Need Help with Jackson Babies

[Muttley]

Well, Day 3. Appetites and hunting prowess improved and I am seeing them drink from water droplets still. Humidity and temps are stable, lighting appears to be well, and all-in-all, I'd have to say things are progressing well.

 

[carol5208]

That is fantastic!! I hope they continue to grow strong and healthy.

 

[Cainschams]

The terrarium you are keeping them in is fine. The fogger would be great if you could start it before the lights come on in the morning so you get that foggy morning effect and turn it off when the spot light comes on. Humidity is critical for baby chameleons! Of course, there is such thing as too much humidity and having that terrarium fogged up the entire day is pushing it. I would do the fogger in the morning as described and then use a misting bottle two times during the day. The misting bottle gives them drinking opportunities. You are right to be watching that humidity closely.
We on the forums can offer our experience, but we are not there. What is the room humidity? If you are in Washington DC I can only guess that it is very cold and the room you are in is heated. If the humidity in the room is low then a solid wall enclosure (like your terrarium) is exactly what you should be doing. You may have to run that fogger more often depending on your ambient RH.
Here are your consideration points:
1) Make sure the cage has a chance to dry out. There is a difference between humidity and everything being constantly wet.
2) Be meticulous about cleaning that cage! You now have 7 poop machines. Poop + water = bacteria soup.
3) Be obsessive about keeping that fogger (ultrasonic humidifier) clean. The last thing you need is to aerosol-ize marinating poop! Know that chameleons target water and food dishes to poop in just like pigeons target cars. I don't know how they do it. They just do.
4) Watch your temperature drop at night. Jackson's are okay with a temperature drop, though. If you have a nice upper 70s (F) day temp then you can easily go into the lows 60s (F) night temp. They can go deeper than that, but you are then starting to weed out the weaker ones. While that is good nature management policy it tends to wreck our human hearts.
5) Be very mindful of the ones that do not seem to be eating. It will take a couple days for them to get into the groove of eating, but then they should be all over anything that moves. And this is where the natural competition sets in. The smaller/weaker ones should be separated to give them a chance. I have had wonderful specimens come from the weaker ones I have separated and held back. They just need a little more chance at the beginning!
6) fruit flies and pin head crickets are now your friends. You will need many.

It is difficult being surprised like this and all of a sudden having more mouths to feed. But raising up these mini-tree dragons from birth is one of the most fascinating and amazing things to go through! It looks like you are getting good responses from your babies. Your next challenge, once the eating/watering is established, is separating them. This is where those 48" T-8 fluorescent bulbs come in handy. You can put a lot of smaller cages under them to separate the babies out. They will do much better in their own rooms. Although most keepers keep them together for two to three months you will get better results separately. When/if you separate them is up to you. You can delay having to separate them by having copious hiding spaces and an abundance of food

Bill

Beautiful post!!!!

Glad to hear they are doing better. I would say the fogger was the issue myself. Separating the ones that look like they arent doing as well would be best but that is up to you. This is why I like using the plastic bins. They hold in humidity well, easy to clean, easy to set up an environment and are inexpensive. You can get a 4ft T8 fixture at lowes, hd, walmart etc and span this across many bins and it saves you money because an 18 inch UVB is the same price as a 4 ft. Buying your spot lights at those places and using household bulbs will save on housing more than one individually.

Its always best to raise them individually but its not always practical Raising individually prevents squabbles, food competition, basking competition, territory competition and lots of nicks and dings from climbing over each other which can also cause eye damage.

Again, glad they are perking up!! Sounds like they are much more comfortable. Keep us update!

 

[Figeretta]

Jackson babies

Hi, New to this myself, I had 2 females produce babies within 2 weeks of each other. ( Sept 11 AND 24) One I had only had 3 days and didnt even know either was pregnant. They had a total of 10 babies between the 2 of them and 3 days ago I lost the last. ALL 10 died and I have no idea why. They were all eating and drinking and the oldest was just 2 weeks from 4 months old. The one i thought was doing the best was huge and healthy looking and still died. I had them in smaller terrariums , with screen tops so I could make sure they were eating fruit flies and getting plenty of water. I gave them pinheads and some even grew large enough for small crickets. My females are about to produce again in another month or so and Im almost depressed about it, I just dont want them all to die, maybe this time will be better but Im not holding my breath. GOOD LUCK WITH YOURS!

 

[leedragon]

how are the babies doing?

 

[Muttley]

how are the babies doing?

Sorry for the late reply. All seven are doing fantastic! Eating machines, drinking well and they seem to tolerate each other. Quite comical at times. We have a couple that come right to the front of the terrarium when we open the door and appear to really like crawling on hands and arms. Literally, they will hang on the end of a branch until they are acknowledged with a hand to climb on to.

Thanks for everyone's help. Most certainly appreciated.

Mutt

 

[leedragon]

happy for you man, I hope you can post some pics as they grow

 

[nick barta]

I'm by no means an expert, but have experience raising a Jackson's from birth. I work at a Petsmart, and our female Jackson's had babies one day so we had to get them separated and adopted quickly. Of the 8 born, one died almost immediately (there was an issue whilst breaking through the amniotic sac), I took two, another associate took two, and our petcare manager took three.

Unfortunately, out of the 7 remaining, only 3 survived to today (just past 5 months old). I have one remaining, and the other manager has 2. The one that died on me died within the first two weeks....I was worried that he or she was not eating properly, and the next morning I found him or her on the bottom of the cage, eyes closed and lifeless.

Now, some observations.

First of all, from personal experience and communication with the others, the babies would regularly climb the screen to get directly below the UVB light. This happened in the store, under my care, and other the care of the two others, so I'm not sure this is much cause for concern.

Fruit flies are a royal pain to deal with, so if you can get your hands on some pinhead crickets it will offer some variety and make monitoring feeding a bit easier if using a cup. I know there is controversy concerning cup feeding, but it is an easy way to monitor eating habits.

As taken from "The Chameleon Handbook" by Francois Le Berre (pp 106):

I suspect too low a humidity is what claimed my other baby.

As babies, they of course will shed more regularly so a high humidity will aid in clean shedding. Mine shed very quickly and in some instances I wouldn't have known except for traces of shed on his plant.

Be prepared to separate them as they get older and begin claiming territory.

Good luck and keep the forum updated!

Just for posterity, here's my little one, Simcoe, at 5 months

Snowveil,

Great info, can you come work at my Petsmart?

 

[Muttley]

They were in rare form last night.

 

[draftgirl]

Loving this thread Muttley as my female may be gravid. I am reading everything I can get my hands on. I appreciate you sharing your experiance with the babies. Keep the Pics coming!

 

[leedragon]

haha always with monkey business

 

[ReptileLove18]

ive been following this thread and im so glad to hear the babies are doing good!! its always awesome to read the success stories and i love seeing the pics of the babies they are so adorable the picture of three babies on one stick is absolutely fantastic!! a one of a kind pic for sure

 

[dom1959]

wow, i would be over-whelmed, seems like you are doing all you can!
i really have no help to offer,
just wanted to say... good job by you,
and here's hoping you are the one they were waiting
for, to help them through their journey!

 

[Spencejah]

Okay so we just got home from a funeral and there's like 10 baby chameleons crawling around! lol I guess our chameleon was pregnant. I had no idea. But I had put a little pot of soil for her to dig but she never used it so I guess she did it somewhere else. lol

Edit: just found out Jackson's don't lay eggs. They give live birth. lol

I have no idea what to do. I'll post some pics soon but we need help. lol

 

[Spencejah]

I believe there's 7 of them

 

[Spencejah]

this is the mom

The setup

I live in Hawaii. I've had chameleons twice when I was in like 2nd grade and then another one now. We've never used a bulb or humiditfier or whatever cause well, I don't think we need one and our chameleons seemed to have done just fine. Like right now, it is 82 degrees and the humidity is 63%

 

[studio2eight]

I am in the same boat as you! Mine just had 8 babies yesterday and I've also bought every fruit fly culture in south Florida good luck to you!

 

[leedragon]

god so cute

 

[Muttley]

Well, so far so good I suppose. We adopted most of the babies out, kept two, a male and a female. For reasons I cannot explain the male passed away a month or so ago. He was eating well, drinking well. I woke up one morning and turned the lights on and he was really struggling. I took him out of his cage and he died in my hands within a few minutes. My son was devastated.

The female now has a swollen eye that came out of nowhere. She was shedding last week so I am thinking she has an irritated eye. I read a post earlier today with the very same issue and it appeared that eye drops cleared it up, so we'll see what happens with those.

Thanks for all the help so far.

 

[leedragon]

sorry to hear that bro, hope it goes well with the one remaining