Small Black Spot on Side of Young Jackson

[jebronlames]

Good evening,

Found a tiny black spot on the side of my young Jackson. He's about 6-7in TL, to give perspective for how small the spot in the picture actually is. He started to go dark when I got my phone close (he's only been with me for two days), but when he's calm it really stands out.

Burn? Bite? Bruise? Fungus?

There are two ~1inch crickets scurrying around the enclosure--pushing the size limit of what I feed him. It's 18x18x36, and I leave a small piece of cricket food on the floor, so I wouldn't expect them to bite him, but does that look like a bite?

Enclosure: 18x18x36
Lights: 75W basking, UVB/UVA, closest perch appx 10in.
--note: he was clawing around on the roof quite a bit today. However, I don't see how he'd burn himself up near his back if he had his belly to the lamp.
Tank décor: 3 artificial vines, 4 artificial hanging plants, 3 pothos, 2 grapevine sticks.
I mist the tank many times per day (since my Reptirain and Reptifogger both broke on first attempted use )

He was particularly adventurous today, and made his way around parts of the enclosure that he hadn't explored yet. Did a bit of hunting, and like I said, crawled all around the ceiling. It's possible that he fell, although I didn't see it and given what I've seen of him getting around so far I kind of doubt that he did.

Like I said, he's small and this photo is taken at close distance (which apparently has him a little annoyed). The dot is actually very tiny.

 

[jajeanpierre]

It could be anything. My guess is it is a small injury to the skin. Injuries make black marks, even small scratches. I would just watch it and see if it was getting worse.

 

[jebronlames]

Thank you so much for your quick reply @jajeanpierre . Come to think of it, he had a bit of stuck shed in that spot when I got him two days ago, and it's gone now. But I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks

 

[KLowery88]

Was he wild caught? Seems like they'll often have little skin injuries and things. Many more hazards out in the wild.

 

[jebronlames]

@KLowery88 my understanding is he comes from a relatively local breeder, and that he never endured anything worse than a long car ride. He is young, though, and has had to learn his way around a few new enclosures.

Now he doesn't seem to want to eat. He's still having bowel movements, though. My first reptile, probably just overthinking everything.

 

[brownie64]

@KLowery88 my understanding is he comes from a relatively local breeder, and that he never endured anything worse than a long car ride. He is young, though, and has had to learn his way around a few new enclosures.

Now he doesn't seem to want to eat. He's still having bowel movements, though. My first reptile, probably just overthinking everything.

Mine can be very finicky eaters. I find verity, and patience to be my friend in this regard. They just don't have that I got to eat them all before they are gone mentality like the veiled do.

 

[jajeanpierre]

@KLowery88 my understanding is he comes from a relatively local breeder, and that he never endured anything worse than a long car ride. He is young, though, and has had to learn his way around a few new enclosures.

Now he doesn't seem to want to eat. He's still having bowel movements, though. My first reptile, probably just overthinking everything.

You can never over think it when you see your first reptile--or any reptile--stopping eating. Don't ever brush off those gut feelings.

There is a good chance he is a wild caught since he is fairly large based on your avatar.

Please make sure your husbandry is spot on and he has a ton of cover to hide in. Make sure he is hydrated. Most importantly, don't handle him. Chameleons are a challenge for any novice chameleon keeper let alone novice reptile keeper. Montane species are even more of a challenge. A wild caught is on a whole different level of challenge.

 

[jebronlames]

@jajeanpierre he has eaten a few crickets with me in the room--with me standing there filming him, no less--always free range. He backs away from the cup. It's just the last day or two that he hasn't hunted, and has seemed more preoccupied with climbing around upside down, going right by a nice meaty cricket who's been hanging around in the top corner. He did have a normal-looking bowel movement yesterday, bigger than his first one two days before.

The area by his perches may be a bit too bare. I plan to get some planter ledges as soon as I can find them, but in the meantime maybe I'll add some more fake foliage. I mist heavily a few times a day.

I never handle him. Once in a while I extend my hand below him and hold still, he doesn't retreat, but goes a little dark and I leave him alone.

Interesting that you think he might be wild caught. I asked the employee at the pet store if their source is a breeder, and it's a small operation and the kid seemed pretty knowledgeable. But I didn't press the issue and ask definitively about this Jackson. Are wild caught chams common in the pet trade?

 

[jebronlames]

Update--the two crickets are gone, he's out and about, and his yellows are showing nicely, even with me gawking at him.

 

[Andee]

Yes they are common, Jackson babies are hard to raise because of the high mortality rate. So most are caught wild from the population of invasives on Hawaii. He doesn't look like a juvenile chameleon to me. He looks like an adult.

 

[jebronlames]

Really? He's slimmer and smaller than two females at the local pet store, who I'm told are themselves 5-6mos. The avatar pic may be deceiving--he was just out of the box after the drive home and puffed up some. Here are a few more pictures, one with a quarter for point of reference (he was clearly very suspicious of the quarter). Do you think he's an adult? He's well shy of 10in TL.

Also, he took two waxworms from my hand. Major progress!

 

[brownie64]

I would say he is out of the woods as far as the whole SIDS thing. I would guess him to be 6 months give, or take a couple weeks.
My male hardly ever uses a feeding cup. He almost always insist the insect be crawling on a branch, leaf, or vine before he will eat it. You are lucky he is eating from your hand it took my female over a year to come to that level of trust, or tolerance if you will.

 

[Andee]

Oh now that I see his horn correctly I totally agree with your Brownie64. I thought he had a full set of grown horns from the avatar picture. My female is only 6 inches, but then again she was severely under supplemented when she was in her growing stage. She's always going to be tiny and with her MBD as bad as it is (even with the treatment of liquid calcium and how well she's turning around) I don't expect her to live a long life. I expect the most to be 3-4 years, anything beyond that will be happy unexpected golden years. She does well with her feeder cup but I expect that's because Hope knows she couldn't catch anything free range most likely. Your male is absolutely gorgeous, looks like he's growing quite well ^^... does he have a red lamp?

I am surprised he's already taking stuff from your hand. Hope dislikes me right now. Which is better than a few months ago when she absolutely hated me. She views me as the medication giver. I haven't even tried hand feeding her. She rarely eats in front of me if the door is open. It may be the fact with her that she never becomes the chameleon who "enjoys" as much as a chameleon can enjoy... being taken out by a person. Which is fine by me, I took her on as an animal I saw was in desperate need of rescue and I was someone who could do it. I know I may never be able to hold her without her being stressed out. But it's her choice.

With your boy it seems like he's moving into the liking you stage rather quickly. Seeing you as the food-giver is the best thing a cham can see you as. Keep it up and some day soon he just might climb on you of his own volition.

 

[jebronlames]

@Andee that's a shame about your girl, you're in a tough spot with having to stress her out in order to care for her. It sounds like she's in great hands though. Hopefully she warms up to you soon!

Thanks @brownie64 ! l was very surprised when he took the worms. He really shied away when I offered a third one. I tried a few times, hopefully I didn't push it.

It is red, it's actually a nocturnal heat bulb alongside a UVB, but I only run it during the day. The guy at the pet store set me up with that, on the logic that the UVB gave off enough daylight. I almost feel like it gives him more privacy--the basking side gets plenty of UVB light, but the whole width of the enclosure isn't bathed in light since it's only 18". Of course, I'm a newbie. If there's a downside to that setup, I'm all ears.

 

[jajeanpierre]

@Andee that's a shame about your girl, you're in a tough spot with having to stress her out in order to care for her. It sounds like she's in great hands though. Hopefully she warms up to you soon!

Thanks @brownie64 ! l was very surprised when he took the worms. He really shied away when I offered a third one. I tried a few times, hopefully I didn't push it.

It is red, it's actually a nocturnal heat bulb alongside a UVB, but I only run it during the day. The guy at the pet store set me up with that, on the logic that the UVB gave off enough daylight. I almost feel like it gives him more privacy--the basking side gets plenty of UVB light, but the whole width of the enclosure isn't bathed in light since it's only 18". Of course, I'm a newbie. If there's a downside to that setup, I'm all ears.

I suspect he is a wild caught, too, and strongly suggest you treat him as such. He needs privacy and lots of hydration. Look at the care sheets for them and get it right. He's a montane (mountain-dwelling) species, so he doesn't want high temps and he needs more humidity than something like a veiled or a panther. I don't know the requirements of Jacksons, but he needs it cooler and lots of humidity. Hydration is the most important thing you can do for a wild caught. Hydration and getting their stress levels down which means you leave them alone. Some wild caughts will eat and drink and still be under a tremendous amount of stress so don't use his eating as a gauge of his stress levels.

Do you have an automatic misting system? The longer I work with chameleons the more I think it is a necessity, even for people who are in their house all day with one single animal. You just cannot mist by hand for as long or as well as an automatic mister can. Your presence with a misting bottle, even for a captive bred, is often unsettling for them. Don't go cheap with a misting system because the cheap ones break when they run out of water and everyone runs out of water. Look at the smallest MistKing systems--I believe they can run dry. They aren't expensive. (Don't forget to also buy the tube cutter.)

Besides UVB, they need plain light. If the cage isn't bright, they pretty much shut down. A UVB light on its own doesn't throw very much light. A red light is an infrared light. It gives heat. A montane species likely does not need a lot of heat. Really keep track of your temps at all different places of the cage. If all you have is an infrared light and a UVB light, the cage is too dark.

Good luck.

 

[jebronlames]

@jajeanpierre I tried the ReptiRain, but it broke on first use (when I plugged it in, the nozzles were closed, and I immediately shut it off, but the brief pressure was enough to break something inside the unit and it started leaking from the bottom). In the meantime, I have been misting heavily around 4-5 times per day. I am going to order the MistKing per your advice, as I have also been following the MistKing thread, and I'm also going to introduce a few more live plants. I rinsed and replanted (in reptile-safe coconut fiber stuff) some marked down pothos that were on their death beds, and they're growing up very nicely and starting to fill some space. I want to add a couple of planter ledges with spider plants, at which point I think I'll have plenty of foliage. I like the idea of a Ficus, and I know the issue with the sap rarely surfaces, but being a newbie, and judging by the consensus that he's likely wild caught, having already bitten off a little more than I thought I was, I don't need any more variables.

I have the IR heat lamp angled away from the enclosure a bit, and he does seem to hang out over there, when he does sit still. His basking perch is maybe 8in away now, and he sits right under it. I will switch it to a day heat bulb. As far as temps, most of the enclosure is in the low to mid 70s.

For what it's worth, he is all calm green and yellow and very active for much of the day. He climbs all over the place, up and down branches, up and down screens. When I come into the room, or even up to the enclosure, he doesn't react. If I open the enclosure door, he gets a little stressed. He is in my upstairs office, and the house is very quiet (except when the Siberians howl once in a while). He's in a room with two fishtanks with the door pulled almost-closed where the ambient temp hovers around 72.

I really appreciate your input. I'll switch the bulb tonight while it's off, I'll order my MistKing, and I'll try to keep the stress minimal.

 

[Andee]

If he is a wild caught it'll take about a few months usually for him to get out of real danger depending how long he's been in captivity before you got him. I am guessing he's been in captivity at least a month already with the way he reacts toward you. But don't take my word on it. If you take in a fecal or anything to a vet, don't treat him for parasites if they crop until he's been in your care long term and you can call him completely stable. Wild caughts are very sensitive. He sounds like a sweet little boy though, and will take to being with you quite nicely after a while. Just keep his diet varied and keep an eye on him for at least the next few months. When you do get the mistking, I would set the misting sessions for 4 minutes each time and 4 times a day. That's what my girl likes.

 

[jebronlames]

@Andee I will do that. I'll make sure it's nice and quiet for him. I also plan to vary his diet as much as I can, which I'd imagine is especially important for a wild caught. Thank you!