Howdy guys... I didn't want to post 7 or more different threads that are all related, so I thought it best to put this here... I apologize to the moderators if I should have posted several different threads though...
My female Jackson recently passed away. We got her as a full grown adult, and had her around 18 months. We loved her very much, and want to adopt a new Jackson, but this time get a little juvenile male, so we can enjoy his company a bit longer.
Before we continue our Chameleon journey though, I wanted to address a few issues which I think were contributing factors to why my first Jackson died, and my plan on correcting these issues prior to moving forward.
1) We were only spraying her once per day... To address this I wanted to up this to 3-4 times per day... First in the morning and again in the evening just before lights out, and a couple of sporadic times throughout the day. I may even invest in a misting system, but manual spraying with a water bottle is the plan for the immediate future.
2) We were feeding her poorly... Only crickets (pretty much the only live food available out here) and never gut loading them with anything other than the potato that they are sold with... We were only dusting the crickets with Calcium+D3 (Low phosphorous). Additionally we were dusting daily... I've come to learn that we should have only been dusting the Calcium+D3 once per month with a Jackson, and using phosphorous free powder. We intend to continue to feed crickets with some amendments... Calcium+D3 once per month. Calcium 2x per week. Multivitamin once per month. The crickets are provided from the cricket farm in a plastic cup (50 medium crickets per cup) with little yellow grains (I believe crushed dried corn, about the size of BB's much more coarse than corn meal) and a potato wedge. I have read to not feed Chameleons potato at all. So my plan here was to remove the potato immediately, and put them in a cricket box. Transfer them into a cup 2-3 hours prior to feeding with a suitable gutload diet for my Jackson, and feed every other day around 8 crickets per feeding.
3) We were running 2 basking lamps... a 50W white lamp with ~90F basking temp, and an infrared night lamp. I have come to learn that the night time lamp is not needed, and the 90F basking temp for the day time lamp was too hot. To address this issue I planned to elevate the lamp a bit (Kiwi liked to suspend herself from the top of the cage right under the lamp) and possibly lower the basking branch. We also run a UVB lamp. I planned to move the UVB lamp to the same fixture where the old night time basking lamp was, and remove the current UVB fixture.
4) We had a drip system that was using an aqualift pump to cycle water from an in-cage water reservoir and trickle the water down an inverted plastic anacharis plant. She loved drinking from the plant, but frequently the lines of the pump would clog as the dripping water simple fell back down into the reservoir. To address this, we plan to use a similar system using an aqualift pump with an in-line filter going to a sealed external water reservoir, dripping down the same plastic anacharis plant into the old in-tank water reservoir, and place a screen over the in-tank collection dish so our new baby can't drink the "old" water. We often found that the in-tank reservoir we were using before would get poop in it, and are pretty sure that introduces some pretty nasty bacteria into the drinking water. We're hoping this new method will provide clean water.
5) We weren't keeping up with cleanliness very well. We just need to do better with cleanliness, getting poop out right away, and cleaning up messes on dirty branches, etc... We weren't using a substrate, per se, but we do use a green felt mat on the bottom of the cage. Is this okay?
6) I feel like we didn't have enough things in the cage for her to climb on... Easily addressed by adding more branches with a bigger variation of branch sizes. And perhaps more leaves... We do have some leaves attached to the top of the cage, but not in the middle of the cage. Want to make it more "tree like" Currently we have a "trunk" extending from the bottom of the cage up to about 2/3 up on one side, a bird cage ladder extending from the trunk to the other side of the cage, and a single twisted vine. One of the bendable fake vines you can find at pet stores. This vine extended from the bottom of the cage and bent up through the ladder rungs and under her basking lamp. This vine is where she spent the majority of her time. We were planning to add some branches from a dead bush outside our house. Is this okay to add dead, dried branches and attach silk leaves to them? Or should we be continuously swapping out live branches?
7) In general, is it okay to use a cage and its internal decoration for a new chameleon? Or should we replace anything / everything? Just in case there was any disease that our old Jackson may have been carrying? Will a thorough cleaning be enough to prepare the habitat for a new resident? If so, are there any particular cleaning agents I should be using and/or avoiding?
Sorry for all the questions / concerns... I just wanted a single, consolidated thread to address all my previous concerns. I felt it better to have all this in one place to make it a single point of reference before we adopt a new little baby.
I appreciate any help I can get... I have been feverishly studying the proper husbandry of these fascinating animals, and I really want to get things as perfect as I can my second time around.
I wanted to add, that nearly every Jackson here in Hawaii is caught in the wild and brought to local pet stores. They are considered a "pest" here in Oahu, due to their very large feral population on our Ko'olau Mountain Range. I guess they eat up too many Hawaiian Bugs?
Unfortunately many of these Jackson's end up dying due to poor care, handling by their new parents, who buy them up by the dozen and just don't know what they're getting in to. They get one, and a week later it's dead, so they buy another... While we do not condone this particular tactic, we do believe that adopting one of these poor displaced guys and providing a home where he will receive the love and attention he deserves, along with proper veterinary care is a much better alternative than him ending up in a home with someone who isn't prepared to give them everything they need to live a long and healthy life.
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any and all advice! Even if you're going to tell me I'm an idiot
And to the moderators, I do apologize yet again if I should have made this thread into many threads throughout the forum. If you need to move it / delete it / break it apart, I will understand completely.
My female Jackson recently passed away. We got her as a full grown adult, and had her around 18 months. We loved her very much, and want to adopt a new Jackson, but this time get a little juvenile male, so we can enjoy his company a bit longer.
Before we continue our Chameleon journey though, I wanted to address a few issues which I think were contributing factors to why my first Jackson died, and my plan on correcting these issues prior to moving forward.
1) We were only spraying her once per day... To address this I wanted to up this to 3-4 times per day... First in the morning and again in the evening just before lights out, and a couple of sporadic times throughout the day. I may even invest in a misting system, but manual spraying with a water bottle is the plan for the immediate future.
2) We were feeding her poorly... Only crickets (pretty much the only live food available out here) and never gut loading them with anything other than the potato that they are sold with... We were only dusting the crickets with Calcium+D3 (Low phosphorous). Additionally we were dusting daily... I've come to learn that we should have only been dusting the Calcium+D3 once per month with a Jackson, and using phosphorous free powder. We intend to continue to feed crickets with some amendments... Calcium+D3 once per month. Calcium 2x per week. Multivitamin once per month. The crickets are provided from the cricket farm in a plastic cup (50 medium crickets per cup) with little yellow grains (I believe crushed dried corn, about the size of BB's much more coarse than corn meal) and a potato wedge. I have read to not feed Chameleons potato at all. So my plan here was to remove the potato immediately, and put them in a cricket box. Transfer them into a cup 2-3 hours prior to feeding with a suitable gutload diet for my Jackson, and feed every other day around 8 crickets per feeding.
3) We were running 2 basking lamps... a 50W white lamp with ~90F basking temp, and an infrared night lamp. I have come to learn that the night time lamp is not needed, and the 90F basking temp for the day time lamp was too hot. To address this issue I planned to elevate the lamp a bit (Kiwi liked to suspend herself from the top of the cage right under the lamp) and possibly lower the basking branch. We also run a UVB lamp. I planned to move the UVB lamp to the same fixture where the old night time basking lamp was, and remove the current UVB fixture.
4) We had a drip system that was using an aqualift pump to cycle water from an in-cage water reservoir and trickle the water down an inverted plastic anacharis plant. She loved drinking from the plant, but frequently the lines of the pump would clog as the dripping water simple fell back down into the reservoir. To address this, we plan to use a similar system using an aqualift pump with an in-line filter going to a sealed external water reservoir, dripping down the same plastic anacharis plant into the old in-tank water reservoir, and place a screen over the in-tank collection dish so our new baby can't drink the "old" water. We often found that the in-tank reservoir we were using before would get poop in it, and are pretty sure that introduces some pretty nasty bacteria into the drinking water. We're hoping this new method will provide clean water.
5) We weren't keeping up with cleanliness very well. We just need to do better with cleanliness, getting poop out right away, and cleaning up messes on dirty branches, etc... We weren't using a substrate, per se, but we do use a green felt mat on the bottom of the cage. Is this okay?
6) I feel like we didn't have enough things in the cage for her to climb on... Easily addressed by adding more branches with a bigger variation of branch sizes. And perhaps more leaves... We do have some leaves attached to the top of the cage, but not in the middle of the cage. Want to make it more "tree like" Currently we have a "trunk" extending from the bottom of the cage up to about 2/3 up on one side, a bird cage ladder extending from the trunk to the other side of the cage, and a single twisted vine. One of the bendable fake vines you can find at pet stores. This vine extended from the bottom of the cage and bent up through the ladder rungs and under her basking lamp. This vine is where she spent the majority of her time. We were planning to add some branches from a dead bush outside our house. Is this okay to add dead, dried branches and attach silk leaves to them? Or should we be continuously swapping out live branches?
7) In general, is it okay to use a cage and its internal decoration for a new chameleon? Or should we replace anything / everything? Just in case there was any disease that our old Jackson may have been carrying? Will a thorough cleaning be enough to prepare the habitat for a new resident? If so, are there any particular cleaning agents I should be using and/or avoiding?
Sorry for all the questions / concerns... I just wanted a single, consolidated thread to address all my previous concerns. I felt it better to have all this in one place to make it a single point of reference before we adopt a new little baby.
I appreciate any help I can get... I have been feverishly studying the proper husbandry of these fascinating animals, and I really want to get things as perfect as I can my second time around.
I wanted to add, that nearly every Jackson here in Hawaii is caught in the wild and brought to local pet stores. They are considered a "pest" here in Oahu, due to their very large feral population on our Ko'olau Mountain Range. I guess they eat up too many Hawaiian Bugs?
Unfortunately many of these Jackson's end up dying due to poor care, handling by their new parents, who buy them up by the dozen and just don't know what they're getting in to. They get one, and a week later it's dead, so they buy another... While we do not condone this particular tactic, we do believe that adopting one of these poor displaced guys and providing a home where he will receive the love and attention he deserves, along with proper veterinary care is a much better alternative than him ending up in a home with someone who isn't prepared to give them everything they need to live a long and healthy life.Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any and all advice! Even if you're going to tell me I'm an idiot
And to the moderators, I do apologize yet again if I should have made this thread into many threads throughout the forum. If you need to move it / delete it / break it apart, I will understand completely.
