Baby Jackson's - When will they eat?

[Epluim]

My little girl finally popped yesterday. We found 11 live babies in her cage wandering around. We moved them into their own (temporary) home until we can get something better set up.

Anyway, I know sometimes reptiles don't eat right after they're born, but when should I start to worry? I've offered roach nymphs, pin heads and the tiniest little fruit flies I've ever seen, but they don't seem terribly interested. When should I expect them to start eating? Now? In a couple days? When do I worry?

Thanks so much!

 

[iloveoveralls]

hey guess what? i'm in the same predicament! I have 8 baby jacksons. tried feeding them tiny fruitflies....won't eat'em. and I'm a chameleon newbie. Only had my Adult Jacksons for less than 6 months!

 

[KammerflageKreations]

My little girl finally popped yesterday. We found 11 live babies in her cage wandering around. We moved them into their own (temporary) home until we can get something better set up.

Anyway, I know sometimes reptiles don't eat right after they're born, but when should I start to worry? I've offered roach nymphs, pin heads and the tiniest little fruit flies I've ever seen, but they don't seem terribly interested. When should I expect them to start eating? Now? In a couple days? When do I worry?

Thanks so much!

We've bred Jacksons in the past, and the babies generally will not begin eating for about 48 hours or so. Once they do start eating, their favorite food tends to be the flightless fruit flies (no supplements added!).

 

[iloveoveralls]

Hell yeah! i just bought the flies today. ive never fed fruitflies to chameleons, especially babies. any tips? i hear putting them in a dixie cup works?....

 

[Epluim]

I figured that you deserved some cute pictures for reading!

Proud mama (still looks big to me)

 

[Epluim]

I have the fruit flies, so I guess I'll just wait. About the flies: Are they really supposed to be so tiny? I can hardly see them.

 

[xanthoman]

ffs4xanthneonates

there are 2 commonly available types of ffs. if they came from the pet store, the ffs you have are probably melongasters, imo, i would get hydei off of the web. they are about 3x the size of melongaster, and they have different behavior charachteristics that imo makes them easier to handle and deal with. usually, the neonates will start eating within hrs, but as the previous poster has pointed out, sometimes they may not eat right away, any that are not eating within 48 hrs, are likely in trouble, and there may be health issues at play, or issues with your setup, or both. of course, how you present the ffs, makes a difference. the young neonates dont neccessarily, instantly recognize them as food, this is where the larger size, and the ability to concentrate them in areas of your choosing, helps. see post 9 https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-do-you-keep-fruit-flies-your-containers-42353/ neonates need a high concentration of feeders, and newly born neonates havent learned that they can get that bug by shooting their tongue, or even walking over to it. i use a white terrycloth liner, in part because of the good visibilty it provides. i also use lots of bamboo skewers, in part, to redirect as many bugs as possible to the prefered areas. just for the record, neonates are super sensitive to over heating and over supplementation. their absolute highest temp available should be 80*max. and i wouldnt even bother trying to supp in the first two weeks. i would mist at least 5x a day. jmo

 

[James45]

Gratz on the babies they are adorable.

 

[spottedcircus]

Those are the cutest little things...

 

[iloveoveralls]

how do you upload pics onto this site? i wanna put my baby jacks up!

and eplium i got chams to eat today! hope yours do too.

 

[Epluim]

I lost one. I'm going to go feed again in a little bit, and hopefully things will go well. Wish me luck!

ETA: I haven't seen any of them go after bugs, though I offered a lot of them! I did see them all drinking when I sprayed, though, so that was hopeful. I have another question: I have some liquid nourishment stuff I bought for a dehydrated chameleon I'd been sent. It's kind of like this: http://www.reptaid.com/ If I can't get them to eat, should I offer that? They will drink drips of water from the spray bottle, so I'm sure I could get it to them without traumatizing them.

 

[xanthoman]

i would worry about getting youre other neonate care issues dialed in before giving them reptaid. reptaid may be herbal, but it is still too powerful to be giving neonates. giving even a small amount of reptaid to neonates less then 2 weeks old could very easily prove fatal. the dose for a 1 gram neonate would be less than .001ml (well under one drop) so you would have to figure out an appropriate dilution rate in order to administer proper dosage , and if youre chams had any issue internally, it would likely kill them anyway. i would concentrate on getting their main care issues dialed in better, so something like reptaid wont be neccessary. getting it in their eyes or nostrils wouldnt be good either. if they need treatment of any kind, you would be better off just waiting until they have some strength and are a couple of months old. might not be a bad idea for the mom though. (properly dosed of course). have you weighed the neonates yet? now would be a good time to know their weight! they look to be about .5 g. which is borderline , if they are .5g or below, i would say there are some health issues, and are probably special needs, if they are .5-.7g,then there might be cause for concern , above .7g looking good, but i can tell from the pictures they are likely less than that. knowing their weekly weight would be a good indicator of how they are progressing. for the other poster, to post pics, just click the full reply button (upper left, not the quick reply) and then just click on the paper click icon and a choose your upload window will pop up. jmo

 

[xanthoman]

I lost one. I'm going to go feed again in a little bit, and hopefully things will go well. Wish me luck!

imo they should have food available at all times during the daylight hrs., at this stage they should be eating fairly constantly throughout the day. any foodless time, is time when they may be eating, but arent. they are born with barely enough strength to see them into the food eating phase, if they fall short of their food intake now, then they could lose strength and stop eating alltogether. there are some tips in the other thread about how to deliver and manage controlled amount of feeders. but they should have food all day long. a single melongaster culture will not likely be sufficient. for 8 neonates, i would say you will probably need 2 producing hydei cultures staggered slightly apart. good luck jmo

 

[Epluim]

We're eating! I tried some roach nymphs on the suggestion of a friend and they love them! I'm so relieved.

About weighing - I'm not sure my scale is sensitive enough for them. It does just fine for mom (who started eating again, too!), but I don't think it would be accurate for such small little guys. Where would I find a scale? (Mine is a digital kitchen scale. It measures in whole grams, which will be fine once they gain a little weight, but won't help me at the moment).

 

[xanthoman]

local smoke shops usually have scales that measure 1/10 g increments for under $20, they are also available on ebay and all over the internet. be sure to get one with a tare feature, so you wont have to calculate the weight of whatever container you use. jmo