Please help with Jackson Chameleon 3 months old

[SilverWolf]

Hello! I have a 3 month old Jackson Chameleon, and this is my third day having him. For almost two hours he has been sitting at the very bottom of the enclosure, almost at the soil of the plant. He has his eyes closed and is light in colouration. Do you think he is okay? In my album, the latest one (Tricky Day 3) there is a photograph of him in his current position. It is 7:00 PM here now and I am worried since he has been down there quite a while, The temperature down there seems to be just below 70 degrees. Any advice would be appreciated. He drank water earlier I believe, and ate yesterday, but has not today.


Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Jackson Chameleon, male, 3-4 months. Been in my care for 3 days.
Handling - Not often. Haven't handled him at all today, but I did yesterday because I left the door open for a bit and he climbed right out. He was getting close to the lamp so I had to move him back in. Otherwise, I do not handle him.
Feeding - Small crickets that he has eaten yesterday. His schedule for eating is 4 - 6 crickets daily.
Supplements - Exoterra. Calcium, powdered on crickets twice a week. Multivitamin, powder on crickets once a month.
Watering - I mist VERY often to ensure the humidity is always around 70-80%, and I mist every time I see the humidity reach 50%. I try to mist to the point where there are drops of water dripping from the sticks and leaves. I have seen him drinking off of the leaves, and trying to from my spray bottle when it was having water droplets when I first put him in the enclosure. lol rather cute.
Fecal Description - Brown, and urates are orange. But I have only seen one urate. I am aware this means he needs more water which I am working on now.
History - Came from a breeder in Texas, btpets.com. The breeder seems to know what he is doing and has shipped hundreds of Chameleons before. Some people here seem to have gotten their Jackson Chameleons from him.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Zoomed screen cage, 18x18x36.
Lighting - Reptisun 5.0, Zoomed 60w Daylight Blue bulb. Both are on 10-12 hours during day, off all night.
Temperature - Temperature at basking spot around 85 degrees fahrenheit. Restof the cage around 75 or so in fahrenheit, and the temperature drops to about 70 degrees fahrenheit at night time. Measured with thermometer from Petco.
Humidity - 60 - 80 Percent. Misting with spray bottle very often. Measured with humidity gauger from Petco.
Plants - Live Croton, codiaem hybrid. One or two real sticks, and several fake ones for foliage and so that he has more variety to climb on and reach his basking spot.
Placement - Cage about 58 inches off ground, on a sort of dresser (more of cubby holes though) and next to some gaming consoles and a television, that do not seem to affect the temperature. Also next to a window, but blinds generally closed.
Location - California.

Current Problem - Sleeping at the bottom of the cage for over 2 hours.

 

[SilverWolf]

Great news for anyone who was reading this! Tricky has began climbing back up! He is at the basking site again, and seems to be drinking more water.

 

[Devokid]

What time does he go down there? Many times they have an internal clock that doesn't match with your lights, especially if they can see out the window. Did you do a fecal test?

 

[SilverWolf]

If you mean assessing his fecal matter by appearance then yes, his urates were orange so he needed more water, which he is getting plenty of now. He only did that for a bit then. He isn't hanging around there too often now, and seems healthy and explores the cage from time to time.

 

[kplatvoet]

Compared to my other chameleons - my jackson uses more of her cage. She also seemed to go down toward the bottom more when she was little - It worried me quite a bit till I saw that she was doing quite a bit of hunting down there- Sleeping is no good- unless it's at the end of the day - It sounds like yours is doing better the more he's drinking which was the case with mine - I use a dripper now - and a rain dome - but she mostly drinks from the dripper.
You might also want to try ordering him some house flies - (mantisplace.com) they are small and jackson's like to hunt them- I also found that if I covered my cage a night ( I use a black sheet) that she was more active in the day - she wasn't in a spot that had a lot of traffic inside- but I think something was disturbing her -

 

[SilverWolf]

Thank you for the information. I'd put some houseflies in there. I am actually raising some praying mantids right now, and since they are hatchlings, they eat small flightless fruitflies. I would give my Chameleon some, but since he is so small, and it is such a large cage with lots of foliage (18x18x36 inches) I am afraid that he won't be able to find them, and en excess will either leave a disturbance for him, or me if they escape.