Rescued Jackson's Help!

lemonwreck

New Member
sorry for being so lengthy....

So about a month and a half ago i was going into my local reptile store for my weekly mouse run when i noticed right by the front door was a medium sized exo-terra cage. This cage which usually housed giant day geckos now housed 3 baby jacksons and one male? sub adult. Now, i've worked with reptiles for the better part of15 years and i know 9 times out of 10 the requirements of captive animals. chameleons included. Obviously, the fact that 3 babies and a sub adult were in a fairly small cage in comparison to what 1 adult would actually need caught me by suprise. (my "feeder" supply are a local boa/python breeder store) I noticed that there was no uvb lamp, the "little dripper" was bone dry and to top it off the sub adult had all three of his? horns broken. *I say his? b/c i know that some females can have all three albeit underdeveloped horns, so i'm not sure if he's? a male with what were 3 large horns at a point in time that are now broken or a female with 3 underdeveloped horns that are broken. My "guy" said that he? got into a fight with another male and that they broke and that they'll grow back. So a few days ago i was doing my mouse run when i saw that he was still there. so i bought em. figure better with me as i already had a large mesh cage for my tokay and know how to properly take care of him?. So after about 4-5 days with me I've noticed that he? never gets as green as others i've seen and and he seems to only want to eat one adult cricket a day. I guess what im wondering is will his horns grow back? (not a big deal if they don't, all my animals are rescued misfits lol) and is his lack of coloring due to his improper housing and lighitng prior to me taking him home? what about his appetite? he poops normal. drinks from the drip i installed and eats one large cricket from my hand no less but no more than that. i wonder if it's all part of his acclimation process. below is his pic attached. lemme know what yall think. thanks!!!

Your Chameleon - Sub adult Jackson's, with me for about a week. not entirely sure on sex due to broken horns, pretty sure male though
Handling - only to put him out side
Feeding - So far crickets gut loaded with collard greens and apples, i plan on dusting only twice a month with d3 as i live in FL and he? spend most ofthe time outside so i have little need for most supplements but i do use calcium with out d3 about 3 times per week
Supplements - Zoo med calcium with/without D3
Watering - Dual drip system as well as misting 2-3 times per day. yes he? drinks from the drip or spay bottle
Fecal Description - Solid dark/light poops. not runny or yellow.
History - read above novel. lol

Cage Info:
Cage Type - mesh 24x24x36
Lighting - natural sun light most of the time. when inside reptisun 5.0 with 75 watt light
Temperature - ambient temp im the room is 78. basking spot 80-85
Humidity - consistently 60-80
Plants - devils ivy. hibiscus within the week, fake ficus tree
Placement - in the reptile room. on a 4ft table near a windown in a low traffic area.
Location - south florida

Current Problem - broken horns, coloring; a greenish yellow, or dark green bars, never bright green, appetite (only eats one large cricket per day)
 

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thank you for the warm welcome!

in repsect to the gut loading - i have tokays and whites tree frogs which are obviously nowhere near as touchy as chams lol. but i get crickets by the 1000 and just kinda use the collard greens and apple aa sort of a staple b/c of the wild tortises by my house that i feed from time to time. We are a vegetarian house hold so the crickets pretty much eat what we eat lol. but thank you for the link and the advice. speaking of which - slightly off subject, but we make our 7 month daughters baby food organically id say 90% of the time...occasionally we have to get the store bought stuff (although organic). You think that'd be cool to give the feeders i.e. blueberries, squash, green beans etc? i figure it's organic so it shouldnt be a problem, just wanted a second opinion.
 
Welcome. I can say this, don't dust with D3 at all if you are housing him outside even just one day a week. Montane chameleons are very sensitive to supplementation, so if he is outside, you need to cut out the D3 altogether. If you plan on keeping him indoors, you should dust a light dusting of calcium with no D3 about every other feeding, and a light dusting of calcium with D3 only about every 6 weeks. I believe I have read that when they lose their horns, they won't grow back, but don't quote me on that. I've never had one break a horn, so I can honestly say I don't know. As Linda in the previous post stated, look at Sandra's blogs for a more complete list of items to use for gutloads. Here is a Jacksons video link below as well. Good luck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKTbUaOQ0aA
 
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