Jackson seems stressed out.

[hpc1979]

Current Problem - Just in the past two days, my Jackson has not wanted to be in his cage. As a matter of fact, he is straight up refusing to be in there. I got up in the middle of the night to see him walking around the floor of his fresh air cage trying to escape. So, doing what I thought he wanted, I took him out for a while to get some exercise, then I put him back. This has gone on and on now for like two days. I keep taking him out, only the watch him walk around to find some wires to find and go to sleep. So on the second day of his new found love for the outside world, I took him out, and put him in his old cage to see if that would help. He did the same thing. At first I thought his fresh air cage maybe be a little dirty, but when I put him in his old cage (Exo-terra glass enclosure) he didthe same thing. That cage is extremely clean (Made ready for another future pet). When I saw him last he looked extremely stressed out pacing back in forth try to get out. He is as bright as ever and as green as ever. When I let him out of his cage, I put him on the floor, watch him run to the leg of a chair to just pass out like thats all he wanted to do. I have no idea what is going on. He has been fine for 7 months now, and he is eatting fine, and looks fine. Anyone seen this before? He almost looks egg bound, but he's a guy. Anyone see this as a problem?


Your Chameleon - Male Jackson Chameleon / Approx. 10 months old / has been in my care about 7 months now

Handling - For the most part I try not to handle him much, however, I normally can tell when he wants to get out and walk around, so I let him

Feeding - Mostly cricket and super worms. Gut feed and dust crickets

Supplements - Exo-Terra Multi Vitamins and Calcium

Watering - Misting (refuses to drink in front of me)

Fecal Description - Normal. No he hasn't been tested for parasites.

History -No notable history

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Was in Exo-Terra 48x24x36 enclosure. Move to a 18x18x36 Fresh air enclosure

Lighting - Light is set to 12 on 12 off.

Temperature - 65-75 degrees in cage. 70 degree in house

Humidity - 50-80 percent

Plants - scheffella and hibiscus?

Placement - In kitchen area. Rarely use if for cooking so its temporarily been used for my chameleon . Cage top is around 6 foot high. Yesm there is traffic.

Location -Philadelphia

 

[Elizadolots]

Hi!

Can we see pictures?

How sure are you of your temps? I've seen news reports of a lot of heat in your area. He might be going to the bottom in search of a cooler temperature.

 

[hpc1979]

Temps

Hi!

Can we see pictures?

How sure are you of your temps? I've seen news reports of a lot of heat in your area. He might be going to the bottom in search of a cooler temperature.

Temps inside the cage are: 77 degree at the moment, but I haven't turned an the A/C.

I'll post pics as soon as possible.

 

[hpc1979]

Jackson seems stressed out

Ok.... So i was up late last night trying to figure out the problem with the change. When i went to move the plant inside the cage, the base of the pot collapsed and all the water poured out. The water smelled so foul that i had to leave for a few minutes. Now i want to say i found the problem, so i decided tovput him back in his old ext-terra cage for the night, but when i woke up this morning he was doing the same thing. I dont get it.

 

[Elizadolots]

77 is sort of warm for an ambient temperature. I would say you want the basking spot (the hottest spot in the enclosure) to be 83 degrees falling off to 70 or even 68 at the bottom. He might just be a bit warm. Their instincts are to go down when they get too hot. It's cooler near the bottom of the tree.

You'll need to work on getting good drainage going so your plants can drain and your cage can drain. That way you can avoid the nasty plant water phenomenon.

 

[hpc1979]

Plant drainage.

77 is sort of warm for an ambient temperature. I would say you want the basking spot (the hottest spot in the enclosure) to be 83 degrees falling off to 70 or even 68 at the bottom. He might just be a bit warm. Their instincts are to go down when they get too hot. It's cooler near the bottom of the tree.

You'll need to work on getting good drainage going so your plants can drain and your cage can drain. That way you can avoid the nasty plant water phenomenon.

The drainage system is definantly my next priority. I plan on spending a pretty penny to do the shelving and drainage system right the first time. That on only reason i have a drainage problem right now.

 

[Elizadolots]

Life improves dramatically once you get your drainage working...the sky looks brighter, flower are more colorful and food tastes better....well, that might be exaggerating, but it sure feels that way.

There are a lot of ideas in the Enclosure forum for good, not terribly expensive drainage systems.

 

[hpc1979]

Jackson seems stressed out

Ok. Its now day 5 of my Jackson hanging out at the bottom of his enclosure. So here are a couple of pics of both the enclosures he is trying to escape from. Honestly, I only see a change in his behavior. He physically seems fine. He has bright green colors and everything. He doesn't look dehydrated. There's no way he's too hot. temps are around 70 degrees / about 70% humidity. The only thing I've noticed is he hasn't ate as much as you usually does.

Ok, so here's his screen cage. The bottom of the cage looks dirty because the base of the pot exploded when I was moving the plant around. Also, I took a lot of the foliage out and put it in the Exo-Terra cage he has.

Also, here is the Exo-Terra cage i put him back in. Also of the vines and sticks that use to be there are now in two other cages. I only put him in this cage because the bottom of the plant pot blew up in his other cage, and I want to rearrange the cage to better suit him.

 

[Noliaboi]

Hello, im new to the forums myself, bout 2 wks now. But my 10 month Jackson was doin the same thing for about 2 days . What I did was put him in an all screen enclosure and placed him out side with bout 6-7 crickets undusted. Half sun and half shade , he looked like if he was exploring the outside and seen him eat about 3 crickets , I sprayed the crickets with water and he seemed happy. I had him outside for bout 35-45 min and when I placed him back in he's original home he was ok and hasn't done it since goin for about 3 weeks now. I only dust the crickets bout 3 x's a week. Hopefully this routine works for you.

 

[SpartyTessy]

How often are you misting him and how long is each session? When I first got my two Jackson Chameleons I would sometimes find each one on the bottom of the cage. At the time I was just misting them for 30 seconds at a time about 4 times a day. I then did more research and found out that our Jackson's which are montane species need more water than most species. I then upped each session to about 5 minutes. I now never see either one of them on the bottom of the cage and in fact they both seem to really love the misting sessions holding their head up in the direction where the water is coming from. I know you said the humidity is up there but he still may be looking for water.

I see the big dripper in the glass cage but not the screen one. Do you have a dripper dripping water throughout the day for him?

 

[hpc1979]

To answer both your questions, Yes he get plenty of Free range time. He loves being outside his cage. Everytime I get near the cage he's trying to get my attention to get out. Out of all the trees and vines I set up for him in my apartment, his favorite place to go is a single cable wire underneath my computer desk. He knows exactly where it is, and he always heads straight for that wire. I guess he still can probably get outside more, but since I live in an apartment complex now, I dont have a cage or tree outside where I can just leave him.

Now to the dripper. I took the dripper away from him in the Ext-Terra cage becasue I would never see him drink from it and the cage would become a mess and would start to smell. That got really old. I guess I can mist him more. He seems to hate misting. I mist the cage for at least a minute straight. Sometimes longer, but never five minutes. I try to read as much as I can about my Chameleons, but like anything, you learn something new every day. But I'm not going to say he's getting plenty of water, but I will say he doesn't seem dehydrated. His eyes are nice and puffy, not suken, and he doesn't seem to be dying for water when I start misting.

As soon as I get the chance, I'm installing I knew cage set up in my apartment with a fully functioning drainage system, and I plan to get a mistking system going too.

 

[shineru]

here's something you can also take in mind i noticed your soild had those white stuff and everything i recomend you change that because you dont want you chameleone eating that, i use eco earth and it does wounders but if its not that then noting on the botton its better and if u are going to leave the plants like that why dont you cover it plant soil with rocks or something that way the chameleon doesnt eat it or trys to drink from the soil like i herd of many jacksons doing wish u the best tho [x hope my opinion helped sumhow wish i can tell you more, you might want to shower him for atleast 20-30 min so u noe hes drinkin water n stuff