theyre not together are they?!
theyre solitary animals and easily stressed out! also should be sing three supplements calcium withoutd3 5-6x a week cal withd3 twice a month and a multivite twice a month
Not all chameleon species go with the same supplement schedule as panthers and veileds. Actually, more species than not should have a lighter supplement schedule than this. What you suggested could quite possibly cause edema and problems with the organs very quickly for a montane species. This is why it is important to post opinions and suggestions at the level of ones experience. So many times there is parroted information slung out by a keeper, who has only been keeping veileds or panthers for 6 months, that could be dangerous to a chameleon of the same or different species. We all want to help but some of these keepers need to learn they can do more harm than good.
What I would suggest.
One is lots more foliage!!! Schefflera (umbrella plants) ficus and pothos are my favorite plants to use. Repot the plants in organic soil. I also mix quite a bit of sand in my plants. Actually 1/3 topsoil and 2/3 sand now. It gives the plants much better drainage which is needed because of the amount of water that gets pumped through a cage. Schefflera are especially prone to root rot. Also thoroughly wash the plant in the shower or outside before repotting incase any pesticides are still on the plant. One nice bushy live plant that fills up a good deal of the cage and some fresh sticks from outside works great for an enclosure that size. Set the sticks up so there are multiple levels to bask and receive UVB lights. This will give them a choice of how close they want to get to the basking light.
Feeding and supplements.
Appropriate sized crickets are good for them. You can try and add different worm type feeders but I would only try one at a time. None of my animals will eat worm type feeders so you dont want to spend a ton of money on a bunch for them not to eat them. You can get flies from mantisplace.com. They are easy, cheap and I guarantee your jacksons will go nuts over them!! They look like they should be able to handle the blue bottle flies which are much larger than the house flies. Using a good gutload is very important. Things like dark leafy greens (kale, kelp, mustards, collards etc), squash, bell peppers etc. and fruits like melons, strawberries, apples, pears, oranges etc. Stay away from veggies high in oxalates like spinach and broccoli. Mix it up often. You can also get a good gutload from tikitikireptiles.com called Cricket Crack. Get the montane mix. This is good to use along with the fresh fruits and veggies. Just be careful. If you notice swelling in your chams chest and neck region back off on the crack some. Some of my animals get edema (swelling) from using it too much and some dont. Just got to see how the individual animal is.
Depending on where you are at you can catch wild bugs to offer. Just be sure you know what you are feeding off and that it comes from a pesticide free area. If you are unsure of the species of bug find out what it is before feeding and if it itself is toxic or if it eats toxic plants. Wild caught food that I use. Moths, non toxic butterflies, hoppers (locusts and katydids also) but not lubbers which are toxic, spiders such as wolf, orb weavers, crab species, and jumping spiders. I have heard counts of jacksonii eating black widows but personally I would stay away from those and brown recluse.
I supplement my montane species with very very light calcium without D3 at every feeding. If my animals are not housed outside they get calcium with D3 once every month to two months. I do not use a multivitamin. Montane species are very susceptible to edema from these powders. A nutritious gutload is the key for vitamins for montane species.
For lighting a 25 watt basking bulb should do the trick. Also some compacts can cause issues if they are not the right brand or the older ones. There is a way to tell if the ones you have are safe or not. Its also recommended to have a UV meter when using them so you know how much UV the animals are getting. Too much or too little. Most recommend using the linear style 5.0 reptisuns. This is what I use and its just easier to put the bulb in and set on top of the cage. Someone else may be able to help with the compact style better than I
A general range for temps. Daytime around 70ish at the bottom of the enclosure going up to mid to high 70s at the top. Basking site of around 80 to 85. Daytime humidity around 70%. Night time temps should get lower than low 60s. They can handle a very large temp drop at night and benefit from this greatly. 50s would be ideal. Night time humidity higher than 70%.
The temps and humidity are very very important. You need something to measure them. I use a digital thermometer with probe from walmart for around 10 bucks. use the probe in the basking site and the base around the middle of the cage. These also measure humidity.
Also housing them outside is very beneficial if temps are at good levels. If you can house them outside for more than quite a few hours a week you wont need to supplement with D3.
Here is a great article on the three types of Jacksons chams. Im not sure of the exact species you have? This goes more into temps and such.
http://chameleonnews.com/10JulManchen.html
The cage needs much more foliage as I said. Also, the first animal you pictured looks great. However, the second animal hiding in the little "vegetation" they have does not look so well. NOt a great picture but.... If it is staying down there it is more or less probably stressed out by the other. You really need to get another cage ASAP if you want it to do well. If you cannot get a cage very quickly you can go to walmart and along with picking up something to measure the temps get one of those plastic tubs. Put some stuff in there for it to climb on and let them share the lights until you get more for the second cage. Set it up so there is a barrier between the two cages so they cant see each other. IMO you need to do this quick!!!
You can get cheap UVB tubes at lllreptile. Get the 4 foot tube. They are the same price as the 18 inch. Go to walmart, lowes etc and get a 4 foot fixture along with a 6500k rated tube for plant growth. This will save quite a bit of money and you can span it over 2 or three cages depending on their size.
Hope this helps some and please feel free to ask any and all questions
