My Female Jackson has big eyes!

[hi106]

* Your Chameleon - It is a Female Jackson, approx. 4-5 months old, been in my care for 2 days.
* Handling - Only time I have handled it was to put it in it's new home.
* Feeding - Gut loading crickets with lettuce, no vitamins yet.
* Supplements - None yet.
* Watering - Just a regular sprayer right now, water in two minute increments 2-3 times a day. Chameleon seems to drink after I water.
* Fecal Description - I have no idea what Chameleon poop looks like.
* History - Lived in the pet store for approx two months.


Cage Info:

* Cage Type - Built the cage from 2x4 and plastic screening, 2'x3'x4'
* Lighting - 9am-10pm is when lights are on, 100w heating bulb approx 6inches away from enclosure, 5.0 repti sun florescent UVB bulb.
* Temperature - Basking spot at top is 80-82F, floor is 70-72F, night time whole cage drops to around 68-70F
* Humidity - Between 50-70%, misting with spray bottle
* Plants - All live plants, two umbrella plants, and a hanging basket of vines, not sure the plant type.
* Placement - Located near a window with a vent under it, i have the vent shut off, and the window blinds closed, I run a ceiling fan at night for my use as it's my bed room.
* Location - Western Kentucky


My issue with my pet is I noticed it had a huge eye! Looked swollen, when I saw her she was laying on a vine with her face pressed against it. Saw the eye and flipped out. I am just watching her currently, I bought her yesterday and I have a 3 day return policy. I hate to return her because she is beautiful but if she is deathly ill I don't want to waste money. Thanks!!-Joel

 

[laurie]

Joe could you post a picture of your girl? Without seeing what you saw. it is hard to know if there is a problem. Is this your first cham? They do bulge there eyes out to clean them, that might be all you are seeing, but without a picture, I just have no idea.

 

[xanthoman]

My issue with my pet is I noticed it had a huge eye! Looked swollen, when I saw her she was laying on a vine with her face pressed against it. Saw the eye and flipped out. I am just watching her currently, I bought her yesterday and I have a 3 day return policy. I hate to return her because she is beautiful but if she is deathly ill I don't want to waste money. Thanks!!-Joel

it may be a serious problem, it may not, but the reality is, if you currently have no idea on how to take care of it, it will likely not stay healthy long enough for you to learn.

that being said, if you have the ability to return it you would likely have a better chance of keeping your first cham alive, if you returned this one, and then got another one after you have had time to do ample cham study/care research

chams can be tricky to care for, imo they usually get sick when in the hands of those who admittedly do not know how to care for them.
cham health issues are infinitely easier to create than they are to correct, and the reality is that novice keepers, especially ones that havnt first prepared themselves with some cham knowledge/research, often do not notice problems until they are difficult or impossible to correct.

jacksons arent generally considered the best of starter chams although its certainly possible if somebody has done their homework before hand, but imo, unlikely to succeed on a learn as you go basis.

a couple of observations about your help form;imo,

lettuce is not really gutloading.
should have a dripper going during all daylight hrs.
should be misted 4-5x a day.

no supplements yet, imo more likely a good thing than not, jacksons can be very sensitive to oversupplementation, if you decide to keep her you should probably start her off on some plain cal 1x a week, then add some vitamins to the routine in a week or two, after you have had a chance to study some supp issues.

uncoated 2x4 a poor cage building material (even worse if they are pressure treated).
with the moisture requirements that jacksons need, uncoated hem/fir/spf (mostly white softwoods) lumber is likely to grow stachybotrys, a toxic black mold. any coatings should be food safe and waterproof (like polyester resin or some epoxies) most pressure treated lumber contains cca [(copper chromium arsenate) or some other highly toxic bs], which would likely cause problems if they spent any significant time walking on it, and likely be fatal if they drank from it

100watt heat bulb is excessive and implies infra red which imo has no place in most jacksons husbandry. a simple incandescent light bulb of 15-40 watts is usually all thats required or recommended to provide heat/uva for most indoor situations. also no nightime heat or light of any kind for jacksons.
a nighttime temp drop of at least 10* (from daytime ambient cage temp)is beneficial.

imo, lights should be on from sunrise to sunset to better sync with the natural circadian rhythms of your cham, imo, since xanths are metabolically sensitive this is more important with jacksons.

jacksons can be predisposed to respiratory infections, no fans are recommended except maybe in cases where there is difficulty in keeping temp limits to less than 84*

pics would be helpful, you should know what cham feces (poo) looks like by now, so pics of that would be helpful as well.

realistically, the purchase price is only a small portion of the overall cost of keeping a cham, especially when vet bills are involved.

learning to care for chameleons can be fascinating, but much less so when you are doing it be cause you have a sick or dying chameleon on your hands. imo your experience would be much more rewarding and likely to succeed if you spent a month or so learning about them before you brought your first cham home, imo then you would have a better chance of keeping it healthy long enough to learn the rest of it.

i know, im such a butt. not trying to be, just simply calling it the way i see it. jmo

ps dont let her avatar fool you, she is more of an expert than she lets on !

 

[hi106]

Thank you both for your advice. She only had her eye bulged out for like 10-15 seconds. And hasn't done it since. I misted the cage after and fed her and she is acting healthy as ever. I checked on her about every hour or so after and she hasn't been doing anything else. I will get pictures up of the cage tomorrow when she is awake. As you said 2x4 is a bad choice, the wood came untreated and I used a non-toxic sealant on the wood, so it is water-proof. I have an automatic mister on order from mist king so I will have a daily misting schedule in a few days I am just hand misting for now with a spray bottle.

When I tried a smaller watt bulb I could not achieve a high enough temperature in the area, suggestion?

And I have done some research about chameleons, but I am no expert by any means.

One other concern is when she is awake and active is that she tends to not wander much from one spot. She looks around all the time and when i feed her she moves quickly to get the cricket but I was just wondering if she is still adjusting to the cage or not. Granted she has been in my care for 2 days and her home at the pet shop didn't have any trees for her to climb on.

She eats and drinks normally and everytime i mist she is always drinking off the leaves.

If you have any other tips I would love to hear them. I want this chameleon to last for a long time, as I have grown attached to her.
Her name is Chloe if you were wondering!

 

[hi106]

These are some pictures of her cage and just her earlier today.

 

[lindawaz]

you are getting the hang of it and eventually it will all come together for you.

Advice will keep coming to you and hopefully it will help you become more educate for you an your Cham!

Here is a link to Sandrchameleon's blog on gutloading. This will help you get the nutrition you need into your feeders so your Cham will benefit.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html

I do not know anything about Jacksons specifically but there are many experienced Keepers that will be around to help you.

Welcome to the forum and happy reading

 

[hi106]

Ok. Her eye keeps doing it, and has done it two times I have known of in the past two days. It looks so bad it looks like its gonna pop. It's always her right eye and it gets big and red and puffy and it looks like she is in a lot of pain.

 

[whereswaldo]

think she could have something in it?

 

[hi106]

I looked when I could, she is still a little stressed about her new cage, and when I'm around, she has warmed up a bit. The eye issue only happens after I mist her.

 

[kanddr]

I looked when I could, she is still a little stressed about her new cage, and when I'm around, she has warmed up a bit. The eye issue only happens after I mist her.

My Jackson will pop his eyes every now and then after I mist him. I'm not sure, but I think its their way of cleaning their eyes and they do it when it is wet so they can clean them out easier.

 

[Creaturelover123]

Is she doing it when you spray her? My female Jackson Xanth does this sometimes when i spray her. I've read that they do it to clean their eyes out. Hope this helps.

 

[JaxKiwiTiger]

Ok. Her eye keeps doing it, and has done it two times I have known of in the past two days. It looks so bad it looks like its gonna pop. It's always her right eye and it gets big and red and puffy and it looks like she is in a lot of pain.

All Jackson chameleons do this while it's raining or if they're getting misted, it's how they clean their eyes. I know it looks scary at first but you'll get used to it. All 3 of mine do it but only my girl has red eye turrets. Sometimes females go thru a red phase when they're young but most grow out of it by adulthood.

Congrats on your new healthy cham!

 

[burnedrose]

Ok. Her eye keeps doing it, and has done it two times I have known of in the past two days. It looks so bad it looks like its gonna pop. It's always her right eye and it gets big and red and puffy and it looks like she is in a lot of pain.

I wouldn't worry too much. I used to breed Jackson's in Hawaii and they all swish the water around in the turret after misting and they will sometimes really bug their eyes out. My biggest male, karma, would freak me the hell out sometimes because he would wait until the mister went off and actually rub his face against the leaves and they would bug out. At first I thought he was rubbing something that was hurting his eye...but the vet had told me that he was just getting bigger droplets from the leaf rather than the mister.

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."Gut loading crickets with lettuce, no vitamins yet"...I would at least be dusting with a phos.-free calcium powder at most feedings. Lettuce is only good to provide moisture for the insects but there are even better things to do that. You should be using a wide assortment of greens and veggies including dandelion greens, collards, endive, kale, escarole, mustard greens, carrots, squash, sweet red pepper, sweet potato, zucchini, etc.

Regarding watering...I would also set up a dripper to use at least once a day. It can be as simple as a plastic cup with a tiny hole in the bottom so it drips at about the rate of one or two drips per second.

I would also recommend moving the cage away from the window. Drafts from the window can lead to respiratory infections and even fungal infections.