Surprise baby Jacksons - need advice

[Shia]

We bought a female Jackson four months ago and yesterday we discovered 11 babies in her cage. We were under the impression that she wasn't old enough to mate when we bought her and she's been kept alone since, so this is a surprise. I quickly searched the forums and google, but couldn't find anything specific to caring for newborns.

We moved them to a tuberware container that I had made for housing crickets and bought fruitflies and 1/4" crickets (couldn't find pinheads locally). Right now all the babies seem healthy and are eating and drinking.

I'm looking for specific care instructions. Feeding, temp, water, etc. The current enclosure seems to be working fine, except that the flies and crickets can get through the mesh and I need to add more leaves.

When should they be moved to a different enclosure?
How can I feed them without insects escaping?
Do I need to order pinheads or any other feeders?
Do I need to be supplementing them?

I'm a first time chameleon owner and was not planning on breeding, so I'm kind of clueless.

Here are pics:

 

[Lancecham]

babies can be housed in what you have as long as you have UV lighting and a heat bulb. The heat bulb can be 40 watts. You could use a typical small screened cage as well(16x16x20)
they need to be supplemented. Pinheads are great for the Jacksons, if you get crickets, pinheads would be the best size. If you use bigger crickets, they tend to get scared of them.
Put a cup with some fruit in the cage, the fruit flies will stay in the cage.

 

[Ace]

congrats on the babies

i know you didnt expect them to be there, but they look good from the pics...and i agree with Lancecham on the care, either leave them there in the bin or get the screen cage, they can be housed togwether like that for only a few months i believe,...and if some get bigger than others , then seperate them in groups so the bigger siblings wont hurt or stress the smaller ones.....they should be housed individaully abiut 3-4months..i think...if i am wrong, hopefully someone will chime in and correct me

goodluck with them and post pics as they mature!!!!

 

[BrokenTail]

Welcome to the forum. Same thing happen to me about 3 months ago. Only have one left for myself and gave one to laurie. Those babies are hard to take care. I have one in a 12x12x12 glass tank now, using a reptisun 5.0 no heat lamp for him, he seem to be doing good. The one I gave to laurie was growing pretty good. The one I kept for myself is not growing at all. Hope you have better luck then me.

Here a few of my older post.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/jackson-gave-birth-43457/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/jacksons-babies-45507/

 

[BigBlue]

what a fantastic surprise to find.

 

[JaxyGirl]

Congrats on your new babies!! Even though they weren't expected but they are sooo cute. I love Jackson's! I would keep them in the bin you have them in now because it helps to keep the humidity in. Jackson babies are tiny so you probably won't have to separate them for a month or so. Then as Ace said..separate them according to size as they grow. Add more branches so that they feel secure. Baby jackson's can over heat quickly and like it on the cooler side so I would suggest a 25 wat bulb max (that's what I'm using now for my 3 month old female) basking spot needs to be 75-78 degrees at the most. Def need a UVB bulb and that might be enough to bring temps up just by itself. To keep bugs in you could probably use some mesh screen to put over the screen you have now. I've done this before and used fishing line to tie it down on the edges. It's quick and easy and that way it's not permanent. You're doing good with fruit flys and maybe add pinheads. You can also put in apple slices and oranges in the bottom of the bin to help keep the fruit flies and crickets inside. Also it will keep crickets from chewing on the babies. Any how, hope this helps and good luck!!!

I just noticed that you have 1/4" crickets for the babies. Don't use them!!! They are much too big and they will scare the babies leading to stress which could lead to illness early on. A bite from that size cricket will do some serious damage. They won't be eating 1/4" until they're around 2-3 mos old. You're fine with fruit flies for a few weeks. Then you can order pin heads online if you can't find them locally. 11 babies will eat a ton of them per day.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

As others have stated get some pin heads. Or just set up a cricket breeding tank. Since your buying adult crickets for the female jackson. Take the female adult crickets and put them in a tank with some moist soil overnight. They will lay eggs in the soil. Take the soil with the eggs out and incubate it in a seperate container at about 95 degrees for a few days. Then you'll have all the pin heads you need. You can feed the ff's until the pinheads start hatching... Good luck

 

[KingKameha]

They won't have their first shed for 3 months and they grow very slow. I would suggest only using plastic plants while they are babies, they are eating and pooping machines and the plastic is easy to remove and clean. Don't use paper towels as substrate they absorb moisture and will dehydrate the babies quick. IMO news paper is the best. I can't remember the species names but there are 2 kinds of fruit flies one is bigger than the other. Petco sells the smaller kind. My baby is feeding on the larger kind right now. There are a few stores that sell pinheads small enough for the babies in the Seattle area. I place a piece of banana in the cage with the babies under a branch so the babies can be above the flies as they eat the banana. Make sure the branch is 2 to 3 inches above the banana. Provide uvb light and this has worked for me with 3 litters of Jacksons.

 

[xanthoman]

hydei vs melongaster

the bigger ffs are called drosphilia hydei. they will hang around alot better than the smaller d. melongaster that petco sells. plus, they are 2x+ the size of melongasters, melongasters are so small that the chams have to expend 2x+ the energy to get the same amount of food (not good for the chams that are just marginally eating) a good way to dispense them can be seen in post #9 this thread https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-do-you-keep-fruit-flies-your-containers-42353/ personally for the first month, i prefer live plants, a terrycloth liner cut to fit, and a 10g aquarium or small exo-terra, an appropriate size screen cage will also work. in the post mentioned above, notice how many of the ffs have collected on the end of the skewer and are content to hang out there, at least for a while, the smaller d. melongasters would never do that (and young neonates need a high concentration of feeders). i would feed only ffs or true 1/16th" (1week) cricks, 1/4" cricks can cause impaction or even attack the neonates. i would avoid any supplementation. jmo edit / it took a while for my prehistoric cell phone internet connection to load the pics. i notice that you are using galvanized wire for the top of your enclosure, (not good), galvanized wire is made with a zinc coating. zinc can be transfered by means of osmotic absorbtion (through the skin from walking on the wire) it will also leach into water it comes in contact with causing zinc poisoning. (it would be even worse to have it in their drinking water) i would either change the screen top to a plastic screen mesh or arrainge the tank so that no top is required. the above link also gives some info on how to keep the ffs from escaping the enclosure even without a screen. hydei cultures can take up to a month to produce, so if you order hydei cultures, be shure to specify "already producing cultures" jmo