Need help with my 8 week old Jackson Chameleon

[Noliaboi]

I was recently given 2 8 week old Jackdon chameleons. I've now had them goin on for 2 weeks and I need advise. The guy told me that there still too small to be under a heat lamp, there drinking great and eating off fruit flies very good!! But I need help on the lighting and should I have them in a terrarium or a mesh cage... ?? Help me plz

 

[melonman]

I had mine in a steralite tube with a 10.0 uvb tube light and alot of foilage and just now at 2 months moved them to a screen cage with basking light

 

[Sterlingcham]

10.0 too strang and yes u want them in a mesh container open air so it's less likely that they will get to plus Jackson's are montane species so that means diff diet diff temp and more more more water. And at 8 weeks they are not too young for a basking light I would either go with a regular 40 watt or regular 60watt and that should give u the basking temp u need since they are young I would say don't go past 78-80 on basking temp

 

[Miss Lily]

Cooler temps and making sure they drink well are key to keeping these babies alive. As sterling said, don't let the hottest part of the cage get over 80 degrees, and they also need a good drop of at least 10 degrees in temp at night. I use a Repti Glo 5.0 UV tube with mine - I think most Jackson owners go with the 5.0. A mesh cage will be best unless you are having issues keeping their humidity up. If you can get temps n the high 70's just with a UV bulb then you may not need a heat lamp just yet, but if in the screen cage the temps struggle a little you may find that you need to use a ow wattage bulb just to bump the temps up.

 

[laurie]

I would follow Tiff (miss lily) advice. She has taken a jackson baby at a very early age and raised the healthiest jackson you have ever seen. His name is Monty, you can look at some of her threads.

 

[xanthoman]

dont know what your setup is . you would likely get the best help by filling out the help form in the health clinic an submitting your post there. once the help form is filled out and posted then other members can advise you of changes without guessing or starting from scratch.

couple of quick points i would like to make. jmo, best if;
imo, i would use 3 lights
1. reptisun 5.0, preferably linear (tube) about 6" from the top of the cage as a source of uvb to provide d3 synthesis. imo 10.0 not a good choice for most chams but especially not a good choice for xanths/montanes.
2. a linear 6500k plant bulb for healthy plants. xanths dont thrive, do well without live plants.. a 6500k plant bulb also provides a better viewing exp.
3. a 40 watt (max) clear or cool white incandescent in a narrow beam (small) reflector to provide uva, focus this light on a branch about 6-10" from the top of the cage. uva is necessary for appetite +mental health and a this should create a warm zone of about 80* as measured by something other than a ir temp gun. for the $, i recommend the $20 zilla hygrotherm. see my cf public album. if your basking temps are higher than 80* raise the 40w light

by now they should be in a small in regular screen cham cage (18x18x18 would be a good size that will last them for 2 more mths), in 2 mths max you will have to separate, by then you can get a full size cage to put one in or you could divide your full size cage and put both in, if you do this you will need a 40watt uva bulb for each side.

other than the 40 watt bulb there should be no heat bulbs, no flood lights, no infra red bulbs of any kind, and no nite heat of any kind. xanths do best with cool night temps. offering an otherwise healthy xanth night heat will only make them weak and lethargic. ideally you want temps to drop about 10-12* at night. they should be misted about 5x a day and have dripping water available during all daylight hrs. no water falls, no substrate.

by now they should be onto a diverse diet of small dubia, silkworms, houseflies(not wild), bsfl (sometimes called cali-worms or pheonix worms ), they are hard to digest but well balanced nutritionally. nick them in the sides with a nail clipper just before feeding so the chams digestive juices, can get a foot hold.) imo, now would be a good time to start a dubia colony and learn about raising other feeders. raising some of your own feeders is pretty much a necessity for keeping a thriving xanth. no single feeder should make up more than 40% of the overall diet, and imo, cricks arent a good choice for that. now would be a good time to order some housefly spikes from http://mantisplace.com/ imo, waxworms, and mealworms are 2 things you should never feed you cham and overfeeding anything is not good.

cricks are not a good main feeder for xanths, they are 200% too high in phosphorus and too exoskeletal, i recommend using them only when supplementation is required. their feeders should get a small pinch of plain cal 2x a week. if they are mostly an inside animal their feeders should get a small pinch of d3 about every 10 days. but there are a lot of products and imo many most of them are not suitable, probably the easiest is repashy calcium plus. if you use calcium plus, do not use any other supp product beside plain cal. calcium plus is a full house multivite with all vite included in a balanced ratio. that doesnt mean you cant give too much of it and offering other vites will only screw up the ratios.

feeding your xanth too many vites is not healthy , probably fatal. for examples of the kinds of problems caused by an imbalanced diet/too many vites just read the rest of the health clinic posts. there you will see eye, tail, skin, appetite, balance problems, and lots of death. imo 85+% are all caused by too many vite/improper diet. chams are very sensitive to what they eat.

the best thing you can do for it is withhold any d3 (including calcium plus) and get it at least 3-4 hrs of natural sun a week (sun shined through glass does not count). if you are able to get them natural sun, do not use calcium plus as it contains d3. if you are going to get them regular outside sun, then instead of calcium plus, i would use sticky tongue farms vite all, dust or gutload with it 1x a week
http://www.stickytonguefarms.com/in...ategory_id=13&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=81

a good thing to remember is most supp directions are not species specific and are too potent for xanths so i would be wary of following directions on any label. this also applies to care sheets that are not jacksons/montane specific.

for more complete/better info, please fill out your help form in the health clinic portion of the forum. thnks jmo

 

[Noliaboi]

8 week old chameleon

Xanthoman.... Thanks that advise really gave me alot of pointers... And everybody that posted and gave me advise, y'all don't know how much y'all experience really gave me a heads up on these babies,