New Jackson's Chameleon for a new chameleon keeper.

[Jackson1181]

Hi everybody. I'm new to this forum, and although I've always liked chameleons, I'm new to keeping one. I've been into reptiles my entire life, have had several different types over the years, and for the last 8 years I've been keeping a Sudan Plated and a Leopard Gecko. I've always wanted a Chameleon, just have never had the time and space for one. Well my wife and I recently purchased our first home, and now I've got an entire room for my reptiles as well as plenty of time on my hands to spend on my hobbies so I decided now is as good a time as any to get one.

I've done as much research as I could, and have found a few discrepancies from one care sheet to another on the internet, so I'd like to hear some opinions on keeping these guys happy from some experienced keepers.
As far as what I've got going on right now. I'm always looking to the future, so when I decided I was going to get a chameleon and put the money and effort into building him a custom enclosure, I decided I was going to build an enclosure that could comfortably house two. My cage is basically a single 4' wide by 4' high by 2' deep enclosure with a large divider down the middle to effectively divide it into two 2' X 2' X 4' enclosures. I've got a UVB 5.0 fluorescent light up top as well as a 60w spot lamp which brings the highest basking spot up to about 80 degrees, with the rest of the enclosure being about 70-75 (which drops down to about 60-65 at night) . I have a few fake plants in the cage and would like to purchase one or two real ones this week (I'm looking especially for any type of climbing vine, any suggestions?). With 2 daily mistings and a waterfall I've been keeping the humidity around 70. I've currently got a substrate of reptibark, however I've read some care sheets that recommend this, and I've read some that recommend only paper towels.

For the most part, he seems to enjoy this setup. He does a fair amount of climbing and exploring. What he does not like is me. I know these guys do not like to be handled, but he does not like when I'm even in the room. When I walk in, he is a healthy shade of green and yellow, but within a few seconds of seeing me he's got black stripes all over. I understand this may pass as he becomes more acclimated to his surroundings and to me. For now I have been trying to just stay out of the room all together except when necessary for him or my other reptiles. The other thing that concerns me is that I've had him since Thursday and have yet to see him eat. Friday I put a dozen crickets in there. They are no longer there but I am not sure if he ate them or they escaped through the cage and into the room (any suggestions on how to feed crickets without them getting out through the screen?). Today I offered a small plate of meal worms but he has yet to touch them.

So that's my story, sorry if I went on and on there, I just wanted to be as thorough as possible so anyone with some experience could help out a new guy like me. I know these guys are a little more advanced than what I've kept in the past, but I feel I'm up to the challenge, so if anybody has any advice to point me in the right direction to getting this guy happy, it would be much appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to read this, this seems to be a nice online community, and I'm happy I found it!

-Sean

 

[mc9423]

I'm just now looking into Jackson's, but one thing I noticed is the waterfall - these generally aren't recommended in any cham cage, because chams like to poop in them and bacteria will flourish in it without daily cleanings. Make sure you have a dripper and misting for water, too.

To keep crickets from escaping, hang a cup (with the bottom cut out and replaced with screen) from the screen and put them in there.

 

[Mr Wilson]

To keep crickets from escaping, hang a cup (with the bottom cut out and replaced with screen) from the screen and put them in there.

We use to use a clear plastic cup in our enclosure that we hung near his basking area. Only problem we noticed was if he was under the cup and we put food in he would shoot the cup. After reading about chams on here who have lost their tongues because it got too stuck and broke off, he covered the whole cup with duct tape. I'm mentioning this because if the cham can see the crickets through the screen he may try to shoot directly at the cup, which, by the way, also sends the other crickets flying haha.

 

[xanthoman]

it would be helpful if you filled out the help form, or at least had some specific questions. you mentioned a reptisun 5.0, but you did not mention whether it was linear or cfl , you mentioned basking temps of 80*(the highest i offer my adults is 84*), but it would also be wise measure the temps at the ceiling of the cage, directly under the light, they are not above cage crawling or seeking temps that are higher than good for them. jacksons can be sensitive to supplementation, so personally i would at least start with mellower products, like sticky toungue farms, they have considerably lower dosages than some of the other more popular products. probably better to use products with proformed (derived from beta carotene) vitaminA, (like st vit-all), rather than preformed vitaminA acetate, (like reptivite multivite) jacksons like slightly higher humidity and do much better with lots of large, live, lush plants and having their basking spot higher than eye level will also make them much more comfortable. also it would be a good idea to familarize your self with all of the usual symptoms and their causes, if a jackson's starts to have problems, you will have a much smaller window of opportunity to correct it, than you would with some of the hardier chams. i cup feed all of my chams using yoplait yogurt cups, the type that is skinnier at the top than the bottom, it makes it much harder for the feeders to escape. its not good to just daily feed them all that they will eat, and a varied diet is essential, if you base your long term diet off of primarily crickets, you are bound to end up with problems, probably a good time to learn how to cultivate blue bottle flies (probably their favorite feeders) and dubia. heating your misting water is probably a good idea, so that your atomized temps are around 80-85* this might mean a substantial increase of your misting water resevoir temps, to as much as 110*. if they are inside you wont have to worry about nightime temps, as long as they have ample opportunity to warm up during the day, they are quite comfortable with night temps into the 50s. many xanths are quite receptive to being handled and it sounds like you are on the right track, the best way to get them to warm up to you is never to force yourself on them, and never pull them off of a branch, always offer a little climbing branch for them to climb onto. it can take them weeks to fully accept their new surroundings, and even longer to accept their new keeper. for legal reasons, wild caught jacksons are usually advertized as cb, so depending on where you got him, it might be a good idea to have a fecal float done just to get him off to a good start. if you got him from cf member titan , then probably not an issue, but if you got him from somebody on kingsnake, or at a local petstore or reptile show, it would probably be a good idea. if you post some more detailed info, and ask some specific questions, we will be glad to do our best to answer them for you. jmo