Jacksonii Jacksonii Showing dark colors

[dino1920]

Your Chameleon - Male Jacksonii jacksonii, he's around a year old. I've had him for a week and half.

Handling - So far I've only handle him three times. But I hand feed him everyday.

Feeding - I hand feed him 4 medium size crickets a day and have also gave him one small hornworm last week. Gut load crickets with sweet potatoes and carrots

Supplements - I am not dusting or using any supplements for the Jackson.

Watering - I have a mistking that mists 4 times a day for a duration of two minutes. Have not seen him drink

Fecal Description - see a lot of white residue on the plants in his enclosure. Have not seen dark residue may be in the bottom of his cage but cannot visually see it at this time.

History - Purchased from local pet store who advised me that this jacksonii was farm bred in Kenya

Cage Info:
Cage Type - homemade screen cage. Dimensions: 14x14x36

Lighting - zoomed reptisun 5.0 uv , deep dome 50w. lighting schedule: 8am to 8pm

Temperature - mid 70's in the day and goes down to 65 in the evening. Temperature measured with flukes thermo and hygrometer digital.

Humidity - ranges from 43-60%. What are your humidity levels?

Plants - live plants: ficus tree , cane palms. A number of fake plants as well

Placement - cage is located in a spare room along with our panther chameleons. They are in oppisite sides of the room. Currently in a basement apparentment.

Location - Located in Toronto, Ontario

Current Problem - Purchased my Jackson and have taken him home. It has been almost two weeks and he has not shown much color compared to when we saw him in the reptile store. He has been eating great and has been exploring and moving around in his enclosure.
The cage beside him is currently not occupied. The picture with him showing his nice colors was taken when he was sleeping

 

[jajeanpierre]

He looks thin and/or dehydrated based on the flesh across his pelvis and backbone. His eyes look hydrated, though, and you say you are finding white urates so I am inclined to think he is thin.

I think you are underfeeding him with only four crickets a day. He is a wild caught, so will also have to feed his parasite load. Farm raised is a little better than a wild caught, but still has all the issues of a wild caught minus some of the injuries of capture. (His right knee looks a little swollen in the picture.) Farm raised is nothing more than netting around a piece of forest to keep predators out and make it easy to capture them.

A wild caught who has been shuffled around as much as he has needs to be left alone to eat and recover from the ordeal of import. He's been captured, held in a holding facility waiting for export, imported into the US, shipped to the importers facility--this alone probably takes four or five days from the time he was first put in the box the day he was exported f rom Kenya. Then he was sold and shipped again to the pet shop that sold him to you (unless you bought directly from the importer).

Hand feeding is stressful. He is probably not eating as much as he would if the food were just available to him either free range or in a very big tub. When you hand feed him, he has to overcome his mortal fear of you to take food. In general, he has to be pretty desperate to do that.

He's probably loaded with parasites. Let him recover for a few months before you even think of dealing with the parasites. Stress has caused a massive explosion of parasites. Get him very calm and feeling safe and let his immune system get the parasites under control. Trying to deal with parasites in a stressed newly imported wild caught import more chameleons than any parasite ever did.

 

[leedragon]

right off the bat I tell you not to hand feedhim if he is new, make one oh this

take it easy with carrots they can cause gout, throw some spirulina pumkensead, yellowsqash turnipgreen is a big yes. here watch this

try to get hold on some houseflies they love it and P nivea, walking sticks.

let me know if it gets better AND make sure the panter and the jackson can´t see eachother good luck.

ps take the poop to the vet for parasites checkup