Jackson Chameleon

[chadg]

Was wanting to know what the best live plant would be for my chamelion?? and edible? also wanting to know the size he could possible get? his cage is 2 and a half foot long foot wide , and one foot tall. would like to know if he needs bigger cage?? Hes probably only about 5in. long. would apriciate it i could get some help on this. thank YOu ... also would like replys soon if possible thank you.

 

[pbveiled]

Chameleons require more height than width. The cage you have should be OK for a little while but you will need a screened cage about 2 foot wide by 2 foot deep by 4 foot high. There is a lot more you will need to know about caring for a cham. I would start with googling jackson chameleon care and reading as much info as you can.

 

[chadg]

Thank you and all ive been feeding my chamelion is crickets. i was wondering what other types of foods i should be feeding him. and will he eat live plants if i put them in there and if so whats one of the best plants???

 

[chadg]

And also how much would a screen cage cost??? THANK YOU

 

[chadg]

Getting off here for tonight would appreiciate it if i could have some good advice when i get back on in the morning thank you!!

 

[heartben]

you should try to condense your posts a little more..(as in - dont post 3 times in a row when you could post once)

anyways. a 2x2x4 cage will run you about 95.00 shipped from diycages.com

the best advice anyone could give you is - read, read more. when you you've read it all..read it again. youre going to want to put a little more effort into keeping your cham, there are tons of threads with jacksons info, i think google has a few pages on them. you could even just start out by searching jacksons chameleon care sheet (might not be the best info, but itll get you started)

you should also check out THIS thread and copy the questions, and post it here with answers. this will get you a lot of good advice without having everyone asking you everything individually.

dont mean to come off like a jerk, just disappoints me that people dont read more first. i am glad you came on here to try and get help though, i wish more people would.

anyways, that thread i linked will have a lot of questions that will help everyone help you.

 

[xanthoman]

non-condensed version.

the previous poster is correct on several counts.
to be well kept , he should have a 2x2x4' cage and the top of the cage should be at least 6' off of the ground, so it would be a good idea to build a 2' stand that you can put a 5 gal. drain bucket under.
but first things first, to be honest, xanths dont usually make the best starter chameleons, they can be pretty sensitive to issues when kept outside of their care requirements. failing to learn their care requirements in depth, will almost certainly lead to his demize.

the ep is also correct in that the subject is vast and complex, its not something you can learn in just reading a few posts or a couple of care sheets. to have a reasonable chance of success you will need at a minimum , dozens of hrs of study, not only in things like lighting, supplementation, calcium/vitamin absorbtion/rejection, nutrition, blood chemistry and how they all relate to each other, but you will also need to study (not just read), things like equip, you not only need to know which equip is good for which purpose, and which is not, and why, the same goes for humidity control, feeder selection/nutrition/ gut loading.
you should be aware that feeding a xanth on just petstore crickets, is not good, they are to exoskelatal and too high in ca/p (calcium/phosphorous) ratio. your xanth will not likely thrive long term on a diet of just petstore crickets and may not even survive long term, it is likely to cause probs for a # of reasons.
raising a thriving xanth requires a varied diet of balanced feeders, more than you can get at just a pet store, so learning to raise bugs, and studying entomology and pathology is also a good idea. other feeders include dubia roaches, small horn worms, silk worms, cultured house flies and cultured blue/green bottle flies, most cultured filth fly maggots, small brown garden snails, black soldior fly lavae (bsfl), black soldior flies themselves(bsf). occasional waxworms /waxmoths, mealworms/superworms, praying mantis. most moths or green soft body bugs will be relished. just for the record, there are videos on youtube on how to grow most of the more common feeders. many brightly colored bugs are considered aposomatic (unpalatable, in some cases even toxic)

you would be well advised to read the supplementation sticky, and at least a couple of dozen other posts and care sheets that related specifically to jacksons as they are montaines and have slightly different care/ supplementation requirements than other chams, but alot of it is still debated, so you will need to have a broad knowledge base in order to judge for yourself what is good advice and what is not.

hopefully you have already squared your lighting away? without proper uvb they can go downhill in a matter of days, and it can be really difficult to reverse. if you used a cfl for uvb, then hopefully it is a new reptisun, and hopefully you gave it a 24hr breakin before exposing your cham to it.

there is almost nothing you can ask that hasnt been addressed at least a hundred times before, so before you post with questions you should already know the answer to, it would be a good idea to search the forums for previous posts that relate to your question, and dont just read one, cause the answers will vary greatly, so read all the ones you can find on the subject, and do the same thing on every question you have, after a period of time you will begin to assemble a picture of what it takes to be a successful keeper.
alot can also be gleened from the help forums, read back several weeks or even months of past posts of the problems both new and experienced keepers are having, and all of the varied responses to them, after you read several hundred posts, you begin to get a feel for what is good advice and what is maybe not so good, because its not like working on a car, there is no set manual of specifically what to do in all instances. the help forum is probably the most educational resource of cf.

much can also be learned by reading some of "all posts by user" feature, available through user profiles of individual cf members.
there are many excellent keepers, but not all are prominent posters, and certain members shine at certain areas , that would be best learned on your own, but as a pointer in the right direction, i would suggest searching sandrachameleons posts and blogs on nutrition, dave weldon could be considered one of the prominent posters on lighting/pathology/microscopy issues, kinyonga is a long term experienced and very knowledgable keeper, i have learned much from her and all of them. some may even consider me helpful on jacksons, some may not.

my personal preference for a xanth plant is schlefferra for a # of reasons, but plenty of plants will work, although just being on a safe plant list does not necessarily make them a good choice for a specific situation.

imo, i would recomend absolute minimal supplementation, until you have had a chance to study supp issues in depth, a tiny pinch of plain cal each week and a tiny pinch of cal/d3 every two weeks should be all you need to keep them going for a while. i would save any multivites until after you are up to speed on the whole supp thing, jmo, as a new keeper, you are far more likely to over supp than under.

raising a chameleon, is sort of like learning the guitar, you dont fully realize how difficult it is or what it involves, until you try to do it, and no matter how bad you want to, there is just now way to learn it overnight. it takes practice and time. jmo

so see what you can find out on your own first, by seaching past threads/ posts, and if you dont find what you are looking for, by all means, please post again. jmo

ps if you are going to be ordering stuff, 2 things i would strongly recomend is a $20 digital scale with tare feature 0-500g x.1g capacity and a $20 zilla thermometer/hygrometer with remote probes on 56" leads. a good lighted magnifier is also handy. things to be avoided, infra red heat lamps,ceramic heaters, night lights, waterfalls.

also did you mean 5" overall length, length with tail rolled up or svl (snout/vent length)? a cham that was 5"overall would be way younger than a cham with 5"svl.