Jackson Setup Quesion

[localina13]

Hi all, my husband and I just recently put a deposit down on a 1yr old Jackson chameleon and are working on putting the finishing touches on his enclosure, this is are first Jackson and I want to make sure that the enclosure will be perfect for him, so any help would be apprciated.

We live in FL so it gets hot however we will be keeping him in a spare bedroom and we have our AC running 24/7 the room will be around 77 degrees. for his enclosure we have a screen 24"x24"x36". We have various live plants (pathos, arboricola, and variegated schefflera). We have a drip system. We are going to purchase the vicks cool mist humidfier and lighting today. This is where i need your help, I seen that the compact lights could be potentially dangerous, so we will def. be getting the tube repti-sun 5.0, will one light be sufficent? Also since jackson's like cooler temps should we even get a basking light for him? If so what wattage would you recommend? The other thought we had was to get a little computer fan that comes on during nightime hours to help drop the temp., has anyone tried this?

Thank you all so much for any help, we just want to make are little guy happy.

 

[Julirs]

Welcome! Whereabouts in Flordia are you located? Deposit makes me fearful that you are purchasing from a Petstore, and/or that you are getting overcharged. Jacksons are not an expensive chameleon nor would I say they are the best chameleon for beginners. The screen cage you have is plenty big enough. All of the plants sound right-just make sure you wash the plants and repot in organic soil or that you cover the soil with large enoughs river stones or screen so that he does not eat the dirt. Definitley get a UVB tube light-24" long for that cage size. If you can find a fixture to hold 2 24" bulbs you can put one Reptisun 5.0 and one plant bulb to help with lighting and the plants. 77 is a tad warm for Jackson ambient temps. Low 70's is good and a 40Watt bulb in a clamp lamp placed right should provide a basking spot in the low 80's. Lights off at night will provide a fine temp drop. Living in Florida even in the air conditioning you should not need a humidifier. A well planted cage and 3X daily mistings will work great.

 

[localina13]

Thanks so much for the information we are in the Daytona Beach area, we got the cham from pet bizaar it is a little store that specializes in reptiles which is located in casselberry and he was around $90 we just had to put the deposit on him so they would hold him until his enclosure was finished. It seems like a great place with knowlegable staff. As far as the tempeture goes we will knock the AC down in that room to get a more ideal temp. We have been doing research for the past month but I am so glad we found this forum there is some great information here. Thanks again for the info

 

[Julirs]

Near the end of August the National Reptile Breeders Expo is right there in Daytona-you will need to stop by!

 

[localina13]

Great thanks for letting us know we will def. have to stop in