Thinking about breeding??

[tbes25]

Hi i have 2 Jacksons, and im thinking about breeding them. As of now they are in two separate cages in 2 totally different rooms. The have only been around one another for a little while and that was about 2 months ago. I have had them for only a few months but would like to learn more about breeding them. Please tell me any info that you know. Such as how old should they be, what signs to look for so i know that they are both accepting, etc. Thanks

 

[xanthoman]

10 -14 months is a prime window for first mating , but before attempting, you should be fairly confident in your husbandry and care practices, and both animals need to be in top condition. a successful mating is the easy part, and still a long way from a successful birthing. a successful birthing will require that nutritional/supplemental, diet, and other care issues be right on target. the mating itself is not that complicated, just put them together for about 4-7 days, and keep an eye out for any signs of obvious stress, biting hissing etc. if there is any, then seperate immediately. there are different schools of thought as to whether it is best to intro the female to the male or vice versa. personally as long as they tolerate each others company for a week , i dont think it really matters, but one way usually works better than the other, depending on the individual social chemistry of the two animals. if the pairing does not go well, you can seperate for a week or two, and try again the other way around. it may also be helpful to place the cages next to each other, letting the animals view each other and get acclimated before the actual pairing. dont think that you are going to pair them up, feed them mostly petstore crickets and end up with a healthy clutch. a successful clutch will require a very diverse diet, a very nutritional gutload, and a well balanced and well thought out supplemental regimen. a gravid jackson will need more supplementation than a male or non-gravid jackson , but it is a very fine line, because jacksons can be sensitive to over-supplementation. before you commit you should realize that it can be hazardous to the females health, and decline, or even loss of the female, is a real possibility after birthing, especially if the female has not been properly conditioned. access to frequent natural sunlight is likely to be a huge bonus to both the mom and the viability of any clutch to be. there have been several threads on gravid jacksons lately, and most of them were not that positive. jacksons are not considered good starter chams and if you are new to jacksons just keeping them healthy will be challenge enough. also you will need to become well versed in hydei and pinhead culturing because the amount of food a healthy clutch can go through in their first month can be significant. here are some recently discussed jacksons threads https://www.chameleonforums.com/finally-41111/ https://www.chameleonforums.com/bad-news-41391/ https://www.chameleonforums.com/whats-wrong-my-jackson-chameleon-41374/ https://www.chameleonforums.com/question-about-my-wc-jacksons-female-41241/ https://www.chameleonforums.com/possible-gravid-jackson-chameleon-41179/ https://www.chameleonforums.com/gravid-jackson-40251/ https://www.chameleonforums.com/expect-babies-soon-36311/index4.html https://www.chameleonforums.com/will-you-pop-already-40060/ jmo

 

[tbes25]

hey thanks for the reply, and as of now i am still giving a lot of though but i figured i get the facts before actually deciding. I will definitely read on it some more, especially the feeding and nutritional aspect. Because if i had to say that i had one worry it would be that. Everything else (sunlight exposure, cage size etc is good) Ill keep u updated in case i need more assistance. Thanks TB