How to: Night temperature drop

[Klaudiemo]

Hi everyone!
I am freaking out a bit now, because I rescued tiny jackson's chameleon baby from death. The owner found him/her (don't know the gender yet, I will refer to him as he) in his female's enclosure and wanted to feed that poor baby to his snake. I said I will take him, since he was completely fine. Not weak at all. But I am scared of the night temperature drop they require. It is really hot in my country in summer. I am from Czech republic. In my chameleon room, I have air conditioner, that is basically running 24/7 in summer. During day there is usually about 77 degrees. At night about 68. I feel that the current night drop may suit my panthers, but not jackson. The temperature in my jackson's cage is 78 at basking spot and 77 on the bottom. When it gets hot, I am giving him bottles with ice inside. I do that also every night. But it helps only for 3 hours. I am looking for any idea how to cool down temperatures in his cage. I was thinking about pc fans, but I don't really know if that could help. I can't find something that would locally cool down the air. Do you have any tricks for that? I snapped just a quick photo of him just for illustration. He is so cute. Thank you for your help!

 

[inkdguy35]

Cool down the water you use in the mister or in your spray bottle that you mist the Viv with. just don't directly spray the little guy with it. he's really cool, and congrats on saving a life.

 

[Klaudiemo]

Cool down the water you use in the mister or in your spray bottle that you mist the Viv with. just don't directly spray the little guy with it. he's really cool, and congrats on saving a life.

Thank you! I really want him to be ok. I am misting him already with really cold water about 5 times a day (not directly on him). But thank you anyways!

 

[AZChamFan]

If you have a night time temperature around 68 degrees I wouldn't be too worried. That is quite acceptable for a Jackson's in my exprience of having them for about 7 years now and having similar night temps through the summer.

It seems a little odd however that there is only 1 degree difference between your basking spot and the bottom of the enclosure.

 

[Klaudiemo]

If you have a night time temperature around 68 degrees I wouldn't be too worried. That is quite acceptable for a Jackson's in my exprience of having them for about 7 years now and having similar night temps through the summer.

It seems a little odd however that there is only 1 degree difference between your basking spot and the bottom of the enclosure.

That small difference between bottom of the cage and basking spot is due to size of the cage. Since he is soo small, I gave him in 20x18x15 inch enclosure. I was afraid that he wouldn't be able to catch food in bigger cage. My friend will give me his old pc fans, so I will probably be able to cool him even more.

 

[paulkaranik]

That temperature will be fine for a jackson

 

[leedragon]

have the terrarium in the first floor or in a basemant, mist it with Cold water a couple of times. take it to a Place away from windows. get more powerful AC.

 

[Klaudiemo]

Thank you for your answers. Unfortunately the little guy passed away yesterday. I really can't explain what happend. He was having diarrhea and he vomited twice. He was also doing really weird movements with his head. He was not gasping for air, but he was aggressively shaking his head for a whole day. At the end of the day, he was so exhausted, that he didn't made it through the night. I am devastated by his sudden death. His mum was WC, so meybe he was killed by parasites of some kind. It all went so quickly. I even made him already big terrarium with custom built AC, so he would have ideal temperatures during night.

 

[JacksJill]

It is very difficult to raise Jackson neonates even in the best of circumstances. You gave him a chance he never would have had otherwise. Sory for your loss.

 

[Andee]

Sterilize his enclosure very very well, and if you have the ability to (not sure about exotic vets in Czech) but get a fecal done on your other chams. He sounds like he had a bad parasite infection and likely not intestinal worms. Though it is possible it was. Just make sure none of your other chams got what the little guy had. I am so sorry for your loss. But raising them at that age is very very hard. Jackson's are one of the hardest to raise at that age and we are just now starting to have better success with them

 

[Klaudiemo]

I've already sterilized the whole enclosure. I will definitely get fecal done. We have really good exotic vet in Prague. Thank you for your advices.