New to Jacksons and concerened

[Turok_the_jackson]

Hello,
I have just recently got a juvenile Jackson chameleon from fl chams and there are some things about him that have me scared.
I have all the right heat bulbs and uvb, he has a coo mist humidifier setup as well as a dripper. His tank stays in the 80's at his basking spot. He's eating 5 meal worms and 5 crickets every other day. They are calcium dusted 2 times a week and gut loaded with lettuce and oranges and cricket food.
But most of the day he just sits in the heat spot. I'll leave for several hours and come back and he is still in his perch. Sometimes this is for whole days.
He also started shedding when he first arrived and is still only up to the shoulders.
And he has constantly staid a darker brown with green splotches. Is that ok? I attached a photo to see if that's just the healthy Jackson color.
Thank you.

 

[KapitalJ]

Welcome to the forum...

I don't have much knowledge of suplementing Jacksons, but you definitely need to step up your gutload. Also it should be changed up constantly as variety is key.

 

[bobcochran]

Older Jacksons take more than a week to shed, even when they're growing fast they take longer than veils and panthers. Take him out for some sun, see if he colors up more.

 

[Turok_the_jackson]

Welcome to the forum...

I don't have much knowledge of suplementing Jacksons, but you definitely need to step up your gutload. Also it should be changed up constantly as variety is key.

How would you recommend stepping the gut load up?

 

[KapitalJ]

This has lots of good info for you to read over.....
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/jacksons/

Info on gutloading
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/entry/feeder-nutrition-amp-gutloading.75/

use the search feature on the site, type "gutloading" tonnes of info!!

 

[KapitalJ]

I just rotate greens that we have on hand. We have an Iguana so I always have plenty of greens and veggies around. I also toss in some fruit maybe once a week. I think the main key is VARIETY.

 

[brownie64]

He seems to be displaying his stressed mode do you have plenty of foliage in his enclosure? They do everything slower than veiled do. You should give him calcium with d3, and multivitamins every month as well. I personally use the regular calcium without d3 at about every feeding.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Hello,
I have just recently got a juvenile Jackson chameleon from fl chams and there are some things about him that have me scared.
I have all the right heat bulbs and uvb, he has a coo mist humidifier setup as well as a dripper. His tank stays in the 80's at his basking spot. He's eating 5 meal worms and 5 crickets every other day. They are calcium dusted 2 times a week and gut loaded with lettuce and oranges and cricket food.
But most of the day he just sits in the heat spot. I'll leave for several hours and come back and he is still in his perch. Sometimes this is for whole days.
He also started shedding when he first arrived and is still only up to the shoulders.
And he has constantly staid a darker brown with green splotches. Is that ok? I attached a photo to see if that's just the healthy Jackson color.
Thank you.

I'll start off by stating that I know very little about Jacksons. I hope the more experienced Jackson people can chime in.

He doesn't look like a juvenile to me with all that horn development. He looks like an adult wild caught. Wild caughts have a lot of trouble acclimating to captivity and most die. I honestly don't think it so much that they have trouble adjusting to captivity but that most people don't give them the habitat they need to thrive and don't respond to them when they are declining. Novices also want to handle chameleons and that stresses captive breds, often to death, and is much harder on a new wild caught.

When a novice buys a chameleon from a big supplier, they are expecting to buy an animal that is healthy and likely to live. A wild caught is problematic. They are rarely healthy and few actually live.

He looks dehydrated to me with that wrinkly skin. You don't mention misting him. Many chameleons won't drink from a dripper.

He might be staying put on his perch because he is unwell or stressed. Your temps might be a bit on the hot side, but again I stress I am not a Jackson person. I know where they come from and it can be very very cold and wet up in the Kenyan mountains.

The biggest issues with new wild caughts are that they get severely dehydrated and stressed. Stress suppresses the immune system so the parasites he has been living with as a happy and healthy animal in the wild explode and suddenly he can be overwhelmed by them. Until proven otherwise, I recommend you treat him as a newly captured wild caught with all the complications a wild caught presents.

Good luck.