks when the mister is on - I wouldn't be surprised if yours was still a bit freaked out from her trip- in general I would say my Jackson is way more mellow than my other two- but she gets dark when I clean her cage out for a day and change a leaf & when I upgraded her to a nice big cage she was cranky for a week.

 

[junglefries]

Female jax are dark colored until they mature. Then they turn the classic lemon lime green. New arrivals can stay dark for a time also. Wouldn't worry too much about colors. She looks young.

 

[junglefries]

Seperate but the most important fact: night temp drops are NECESSARY to keeping them healthy and alive. It stimulates their feeding response. I actually move my cages between two rooms for winter and summer. Daytime 82-84°f. Night 60-65°f (or as close to as possible). Good luck.

 

[Leslie11]

misting

My chams like it when I mist them with warm water, but not cool.

 

[Duhjoker]

Auto mist

Can anyone reccomend an auto misting system that will either fit in or be compatible with the reptibreeze small 18x18x20 NT-10 cage? I think i have a lil while before i have to upgrade cage size but i think some kinda auto misting system would help so i dont have to use a spray bottle which i know she dont like very much. I did set up a dripper and she will sit under it but still not sure if shes drinking.

 

[kplatvoet]

My first misting system was a Moonsoon- which broke after overflowing - in the middle of a heat wave - and caused me all sorts of problems till I replaced it with a Aquazamp Raindome which I have now on all 3 cages that I have-
There were some posts concerning problems with these shipping out about a month ago and I don't know if they have been resolved - as far as I know there was a medical emergency involved. I love the way mine works-
I have also not heard of anyone having problems with a Mistking system-
they are both site sponsors -

 

[Duhjoker]

Day 5 rubs eye

Well we survived the first night of the cold snap. The outside temp was at 51. Surprisingly it stayed around 60 inside my living room. Any way i woke up and turned the light on and let it warm up a lil in her hab. I set up a drip but forgot to try warmer water but she did go and hang out at ground zero but I still dont know if she drank. After 45 minutes when the hab started to dry she started rubbing one of her eyes so I took this as needing moisture so i misted her down again. After that she stalked and ate a cricket. I like to let the crickets roam rather than put them in a feeding cup, this way she can keep her hunting instincts. She did rub her eye again about 30 minutes later so I set up the drip again this time with warm water. And yes i tested it ( on my wrist like you would a baby's bottle ) and let it go. Then misted her with warm water. This time she didnt run from the water. But i still dont know whether shes thriving or surviving.

Also I watched her poo something yellow and looked hard about the size of half a grain of rice. Theres was urine too but clear. I saved the poo on the tissue i used to clean it up with if i need to post a pic.

 

[Duhjoker]

Day 6 was definitely thirsty

Well we had a really cold night last night. I woke up to a 44 degree temperature this morning. I dont know how cold it was near the cage but my living room was freakin cold. Yes i know i need a way to measure the temp in hete and her cage. So i turned my heater and her lights on and got it warm in here. Took a lil while too. Then i waited a lil longer than usual and started misting to which she climbed to a comfortable dowel and drank the droplets that ran down. She's also a much lighter color today and her stripes are visible. She pottied again today with another yellow piece but had regular fecal too along with clear urine. So now im pretty sure shes getting water now.

Since ive been using warm water she seems to tolerate it more and doesn't hide now. And i think you were right about being shocked or freaked out a lil. I guess two days in a tub with no water and food upset her then i put her in a new hab that prolly differs from her usual hab. I would be a lil freaked too!!

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

Since you cham is not a baby, there is a possibility she is pregnant. Jacksons give birth to live babies. There have been many posts on here about unsuspecting new owners that have numerous little ones running around in the morning.

Night time temp drops are necessary with Jacksons. I have had my jacksons drop into the 40's over night with no problems, they like cooler temps.

I would look into getting a aqua zamp or mist king. I also run a dripper for three hours a day and a cool mist humidifier which runs every hour for 15 minutes. I think all three are necessary to keep jacksons but others may disagree. I believe humidity is very important for this species thus the modified humidifier.

Good luck with her and keep us posted... more pictures please!