Gravid female Jackson's (Chamaeleo jacksonii xantholophus)

[Aloha]

Hi all! I have posted before regarding my gravid female Jackson's and I just need some clarification if possible. She is wc from my backyard (i live in Hawaii) and she was gravid when I found her. She looks to be an adult, We took her in around the end of July. As of now she weighs 64.3g. any-how, i will get to the questions.
I have been doing tons of research, for years, but I never put much effort into learning about breeding as I never had an interest in breeding. I started really digging into the research on this forum as soon as we found her, but within the last month or so I decided to venture out of this forum and see if I could find any info I didn't get from this forum. I found a few things I did not find on this forum.

"These lizards are highly unusual in the fact that they have live births. Gestation is a quick 5 to 6 months long. They have two litters per year, with the heavier of the two being in June and the smaller of the two in December. The number of chameleons per litter ranges dramatically, from 8 to 35, depending on the size of the female."
Source:http://animal-world.com/encyclo/reptiles/lizards_chameleons/JacksonsChameleon.php

I dont recall ever reading that the litters are born in december and june. Is this statement 100% true? Should I expect her litter in December?

I was also wondering about D3. She is in the sun whenever it is out and I am afraid of her having too much D3. Does she need the D3 even if she is always in the sun?

She gets her calcium 3x a week dusted on fat, nutritious, gut-loaded crickets. We gut-load with lemon, orange, carrot, apple, taro, bok choy and tomato oh, and oats. Everything we use to gut load is grown in one of our gardens, all organic, some in ground others grown using aquaponics. Except the oats, those are store bought.

She has a dripper going 24/7, its plenty humid here. Her urates and poo seem to be exactly how they should.

What else can I do for her?

I know that wc gravids rarely have a healthy birth. I want to do all I can to keep her healthy and strong. We have begun prepareing for the babys, we are building there "nursurey" tomorrow, we have crickets breeding and have rotten fruits in the compost area of the garden keeping the fruit flys in constant flow.

Below is a picture of "Kermit the Mom." This was her about a month and a half ago. I will try to post recent pic of her tomorrow. THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS!!!!!!

 

[Aloha]

OH, I also wanted to add that she is parasite free. I was shocked when the vet told me that. A WC without parasites.... who would've thought.....

 

[kinyonga]

Did you have more than one fecal test done a couple of weeks apart?? If not she could still have parasites.

 

[Aloha]

No, we only had the one done the week we decided to take her in. Normally we would leave WC in the wild, but the department of invasive species have been going all over our side of the island terminating chameleons. We go out to the areas they are scheduled to hit and take in as many as we can find and actually catch. We have 5 in captivity now, have re-homed 17. Should we be getting more than one test done?! We have just been doing 1 per cham!!! I had no idea! How far apart should we be having them done?

 

[Aloha]

ooops, you said a few weeks apart. Gotcha! How many times should we re-test? I'm almost thinking I should get a better quality micro-scope and have the lab tech teach me how to check!!! We have money budgeted out for vet bills, I didn't factor in having more than one done, thats going to get soooo expensive!!!!! Better get some more money put aside

 

[kinyonga]

I thought that the authorities had decided that the jackson's were okay and that they were going to collect the veileds??

Some parasites can only be detected when they shed eggs...so doing the second test should be enough....usually. Did any of them show parasites yet?

 

[Aloha]

So far no parasites in the ones we kept in our care. I will have them tested again to be sure. All of them being ok doesn't seem normal. DIS has been getting the jackson's. They have even gone as far as to cut huge limbs off of banyon and bonzai trees trying to get them. Its sad.

 

[laurie]

Since you got her in July already gravid, I would not be sure she will wait until Dec. But 6 or 7 months may be Dec. Hard to judge.

It is so sad they won't allow the jacksons to be sent here. I would be happy to take in several, and so would others to stop them being killed. That is just awful. To bad we don't know anyone coming over on a private boat.

 

[DeviousMike]

Since you got her in July already gravid, I would not be sure she will wait until Dec. But 6 or 7 months may be Dec. Hard to judge.

It is so sad they won't allow the jacksons to be sent here. I would be happy to take in several, and so would others to stop them being killed. That is just awful. To bad we don't know anyone coming over on a private boat.

Isn't that smuggling?

 

[Aloha]

@laurie Thank you for the advice, she is getting really fat, kind of reminds me of a pear. It is sad we cant send them to people who would love to give them happy homes. DIS and local activist groups think that if we sell and ship them to the mainland, or anyplace, that people will breed them in the wild. it makes no sense. they should live and let live and leave the poor chams alone!



@DeviousMike you can get a permit to take up to 3 jacksons with you off of the island. the problem is that the airlines dont allow chams on the planes,so you would have to bring them by boat.