Species

[weeman]

Hey There

New to the forum and a novice I would say at Chameleons. I have two Jackson's that where purchased separatly. I have had the Male for about two years and the female about a year in half. They both are wild caught. The female was pregnant when I got here and she had babies 3 monthes ago. It was a small litter at only six live babys two of which did not make it past the first couple of days. The other four seem to be doing great but I still have my fingers crossed as I understand they can be a challenge until around six months. My question is the female has two horns and the Male (who is not the father) has the Three. Are these considered different species or do they come from different locales. Do most females not have any horns? Are these Two okay to try and breed? And lastly will the babies follow there mother and the females have horns or is it a hit and miss they might or might not, and the males will they have the customery three horns. Kinda rambled there but any help be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Kent67]

Uhhhhh, the female has two horns? Got a picture of her , by any chance?

 

[Kent67]

To answer your question, there are three recognized subspecies of Jackson's chameleons. None of them have females with 2 horns. The most commonly seen Jackson's subspecies is the largest and the females generally don't have horns other than the occasional very small rostral (nose) horn. The smallest subspecies from Mt Meru in Tanzania has one-horned females. The nominate subspecies which is very rare in captivity has females with either one or three developed horns.

Posting a pic of both your male and female would allow us to ID which each one is.

 

[sharkey]

i would be very interested to see a pic the 2 horned female.

i had a group of 10 baby jackson's and ended up w/6 females and 4 males. the funny thing is, i asked for help in sexing the babies, and pretty much it was anyone's guess. i say this b/c at one point i was told all 10 were male - but all of my females have mini horns (like little bumps) and one started to develop a rostral horn - it now looks like a big bump. so anyway, i wouldn't doubt it if some of the females do indeed have horns or at least the start of them. my males all developed the normal 3, similar lenght, horns in the correct places.

 

[ciafardo 4]

yes i want to see this devil as well

 

[weeman]

I appologise for all the stir. I told you I was new to this forum thing. The Female has One horn Not Two Sorry I would upload images just to get your opinion on exactly what species they are but sombody needs to let me know how to upload images unfortunatley. Once again sorry for the mistake

 

[Sang]

when you postthere is an attachment button above the insert URL button, looks like a tiny paperclip.

then browse and upload, i believe it has a size/ pixel limit to it though.

 

[weeman]

I dont know if this worked or not but I hope so. If they did here are the pictures of my Jacksons. If anybody could please let me know the exact species and if they are okay do breed together. Thanks for all the help

 

[Kent67]

What you have there is a male Ch. (T.) jacksonii xantholophus male and a Ch. (T.) jacksonii merumontanus female. The male is from a wild population on Hawai'i, although the subspecies evolved on Mt. Kenya. The female is of the smallest subspecies, from Mt. Meru in Tanzania. I've not heard of anyone trying to hybridize Mt. Meru's with the others. Let us know if you see any breeding behavior, etc....

 

[weeman]

Well he is very interested in her. I have not let them be alone yet but she did not go all black when I showed them each other last week. She did not really seem uninterested or interested. I did try and interduce them when she was pregnant(I did not know it at the time) and she went all black and hissing. Was not happy.

 

[Kent67]

If it was me, I'd probably try it, just to see what will happen. I've got a similar predicament myself. I have a solo female Ch. (T.) jacksonii jacksonii and seemingly no prospects of finding a male of that subspecies anytime soon so I've been considering getting a male xanth Jackson. Both of those subspecies are from Kenya and hybridize in the wild due to proximity of ranges. This might be an interesting test to see how far evolutionarily removed the Mt. Meru Jackson's are from their cousins. It sounds like your female might allow a copulation, it would be interesting to see what happens....

 

[weeman]

Well I will keep this thread open and keep you posted. I will try and introduce them for a nice first date over the next week, and ill see how they react. Thanks for the help