Jacksons Chameleon not eating

[Vince]

My jacksons is showing no interest in food. I offer him Crickets, roaches, meal worms, super worms, wax worms, and phoenix worms. He is drinking regularly. He ate one cricket about four to five days ago.

It seems that as the winter gets deeper into the season he eats less and less. I dont know what i should do? He had had a check up about 2 to three months ago now and everything was fine. I had a float and a smear fecal tests ran. The reason i took him then was because he wasn't eating as much and wasn't as active as he normally is. We determined it was the shedding and winter months making him act this way.

His temps and humidity are all where they should be day and night.

I am waiting on some fry pupae to arrive. Hopefully this will interest him. How long does it take for fly pupae to hatch?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[DGray]

light?

When I lived in the North, light was the missing factor in good feeding with the Jackson's. When I increased the light, behavior returned to normal.

What kind of lights so you have over the cage? Do you have a UVb bulb? Are there more bulbs for heat and light? How long are the on on? Are they on a timer so the length of day is consistent? How high above the basking branches are the tubes? Any chance you can put the cage in front of the window when its sunny?

How is the humidity? Do you have a humidifier, or a mist system? Or do you just spray? How many times a day?

 

[Vince]

When I lived in the North, light was the missing factor in good feeding with the Jackson's. When I increased the light, behavior returned to normal.

What kind of lights so you have over the cage? Do you have a UVb bulb? Are there more bulbs for heat and light? How long are the on on? Are they on a timer so the length of day is consistent? How high above the basking branches are the tubes? Any chance you can put the cage in front of the window when its sunny?

How is the humidity? Do you have a humidifier, or a mist system? Or do you just spray? How many times a day?

Hi, I use two 18 inch reptisun one 5.0 and one 10.0. I use a normal soft white 75 WATT bulb for basking. In the basking area the temps stay around 85 86 degrees. The vines are about 7 to 8 inch from the lights. I hand mist every morning and watch him drink from that regularly. For the rest of the day i use a mist king and it runs 3 times a day. One cyle is 5 mins the other two are 9 mins. When i cant maintain a humidity of 60% i turn on the humidifier. I don't put him right in front of the window but the way the sun shines in my room he gets it real well (if its not cloudy). Really lights up the room and cage. He loves it.

I keep my apartment 73-75 degrees during the day and around 69-70 at night. He is in a all screen cage so he gets these temps as well.

I just don't know what i could do... maybe a brighter basking?

He has always been real picky about what he eats but now i cant get him to eat anything!...

 

[Cainschams]

Just keep him well hydrated and he should be fine if he has bulked up before the winter months. What type of flies did you get? You can stick the pupae in an incubator and they will hatch much faster at warmer temps. I usually just throw in an orange or banana in for the flies. Making sure it does not get nasty. Take out every day and replace with a new piece. I also dust the flies with spirulina or wheat grass powder. I ordered some more flies from mantisplace.com. I would recommend Rebeca's products to anyone because of absolutely great customer service!!!! I told her most of my guys are stuck on them and I need to start getting better gutload into them. She is sending a small package of the yens blend for free for me to try out!!! Along with me needing to dig up a good fly gutload recipe that Susan James sent me in an email a while back. But my inbox has 1500 emails in it

 

[Vince]

Just keep him well hydrated and he should be fine if he has bulked up before the winter months. What type of flies did you get? You can stick the pupae in an incubator and they will hatch much faster at warmer temps. I usually just throw in an orange or banana in for the flies. Making sure it does not get nasty. Take out every day and replace with a new piece. I also dust the flies with spirulina or wheat grass powder. I ordered some more flies from mantisplace.com. I would recommend Rebeca's products to anyone because of absolutely great customer service!!!! I told her most of my guys are stuck on them and I need to start getting better gutload into them. She is sending a small package of the yens blend for free for me to try out!!! Along with me needing to dig up a good fly gutload recipe that Susan James sent me in an email a while back. But my inbox has 1500 emails in it

Hey, that is where i got my flies as well. I ordered the house fly's. Are you using an actual incubator or did you make one?

 

[Cainschams]

I have one of the hovobators that I use if I need them in a jiffy. House flies should be good. I think they have a quicker hatch rate??? If I remember correctly I have not used them but you may try the blue bottle flies after those are all out. They are a bit bigger than the normal house fly and more of a meal. You can also keep the larvae in the fridge much longer than the house flies but the process is a bit longer to get them from maggots to flies. I am sure he will go insane for whichever one

 

[xanthoman]

more isnt always better

sometimes, jax can get overwhelmed or intimidated easier than other chams , i would suggest offering less, and smaller feeders. if the animal is otherwise healthy, it can go a suprisingly long time on a minimum of food (as long as it stays sufficiently hydrated). i have one jax i have to give one feeder at a time, if i try to give it 3or4, it just runs away, all of my adults have gone off food at one time or another, after a month of minimal food intake , i had to start force feeding my male for a while, now he eats readily and looks better than ever. eyes and feces will be the best early indicators of health, in a situation like that, its probably not a bad idea to do a weekly weighing. as long as eyes and feces look fine , i wouldnt get too concerned just yet. on the other hand, if he is ignoring flies, you might just have a problem. ps. they love flies but i think they prefer bbs over hfs. jmo

 

[DGray]

Hi, I use two 18 inch reptisun one 5.0 and one 10.0. I use a normal soft white 75 WATT bulb for basking. In the basking area the temps stay around 85 86 degrees. The vines are about 7 to 8 inch from the lights. ...

...I don't put him right in front of the window but the way the sun shines in my room he gets it real well (if its not cloudy). Really lights up the room and cage. He loves it.

Put him right in front of the window in the sun.

You don't say if the lights are on a timer or if you're turning them on and off by hand. A consistent day-length is important. Make sure the 12.5 hrs of light is the same each day. In other words, on a timer.

 

[Vince]

Put him right in front of the window in the sun.

You don't say if the lights are on a timer or if you're turning them on and off by hand. A consistent day-length is important. Make sure the 12.5 hrs of light is the same each day. In other words, on a timer.

Yes my lights are All on a timers for 12 hours a day.

 

[kinyonga]

IMHO, if you put the cage in front of the window and leave it there at night, you are asking for health issues if you live in a cold climate.

 

[DGray]

IMHO, if you put the cage in front of the window and leave it there at night, you are asking for health issues if you live in a cold climate.

Right. Michigan in January is too cold for most life forms, and even the daytimes may be too cold to risk a cham in front of the window; I was referring to those times when the sun comes out and its relatively calm. Not all night. I find the sun does wonders for animals ( and people ) that aren't feeling 100%.

 

[jojackson]

DGray has it down. Brighter light, particularly incansdescent, but even flourescent (uva)
will increase alertness and activity, as it mimics the summer photoperiod. Brighter NOT hotter!
Coupled with your continuous provision of sufficient heat may help to defer its instinct to brumate. Increasing the photoperiod to summer hrs of daylight may help.
Photoperiod alone is not responsible for triggering brumation though, early temperature drops at night, natural light from windows, even barometric pressures are likely to play a part and your lizard may still go off food for the most part.
maintain the heat, and offer different food atleast once a week.
It certainly wont hurt to weigh your lizard every 2 weeks or so to monitor its gain/loss or maintainance.
Some loss wont hurt it, but beware allowing it to lose too much condition.

 

[Vince]

Well he ate today... I am pretty sure he went a week with out any food. I do agree, I think it was for sure the sun light that he wasn't getting that was killing his appetite. He isn't right in front of the window but where his cage is he gets the sun if there is any. That was the problem I am pretty sure. We went a good week or two up here with very little sunshine. The last two three days have been sunny and he ate! ...that's a good feeling...