My jacksons been a very dark color for a long time... just concerned?

[vette4life04]

ok, so my Jackson is just getting over a case of mouth rot... i think his tongue is injured as well... he hasnt been eatting much and im pretty sure hes dehydrated. I tried to feed him a cricket by hand and he postured up, got his tongue ready and was about to strike at it, but then suddenly he changed his mind and walked away.... kinda concerning. as far as the dyhydration, ive been giving him water through a syringe and hes been drinking it... and today i put him in the shower. he drank for a while, then just chilled out...

The thing im concerned with, is hes been a dark down color for more then a week... i dont know what to do.... when we got it, he was a bright green color, but now he just seems mad. ive been handling him everyday for the last two weeks just because ive had to give him the bytril, and unfortunately ive also had to force his mouth open with a Q-tip to get him to take it, and im sure that has stressed him out quiet a bit. should i stop with the meds if it seems like the mouth rot is gone? or should i finish them off? should i be concerned with his dark color? ill try and get some pictures of what he looks like posted on here so hopefully someone might be able to give me some help! Thanks!

 

[vette4life04]

heres a couple pictures of him. is his color normal? i thought he should be brighter? or is it because the colors in his cage are darker? by the way, about how old would you say he is? and what size crickets would be best for him? small or large?

 

[ataraxia]

He looks nice and healthy from the pics. We need to know more about your care. Please fill out the how to ask for help form so we can better help you.

These could be his rest colors and could be a good sign. Bright colors dont always mean good...They can actually mean the opposite. I dont know how long you have owned him but you have to get to really understand and know your animal to gauge.

If you have had him for a long time and he is now showing dark colors i would think possibly the meds, illness, etc is causing him some hardships an he is displaying it. Again if you have only had him for a couple months you may have never got to see his normal colors till now.

 

[reptilover]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

That's a link that was mentioned above

 

[vette4life04]

Sorry, i posted it before on another post and just forgot to copy and past it...

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Male Jackson, had about 2 months, unsure of age, maybe 5-6 months old. been in the cage since i got him
Handling - currently daily since i have to administer him his meds and food.
Feeding - mostly sticking with waxworms, but i also have been giving him some small crickets, and meal worms. ive been hand feeding him about 3-4 wax worms a day.
Supplements - I use Reptivite with D3 been giving it to him every other day or so....
Watering - i have a Monsoon rainfall system that sprays for 20 seconds every hour, plus i have a dripper that drips all day long. i dont exactly see him drinking mostly because ive been helping him drink by putting water on his face after hand feeding him.
Fecal Description - not really sure of the last time i saw any fecal mater in the cage, whether thats because it falls in the potted plant material or what.
History - Currently getting over a case of mouth rot.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 30x16x16 screen cage, with a shower curtain on 3 of the sides to help with humidity control.
Lighting - Reptisun 5.0 bulb, with a regular 60w incadessent bulb, on from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm
Temperature - top of the cage ranges from 75-85 degrees, bottom of the cage is about 80 degress. usually drops about 10 degrees at night. measured with a standard analog gauge.
Humidity - bottom of the cage is 80-95% and the top of the cage is about 60-80% i use a fogger to help increase the humidity, as well as covering 3 sides with a shower curtain. I also just use a calibrated analog meter. Plants - I have a benjamin ficus in there as well as some non-toxic smaller flowering plants that are just starting to sprout.
Placement - The cage is located in our loft, and its not directly under any are vents or anything but in a high traffic area, close to the top of the stairs. The top of the cage is about 5 feet above the floor.
Location - We live in whats considered the high desert (Victorville) of California. relatively dry area.

Current Problem - please refer to the first post.

 

[vette4life04]

He looks nice and healthy from the pics. We need to know more about your care. Please fill out the how to ask for help form so we can better help you.

These could be his rest colors and could be a good sign. Bright colors dont always mean good...They can actually mean the opposite. I dont know how long you have owned him but you have to get to really understand and know your animal to gauge.

If you have had him for a long time and he is now showing dark colors i would think possibly the meds, illness, etc is causing him some hardships an he is displaying it. Again if you have only had him for a couple months you may have never got to see his normal colors till now.

i understand what you mean, and i just want to make sure... he was a bright green when we got him from the petstore, and he was that color for a few weeks after we brought him home, but since this mouth rot crap started hes stayed a dark color....

 

[SpartyTessy]

Sorry, i posted it before on another post and just forgot to copy and past it...

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Male Jackson, had about 2 months, unsure of age, maybe 5-6 months old. been in the cage since i got him
Handling - currently daily since i have to administer him his meds and food.
Feeding - mostly sticking with waxworms, but i also have been giving him some small crickets, and meal worms. ive been hand feeding him about 3-4 wax worms a day.
Supplements - I use Reptivite with D3 been giving it to him every other day or so....
Watering - i have a Monsoon rainfall system that sprays for 20 seconds every hour, plus i have a dripper that drips all day long. i dont exactly see him drinking mostly because ive been helping him drink by putting water on his face after hand feeding him.
Fecal Description - not really sure of the last time i saw any fecal mater in the cage, whether thats because it falls in the potted plant material or what.
History - Currently getting over a case of mouth rot.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 30x16x16 screen cage, with a shower curtain on 3 of the sides to help with humidity control.
Lighting - Reptisun 5.0 bulb, with a regular 60w incadessent bulb, on from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm
Temperature - top of the cage ranges from 75-85 degrees, bottom of the cage is about 80 degress. usually drops about 10 degrees at night. measured with a standard analog gauge.
Humidity - bottom of the cage is 80-95% and the top of the cage is about 60-80% i use a fogger to help increase the humidity, as well as covering 3 sides with a shower curtain. I also just use a calibrated analog meter. Plants - I have a benjamin ficus in there as well as some non-toxic smaller flowering plants that are just starting to sprout.
Placement - The cage is located in our loft, and its not directly under any are vents or anything but in a high traffic area, close to the top of the stairs. The top of the cage is about 5 feet above the floor.
Location - We live in whats considered the high desert (Victorville) of California. relatively dry area.

Current Problem - please refer to the first post.

You need to stop giving him the Calcium with D3 immediately. You are over supplementing his D3 big time and will lead to more issues if not fixed right away. You can give him Calcium with NO D3 about every other day and should only be giving him Calcium with D3 about once every 4-6 weeks. And also a Multivitamin about once every 4-6 weeks. For now cut out the D3 for at least 2 months and make sure he drinks plenty of water to help flush out the extra D3 he most likely has building up. Jacksons are especially vulnerable to over supplementing and will for sure cause problems. This could be a big reason why he is not eating much.

For the mistings you should be misting him for longer periods. They typically should be misted between 5 - 15 minutes at a time. Sometimes it takes a while for a misting to trigger a drink and 20 seconds is not enough time at all. Mine will sometimes not start to drink until the misting has been going for 3 minutes or longer. He will most likely drink more on his own if you ran the mistking longer.

 

[vette4life04]

Im sorry i didnt update the post.... im just giving him reg. calcium w/o d3.... i gotcha with the misting.... how often should i be misting? every hour? every few hours? problem is, i get a large build up of water in the bottom of my cage... im trying to figure out ways of fixing that... i want to get that drip pan on LLL but just waiting on some money... but i really appreciate your advise! any help i can get is great!

 

[Elizadolots]

You need drainage! Drainage is your friend. It can be as simple as putting the cage on a cheap table.

Before you do that, cut a good size hole in the top of the table and put a bucket under the hole that can catch whatever comes through the hole. Then drill some holes in the bottom of your cage that will line up over the HOLE.

Put the cage on the table, empty the bucket as needed.

Drainage.

I cannot express to you how much better your world will be when you've solved your drainage issues.

 

[vette4life04]

yeah, i really like the idea of putting the cage onto a vanity and putting the pot into the actual vanity and letting everything drip out the bottom! very clever idea... im working on trying to figure something similar with my current set up. right now i have my cage on like a printer cart... i would like to cut a hole in the top of it, set the pot into it and then build a custom sized cage on top of it with a bucket underneath but i dont know if ill have the room to do that... or the knowledge on how to build the custom cage... mechanically inclined as long as it has an engine... so well see...

Right now, i have my plant in a terracota pot, with a large saucer and then old news paper under neath that... is it worth it to use the news paper or should i just 86 it altogether? but then what would absorb the excess water that drips from the leaves? the other thing is that my humditity level tends to drop whenever i change the paper, it still stays around 50-60% but id rather it be around 80%. i already have a fogger and now my misting is for 2 minutes every 4 hours.... should it be even longger? ahh so many questions.... guess im still more of a noob then i thought! just want to do things right so my cham doesnt die like the last one i had... any help would be great!

edit: I think the main problem that the paper gets so saturated is that the saucer fills up quickly and overflows.... maybe if i drilled a hole in that and put some tubing to that to a bucket that might help fix that problem...

 

[Elizadolots]

You can even just put the cage on a raised place so that a corner of the cage is hanging off. Drill a hole in that corner, run a tube from the hole to a bucket. You might need to put a rock or something next to the hole.

 

[vette4life04]

yeah, just to add some weight so the water will flow down to it... well maybe i can do the same idea with the saucer as with the bottom and connect it together and allow it to drain out... maybe just raise the bottom of the cage enough, or just put the tubing through my stand i have it on. what do you think about the newspaper? should i keep it? or just leave it with the pvc bottom?

 

[SpartyTessy]

Yeah they should be getting misted 4-5 times a day like I said from 5 to 15 minutes each time. If you do it every 3 hours that should be plenty of time for it to dry in between mistings. Like Elizadolots said you need to somehow figure out a way to drain the cage. Jackson's need much longer mistings and higher humidity that most other species. That is why they are not a recommended species for most.

 

[SpartyTessy]

You can also warp the bottom of the cage by putting something heavy in the middle of it like a brick and then use a heat gun and heat it with the weight on it which will permanently make it bow in the middle. then just simply drill a hole in the lowest part and have it drain in a bucket.

 

[vette4life04]

ok, so i think i got the drainage issue fixed for right now.... i ended up drilling a hole through the saucer and then using small 1/4 irrigation line and some syllicone i plumbed a line from the saucer down to an empty bottle to allow it to drain out. i still have the newspaper under the saucer, over the bottom of the cage just to catch any drips. so ill give it a day or so and see if the news paper gets totally wet again or if it dries out between sprays. if its wet, ill use your idea sparty to give the cage even more drainage, but hopefully i wont have to... ill let you know.

as far as the length of spray, i need to get a digital timer. my monsoon will only spray for 2 minutes max so like you said it needs to be longger. i hope to acheive that with a digital spray.

Dino seems to be doing better. i put him in the shower again this morning and left him in there for a while. when i came back he was his normal bright green color and was just enjoying the "rain." so i think with just some adjustements and eventually a larger cage, ill be doings a lot better.... Thanks for the help! any other tips/tricks?

I have noticed that he still isnt really eatting... ive tried to give him mealworms, crickets, and wax worms and hes just not interested been a few days since hes really eatten much.... kinda getting concerned...

 

[Elizadolots]

Sounds like he's doing better. It's impossible to overstate how helpful getting drainage worked out can be. Loads of water helps in so many situations.

 

[vette4life04]

yeah i can see that... never realized how much work is really is.... but its enjoyable watching him grow... i would eventually like to get a second and maybe try a hand a breeding... but thats a ways away... any ideas of how to get him to start eatting?

 

[Elizadolots]

It isn't unusual for chameleons to skip a couple of days and I believe the antibiotics can put them off food a bit....just keep offering food and keep watering!

 

[SpartyTessy]

try other feeders like grasshoppers and dubia roaches. He may be tired of crickets. Also as an adult under normal circumstances they eat about 4-5 times a week.

 

[vette4life04]

are praying mantis ok to give them? we get a lot around our house?