New Jackson Chameleon owner

[Mama Lizzy]

Hi all,

Just got a 3 week old Jackson chameleon last week, and want to make sure he sticks around for a while!
So many interesting topics on here, and so many opinions!
For Jackson chameleon owners -
Do you leave the red light on at night as the pet store advised?
What type of system do you use to keep your Jackson chameleon's cage humidity in the desired range, and what is the desired range?!
Misting system or do you mist by hand throughout the day?
Fake or live plants in the cage?
Substrate or paper towels on the floor?
Should my guy solely be snacking on fruit flies, or are the pinhead crickets good to give him too? How many bugs per feeding, and how often?? And should I be doing any handfeeding?

Thank you!

 

[SaintJimmy]

Hi all,

Just got a 3 week old Jackson chameleon last week, and want to make sure he sticks around for a while!
So many interesting topics on here, and so many opinions!
For Jackson chameleon owners -
Do you leave the red light on at night as the pet store advised? No. Keep OFF all lights at night. In fact, the red bulb is unnecessary and you should return it.
What type of system do you use to keep your Jackson chameleon's cage humidity in the desired range, and what is the desired range?! The desired range is 60-80%. You DO NOT need it to be THAT high constantly/all the time. Most people here use a mistking system or an aquazamp rain system. Do not buy monsoon misters, they are crap.
Misting system or do you mist by hand throughout the day? For a baby that young, I would manually mist the cage with a spray bottle (with warm water in it!) gently for around a minute and do that throughout the day. Or get a mist king.
Fake or live plants in the cage? Live plants are the best. Buy a couple packs of fake vines and leaves at the store for walking around, but then get a baby ficus, baby schefflera (umbrella plant), or baby pothos at a store. You should have at least 1 live plant helps LOADS with humidity!
Substrate or paper towels on the floor? NO substrate. Chams have a tendency to eat it out of curiosity and then their digestive system clogs and they have a risk of death. Use paper towels, or drill droles in the bottom of the pvc cage floor and find a way to drain the cage easily!
Should my guy solely be snacking on fruit flies, or are the pinhead crickets good to give him too? How many bugs per feeding, and how often?? And should I be doing any handfeeding? fruit flies and pinheads are both good when they're young. Get him/her used to a variet diet. More different kinds of bugs, the better, when he grows larger, you can begin feeding larger crickets and other types of bugs with your fingers. I would not worry about hand feeding right now.

Thank you!

My responses are all in bold

Also here is a care sheet that covers everything

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/jacksons/

here is a thread that will help you in building/buying some sort of drainage system (you will need one because jackson's need a lot of humidity throughout their lives, and paper towels WILL be a pain later on)

https://www.chameleonforums.com/drainage-systems-cages-get-creative-102038/

enclosure ideas

https://www.chameleonforums.com/official-enclosure-picture-thread-2-post-your-pics-94781/

they need screen cages by the way! unless you live in a cold and dry environment, keep it in a screen cage.

To keep humidity in, cover the sides of the cage with plastic or a clear shower curtain.

 

[York1]

No lights of any kinda at night. mine has a light system from lightmyreptiles and a basking bulb on during the day.
I use an aquazamp misting system with a rain dome and also a cold mist humidifier
Always live plants
No substrate at all
Pinhead crickets are fine along variety of food is always a good thing

 

[York1]

One more thing
Go ahead and use the search on the forum for any questions you might have. You will find a ton of info here. Thats what helped me when I got into chams

 

[Mama Lizzy]

Thank you

Appreciate the feedback.

I actually took out the stuff I had on the bottom, and put down paper towels earlier. Don't know how the little dude can hunt for the small fruit flies and pinhead crickets when they burrow down in there!

 

[Devokid]

The feed back on here has been great, the only background info I would add is that Jackson's live in higher altitudes where the temperatures drop significantly at night. So not only is the light from the red light keeping him up, the heat is as well. I have found that, as a general rule, pet stores are always wrong when it comes to chameleons.

 

[Mama Lizzy]

I do have him in a screen cage.

I've done tons of research on these guys in the last week. Just wanted to get forum members opinions. We got him as an unexpected gift!

 

[Mama Lizzy]

Thanks again

I do have him in a screen cage.

I've done tons of research on these guys in the last week. Just wanted to get forum members opinions. We got him as an unexpected gift!

 

[Miss Lily]

Sold a baby at just 3 weeks?! I got mine from a friend when he was just 7 weeks old and weighed 2g - that was scary enough! I was paranoid I was going to lose him as I kept reading that they can drop dead for no apparent reason right up until the 4-5 months mark. Basking temp should be around 80F, and keeping the little one hydrated is very important. I used a very fine spray misting bottle so I could mist for longer without drenching everything, whilst giving him time to realise what the water was and start to drink. As said above they do best with a night drop of at least 10 degrees.

 

[Mama Lizzy]

Miss Lily,

A friends friend had babies and for some reason he got one for us. I had no idea until he arrived and handed it to my daughter. She thought it was a toy!

We had to run out and get all the stuff.

He's eating fruit flies and pinhead crickets pretty well, so that's good. And I finally saw his poop. Was getting concerned that he wasn't defecating but he is!

He is super tiny. About 3 inches log with his tail!

 

[hughesra]

Just unbelievable!!!! So creative! I couldn't think of that if they were pulling my toenails out! The people on this site all must have got high SAT scores. I 'm a PHd but could never do that. Congratulations! By the way I hate all of you hate,hate hate!

 

[Andee]

Jackson's need an automatic misting system. Though it can be done with hand misting and a fogger, it's not very practical. Jackson's prefer long misting sessions and it can take a long time for them to get hydrated enough to the point they are happy. As a general rule of thumb I mist my Jackson's for four minutes four times a day and then during the summer and an extra 2 misting that are two minutes long. How big is your screen cage? What is your supplementing schedule? What are you gutloading with? Just to warn you 3 weeks is a very dangerous age to have a Jackson chameleon. Jackson babies are harder to raise in captivity and therefore Jackson's are generally harder to breed because the conventional ways of keeping neonates does not work for Jackson's. Around 5 or 6 months they are well known. For dying for seemingly unknown reasons. Though breeding is being experimented with and quite a few members have had great success in the last few years. I personally would never sell a Jackson that was under 5 months old. What is you light system?

 

[Lathis]

Just unbelievable!!!! So creative! I couldn't think of that if they were pulling my toenails out! The people on this site all must have got high SAT scores. I 'm a PHd but could never do that. Congratulations! By the way I hate all of you hate,hate hate!

This thread is old. Check the dates before you respond, as members may no longer participate on the forum after a year or two.

Also, not sure the tone you're trying for here... But remember that sarcasm doesn't translate well on the internet.

 

[Andee]

God seriously >.< why do people keep responding to threads 2 years old. It's stupid

 

[Lathis]

Makes me feel dumb when I respond and I don't catch it, too

 

[hughesra]

SARCASM!! Stupidity maybe. Not used to forums and dates, but how you would ever get sarcasm out of my amazement at all your skills. I don't feel dumb at all for a compliment at the wrong date. Getting sarcasm out of what I wrote sounds like paranoia does transfer well on the internet. Sorry if I wasted two minutes of your precious time because I wasn't used to the dates. How could anyone be sarcastic over the creativeness on this site. You should probably get over yourself before considering a ridiculous possibility.

 

[Lathis]

I love the "ignore" feature.

 

[taz_s_824]

Love reading everyone's responses.

Mines is about 2 months and the humidifier is very helpful in keeping his cage warm and moist so the water doesn't dry up too quickly. Especially at the bottom of his cage since the basking lights can heat up the cage quickly and dry things up.

 

[taz_s_824]

I came across this post as I do a lot of research and get a lot of old posts as results. I think it's helpful to post, regardless of how old the thread is.