My jacksons chameleon had babies what do I do?!?!?

Are you using anything to keep in the humidity? I doubt they are cold. If they are feeling some kind of way--they are probably feeling a little stressed. Your primary focus (besides getting food) should be focusing on keeping the ambient temperature in the acceptable range, keeping the appropriate humidity (by possibly closing up some sides of the screen cage), and providing plenty of plants for them to hide in which is especially paramount since they are being housed together.

Also, you can try leaving some small pieces of fruit inside the cage to attract tiny fruit flies.

If you live anywhere in the Sacramento California region, I may be able to help you out on spare t5 fluorescent growlights.
 
I live in newberg oregon unfortunately. I thank you guys so much for offering the help it means a lot. I have a humidifier I will repurpose for their enclosure, will see if I can find something to cover up the mesh to keep the humidity inside the cage.

Right now I have a fake plant in there but it houses all 5 of them with no problem, I do need to get a live plant in there for them. I think this fake one should suffice for now. I do have some cork wood in the corner.

Most of them are semi dark but are alert, they seem to be taking naps intermittently. To keep it warm I have been leaving the heater on in my apartment to help the ambient temps in the room, ive also got the uvb bulb going (only a 26 watt so not a lot of heat) and a ceramic heater for at night. I also repurposed an LED grow light I have that puts off a good bit of heat and mimics daylight really well. All of that combined seems to be keeping it steady around 60-70 for them. To make up for lack of humidity today I misted them 3 times and watched a couple of them drink from the mist. I'll be giving them another mist after this post and I'll get a humidifer pumping some moist air in there as well.

Any recommendations on where to buy a live plant that has enough growth to support these 5 babies?

I purchased 2 schleffera for my veiled and jacksons chameleon however they have died quickly as they seem to want water every single day. I do mist my chameleons every day but I'm used to having mostly pothos plants in my cages as they can go awhile without having a good water, schleffera do not seem to like lack of water. There isn't enough time for me to make clippings of another one. I just don't know where to buy a fully grown pothos, most stores just sell starter vines.

Thanks again everyone. The babies seem in good spirits overall, I've watched 1 of them eat a little, and left the house for a few hours so I'm hoping they ate some pinhead crickets in that time.

Any other advice anyone else has to share is appreciated.
 
Are you near a lowes or Home Depot? Lowes usually has a clearance rack that you can get some good plants that are 50% off. Even aside from clearance they still have good inexpensive plants. I’d give an umbrella plant another try, that might be the perfect size for the babies. That or a grape ivy (someone will have to confirm this is safe) would work great. Just make sure you wash the plants with soap and water and repot as you usually would. As for humidity you could go to the dollar store and get a cheap shower curtain to wrap the enclosure in.
 
20220301_195714.jpg
 
Alright so I took a 30 gallon black trash bag and I cut the front of it open and wrapped the trash bag around the back and sides of the enclosure. I've left the top and front open for humidity and air to escape and flow in. Let me know if this is sufficient!
20220301_200321.jpg
 
ConfusedHornwormGuy said:
I have all 5 together in one cage right now but planned to sell them to the local pet store once they get to 2 months because I can't fit that many chameleons in this apartment. I like the idea of the small cages but I'm worried they will outgrow them quickly. What did you use for plants and substrate inside the containers?
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It’s great that the pet store will take them! I don’t want to be a downer, but there are somethings worthwhile thinking about here. First, many people report losses between 2 and 4 months, which is why it is recommended that jax should be older than 4 months before sale. My thoughts on this are that it is related to group raising and poor temp drop at night. In any case, it would be great I’d the pet store is willing to hold them for a few months before selling. Again, congrats on the babies, and think about these considerations.
 
Kaizen said:
It’s great that the pet store will take them! I don’t want to be a downer, but there are somethings worthwhile thinking about here. First, many people report losses between 2 and 4 months, which is why it is recommended that jax should be older than 4 months before sale. My thoughts on this are that it is related to group raising and poor temp drop at night. In any case, it would be great I’d the pet store is willing to hold them for a few months before selling. Again, congrats on the babies, and think about these considerations.
Click to expand...
Noted on the temp drops - that actually scares me because sometimes I wake up and my apartment is too hot if I leave the heater on and too cold if I leave it off. I think what ill do is leave the heater on half power through the night and crack a window just a smidge to let a little cool air in. The cool and warm air should mix and even it out. I have the ceramic heater turned on and I would think with the black trash bag covering 3 sides of the cage it should help to keep it warm and insulated in there for them.

I am inexperienced at this and I'm terrified of losing one of these babies, I have no idea how to care for them really except that they need pinheads, a fine mist more frequently, and daily feedings. I figure if I keep temperature and feeders available in my feeding dish, that they will find the food and stay warm enough to care for themselves.

My understanding is that I just need to provide a proper environment for growth. I know fake plants are frowned upon but this fake tree I have has a lot of branch room for them to walk around. Each baby has picked its own perch on the tree. As they grow I will likely need multiple live plants in there to give them all enough space.

Right now I have a medium amount of foliage/surface area for them to move around on - I don't want them to get lost in there looking for food. When I get paid this friday I'll go pick up a live pothos and place it in a small pot in the enclosure along with the fake plant, hopefully the mix of real and fake plants will suffice for now. They seem to be okay.

In my experience my jacksons doesn't eat any foliage at all - ive never seen her try a nip of her pothos or schleffera, and when I had a dracanae tree she never ate any of that either. I don't expect the babies to try to eat the fake plant, they seem more interested in live insects and mist.

They are small, it's hard to catch them eating. Just going to do my best to provide the best environment I can for them to thrive and let them do the rest. I hope I'm on track with this thought process.

Thank you again for the advice - if I have to wait until 4 months I'm not sure what I'll do, I have a terrarium as well in my storage. Im going to have to try to find some free or low cost used cages or something before 4 months is out so I can house them. There's so little space in this apartment, I'm basically maxed at 3 chameleons, so perhaps I can sell my adult veiled and adult panther or give them away to an experienced owner and I can transition to breeding jacksons chameleons. I don't mind having multiple jacksons chameleons. I would miss my panther and veiled chameleons but if I have to let them go to make room I suppose that's what I'll have to do.

If anyone here is in Oregon - or knows someone in oregon who would want to pick up a 1-2 year old veiled chameleon and a roughly 1 year old panther chameleon within the next couple of months, feel free to send them my way. I'd just want to make sure they are going to good hands.

Otherwise if I cannot make space I'm going to have to get creative. I wish there was a way to stack cages, I may have to use my wall space in here and get some shelves or something to house them in. I have a studio apartment, so housing 8 chameleons is difficult, I have 3 cages already, a terrarium in storage, and now a 4th cage for these babies.

I know once the babies hit 2-3 months they start biting, clawing, and killing one another and I don't want this to happen, so I need solutions. Just trying to rack my brain for options.

Thank you for the advice, it's well founded and I understand what you're saying and why you're saying it. I just hope you can understand my space predicament.

What's the smallest enclosure I could house a 2 or 3 month old jacksons in? Could I possibly get multiple small cages? I wouldn't be keeping them past a year. More advice is welcomed and appreciated. Again if anyone also knows anyone interested in rehoming 2 of my adult chameleons, that is an option for me.
 
I have no idea how quickly Jackson’s grow, but @JacksJill has a great set up using modified plastic bins that should work well for limited space. @JacksJill can you post a pic of your baby bins please? I don’t see why you couldn’t use a shelving unit to house the babies. It would be awful if you had to part with your other chams. I really hope you find a good solution.
 
JacksJill said:
Here are the bins I use. They can stay together for a couple weeks but I get them sorted out to pairs asap and then move to individual cages from there. They don't grow as quickly as panthers or veiled. You will have some time with these baby cages.
View attachment 320733View attachment 320734

I've been meaning to make a blog entry on the steps to building them but life happens.
Click to expand...
Are those ferns you have in there?
 
They may not eat for 48 hours after birth. Fruit flies are a great starter food. They have lots of eye catching action with their little fluttery wings.
 
ConfusedHornwormGuy said:
Noted on the temp drops - that actually scares me because sometimes I wake up and my apartment is too hot if I leave the heater on and too cold if I leave it off. I think what ill do is leave the heater on half power through the night and crack a window just a smidge to let a little cool air in. The cool and warm air should mix and even it out. I have the ceramic heater turned on and I would think with the black trash bag covering 3 sides of the cage it should help to keep it warm and insulated in there for them.

I am inexperienced at this and I'm terrified of losing one of these babies, I have no idea how to care for them really except that they need pinheads, a fine mist more frequently, and daily feedings. I figure if I keep temperature and feeders available in my feeding dish, that they will find the food and stay warm enough to care for themselves.

My understanding is that I just need to provide a proper environment for growth. I know fake plants are frowned upon but this fake tree I have has a lot of branch room for them to walk around. Each baby has picked its own perch on the tree. As they grow I will likely need multiple live plants in there to give them all enough space.

Right now I have a medium amount of foliage/surface area for them to move around on - I don't want them to get lost in there looking for food. When I get paid this friday I'll go pick up a live pothos and place it in a small pot in the enclosure along with the fake plant, hopefully the mix of real and fake plants will suffice for now. They seem to be okay.

In my experience my jacksons doesn't eat any foliage at all - ive never seen her try a nip of her pothos or schleffera, and when I had a dracanae tree she never ate any of that either. I don't expect the babies to try to eat the fake plant, they seem more interested in live insects and mist.

They are small, it's hard to catch them eating. Just going to do my best to provide the best environment I can for them to thrive and let them do the rest. I hope I'm on track with this thought process.

Thank you again for the advice - if I have to wait until 4 months I'm not sure what I'll do, I have a terrarium as well in my storage. Im going to have to try to find some free or low cost used cages or something before 4 months is out so I can house them. There's so little space in this apartment, I'm basically maxed at 3 chameleons, so perhaps I can sell my adult veiled and adult panther or give them away to an experienced owner and I can transition to breeding jacksons chameleons. I don't mind having multiple jacksons chameleons. I would miss my panther and veiled chameleons but if I have to let them go to make room I suppose that's what I'll have to do.

If anyone here is in Oregon - or knows someone in oregon who would want to pick up a 1-2 year old veiled chameleon and a roughly 1 year old panther chameleon within the next couple of months, feel free to send them my way. I'd just want to make sure they are going to good hands.

Otherwise if I cannot make space I'm going to have to get creative. I wish there was a way to stack cages, I may have to use my wall space in here and get some shelves or something to house them in. I have a studio apartment, so housing 8 chameleons is difficult, I have 3 cages already, a terrarium in storage, and now a 4th cage for these babies.

I know once the babies hit 2-3 months they start biting, clawing, and killing one another and I don't want this to happen, so I need solutions. Just trying to rack my brain for options.

Thank you for the advice, it's well founded and I understand what you're saying and why you're saying it. I just hope you can understand my space predicament.

What's the smallest enclosure I could house a 2 or 3 month old jacksons in? Could I possibly get multiple small cages? I wouldn't be keeping them past a year. More advice is welcomed and appreciated. Again if anyone also knows anyone interested in rehoming 2 of my adult chameleons, that is an option for me.
Click to expand...
You don’t need a ceramic heater on at night for them. They need the temp drop at night. In the wild their temps go down into the low 60s and sometimes into the 50s at night. They also need high humidity at night so it’s great you wrapped the cage in plastic on 3 sides. Now if you can get your temps into the low 60s at night you can use your humidifier to create fog for them that mimics the fog that rolls in at night in the wild. It creates great humidity for them to breath. You don’t want warm temps with high humidity because that can give them upper respiratory infections or URI.
 
JacksJill said:
I finished the blog entry on building individual baby cages just in case you decide to go that route. It's still a rough draft and needs proofing.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/individual-baby-cages-or-caging-during-the-time-of-covid.2465/
Click to expand...
I just saw what you did and recreated it! No guide necessary! 20 bucks at the dollar tree roughly plus 15 bucks for the fern which I divided up into 5. Some cages have more foliage than others but I tried to give them as much as possible. Went with a standard fern because that's all my local fred meyer had that would be safe.

I'm done with 3/5 cages so far, should be done with all 5 in 30 minutes or so!
20220302_184427.jpg
 
Is this enough room to vent? I have a 16 inch arcadia ballast so I have to have them this close. There's about an inch of space between each. I also have one humidifier with 2 tubes, so I was going to strategically place the tubes so the humidity makes it down to the screen.
20220302_193441.jpg
 
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