mczoo
Avid Member
So I have not posted on this forum for years now but have continued to have chameleon for many years now, but I am baffled by my current Jackson female.
I noticed almost 10 days ago that her behavior was off. she seemed less active and the following day I found her on the cage bottom. Obviously not normal for a chameloen. She was living with a slightly smaller male chameleon in 2x2x3 foot screen cage with a pvc bottom, two plants, hibiscus and another safe plant the name of which escapes me. They have been without problems for almost a year now. (i know many on this forum do not suggest letting them live together, but my breeder does it all the time without issue). I have an automated sprayer for all my cages the uses r/o water and the humidity is always above 60% usually higher more like 80%, I have <6 months old reptisun 5.0 bulb above the cage and a 60 watt basking bulb that allows temperature to reach about 90 at very top of the cage and stay in low seventies on bottom. At night the temps in my basement are mid sixties. Upon noticing her symptoms I put her in her own cage identical to her current one except shorter to prevent significant falls. She was very weak so for the past week I have been hand feeding her captive bred heornworns to hydrate and provide calories. Every day I expect to find her dead each morning but although she is positioned as such on the cage bottom, she is still alive. Today I tweezer fed her well hydrated and gut loaded crickets.(she ate four 3/4" without difficulty) Although I think all this is secondary to stress since my other 2 jacksons are well. I wonder is she is gravid as well. She has the same coloring my previous jackson who gave birth had just before the event. I am content with feeding her by hand until she improves but I wonder if I should put some sort of substrate on the bottom of her cage. Remeber Jacksons are live bearers so this is not an egg laying issues.
Any thoughts would be appreciated
Thanks
Sean
I noticed almost 10 days ago that her behavior was off. she seemed less active and the following day I found her on the cage bottom. Obviously not normal for a chameloen. She was living with a slightly smaller male chameleon in 2x2x3 foot screen cage with a pvc bottom, two plants, hibiscus and another safe plant the name of which escapes me. They have been without problems for almost a year now. (i know many on this forum do not suggest letting them live together, but my breeder does it all the time without issue). I have an automated sprayer for all my cages the uses r/o water and the humidity is always above 60% usually higher more like 80%, I have <6 months old reptisun 5.0 bulb above the cage and a 60 watt basking bulb that allows temperature to reach about 90 at very top of the cage and stay in low seventies on bottom. At night the temps in my basement are mid sixties. Upon noticing her symptoms I put her in her own cage identical to her current one except shorter to prevent significant falls. She was very weak so for the past week I have been hand feeding her captive bred heornworns to hydrate and provide calories. Every day I expect to find her dead each morning but although she is positioned as such on the cage bottom, she is still alive. Today I tweezer fed her well hydrated and gut loaded crickets.(she ate four 3/4" without difficulty) Although I think all this is secondary to stress since my other 2 jacksons are well. I wonder is she is gravid as well. She has the same coloring my previous jackson who gave birth had just before the event. I am content with feeding her by hand until she improves but I wonder if I should put some sort of substrate on the bottom of her cage. Remeber Jacksons are live bearers so this is not an egg laying issues.
Any thoughts would be appreciated
Thanks
Sean
