Jacksons... as of big as a pain as they say?

I was curious for future keeping sake, if Jackson's were as hard to keep as they say? Some people say if u sneeze a Jackson will get sick and stuff like that.

Whats the facts behind the fiction on keeping these?

jackons are one of the 3 easyest chams to keep. veiled, panthers and jackson. i am not saying that those speacies are easy to keep but they are more hardy that othere speacies.

Not hard at all

Id guess I sold about 1000 Jacksons in the last 2 years and they were no trouble at all. Since they were imports I kept them at least 6 weeks while I treated them for possible parasites before selling them and still have 1 male that I kept as a pet.

The main thing is if they are wild caught imports to make sure they are parasite free, the seller should treat them for parasites but the buyer should also take them for a prelim vet exam $25 to make sure they are parasite free. YOu may even be able to just get the fecal done for less than $10, some vets will others will not.

This does not mean that captives do not get parasites, its just less likely that a captive will than a wild caught which normalyl does haev parasites, so in my opinion you should take them either way or treat them with a natural parastie removal like para-zap or worm guard as directed on package insert to be safe.

Then make sure they are in an all screen cage, teh larger the better, I haev my 1 male is a 260 gallon reptarium but a 65 gallon would be fine, with lots of branches to climb around on, you can either use live or fake plants, I prefer live plants, others prefer fake.

With live plants you can take the plant out every 2-3 days, put it in the bathtub and spray off any feces, with fake plants I have found them harder to take out since you usually need to attach them to the branches.

Make sure to have proper humidity, they needs quite a bit of humidty, 80% is a good level and proper basking of about 100 with a range of 80-100 day and 70 or so at night

Do not use vitamins but 3-4 times a month, with jacksons, too many vitaimins are worse than not enough.

Use UVB, mercury vapor or active UVB, these will provide the heat and UVB all in one bulb and replace it every 6 months. Or you can use a florscent and a ceramic heater, I prefer the mercury vapor

As long as you keep the UVB, humidty, and tons of crix they are truly wonderful animals, Im guessing my adult male male eats abotu 1 dozen crickets a day

But do not think its a reptile to be played with or handled, although some will tolerate being handled, they do not like it and some will stress form it.

They are a wonderful cham to look at esp when its eating time, they are a joy to watch!

Re: Not hard at all

codyremmyloo said:

Make sure to have proper humidity, they needs quite a bit of humidty, 80% is a good level and proper basking of about 100 with a range of 80-100 day and 70 or so at night

Use UVB, mercury vapor or active UVB, these will provide the heat and UVB all in one bulb and replace it every 6 months. Or you can use a florscent and a ceramic heater, I prefer the mercury vapor

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That's pretty warm for a jacksonii. A basking temp much over 85 and you are just overheating them. These are highland chameleons and rarely are exposed to temps that high. Utilizing a mercury vapor bulb for montane chams is hit or miss at best. these bulbs produce a tremoendous amount of heat and can increase the cage temps to dangerously high temps in minutes. It has also been theorized recently that the high amounts of UVB produced by these bulbs can actually be too high for chameleons. In the wild chams regulate their exposure to UVB much the same way the regulate their temps. With the high concentrations of UVB and the lack of a gradient in a cage this can be a bad situation.

With all that being said, jacksonii are not difficult to keep as long as you go in with the proper information. No chameleon species is "easy", but jacksons can be more forgiving than other mantane species. Your best bet would be to pick up a good book like, "Chameleons, Their care and breeding" by Linda Davidson, and read as much info as you can on them before purchasing one. Sites like www.chameleonnews.com, adcham.com, and www.chamresearch.com are great places to get information and speak with experienced keepers and breeders.

Re: Re: Not hard at all

JasonDescamps said:

That's pretty warm for a jacksonii. A basking temp much over 85 and you are just overheating them. These are highland chameleons and rarely are exposed to temps that high. Utilizing a mercury vapor bulb for montane chams is hit or miss at best. these bulbs produce a tremoendous amount of heat and can increase the cage temps to dangerously high temps in minutes. It has also been theorized recently that the high amounts of UVB produced by these bulbs can actually be too high for chameleons. In the wild chams regulate their exposure to UVB much the same way the regulate their temps. With the high concentrations of UVB and the lack of a gradient in a cage this can be a bad situation.

With all that being said, jacksonii are not difficult to keep as long as you go in with the proper information. No chameleon species is "easy", but jacksons can be more forgiving than other mantane species. Your best bet would be to pick up a good book like, "Chameleons, Their care and breeding" by Linda Davidson, and read as much info as you can on them before purchasing one. Sites like www.chameleonnews.com, adcham.com, and www.chamresearch.com are great places to get information and speak with experienced keepers and breeders.

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My jax are in 260 gallon with the utmost top being HOT of 100 is at the top left and the right side hot is about 80 and the bottom being somewhat cooler, they can choose where they want to be in the heat area within a 6' tall cage

And yes with a small cage that amount of a high would not be too hot, wasn't really thinking of smaller cages as much as I was thinking of mine being 30X30X72

Re: Re: Re: Not hard at all

codyremmyloo said:

And yes with a small cage that amount of a high would not be too hot, wasn't really thinking of smaller cages as much as I was thinking of mine being 30X30X72

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TYPO in a smaller cage that WOULD be too hot, you would need lower highs of about 80 HIGH not 100 if you have a shorter cage the high is not able to be a significant amount lower at the bottom so your high would need to be much lower than mine to provide a good low temp

100 is too high even if it is a 6' high cage. You are essentially taking away the upper part of the cage with these high temps.

I curently have some veileds (1 male, 3 babies) so I have some experience. I was just curious of the about the jacksons as a next possible expansion. Are male and female cohabitable or only during breeding like most?

No chams should be housed together without a lot of experience. Stress can be subtle and very hard to identify without a lot of experience working with several species of chameleons. Many new people will tell you it is okay and many try it and fail. You will be hard pressed to find any experienced keeper that will tell you it is okay. Keep them seperate and you'll be better off.

JasonDescamps said:

100 is too high even if it is a 6' high cage. You are essentially taking away the upper part of the cage with these high temps.

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The left back corner hits 100 at the tip top while the upper right hits about 80 at the tip top, they have a wide range of temps to chose from! If they want an 80 max, they haev it and if they want to get warmer or cooler they can!

romad119 said:

I curently have some veileds (1 male, 3 babies) so I have some experience. I was just curious of the about the jacksons as a next possible expansion. Are male and female cohabitable or only during breeding like most?

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I haev a single male Jax in a 260 and all of my veileds are in seperate cages 175 gallon, I would not put them together except as newborns a few in a cage or at breeding time for adults.

Now, I have had more than 1 in a 260 at a time but not for any length of time, only long enough to get the imports in, unboxed, and get them well hydrated for a few hours while seperating them to seperate cages.

Community housing is not advised for any chameleon I know of, maybe the pygmys and Im not even sure if they would be but I know some people put a few pygmys in a cage together.

wendy, i hate to go off topic, but you seem to barely know how to keep any herps do you??

you stated you gave beardies a 130 degree basking spot
now chams with 100 degree spot.

Yet your trying to hatch cham eggs too...........

I think 100' is to high

but ehh whatever works for you

Bringerofdoom said:

wendy, i hate to go off topic, but you seem to barely know how to keep any herps do you??

you stated you gave beardies a 130 degree basking spot
now chams with 100 degree spot.

Yet your trying to hatch cham eggs too...........

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Doom,

For my Jackson Cham
It is 100 and the VERY Left BACK TIP TOP CORNER of a 30X30X72 Cage, not the entire top just the back left where the mercury vapor is, the Right Front reaches about 80 at the Very right Front TIP TOP CORNER

Again this temps are taken at the top of the cage, not the ambient temp inside the cage but at the TIP TOP in top corners.

I am not breeding Jax nor do they lay eggs

I am breeding veileds who have a different set up, different size cages etc.

The Dragon was in a 110 Gallon and the 110-130 was the very left side against the wall of the cage, the right side was about 80 or so, you only asked for basking temp whis the the temp directly under the bulb itself.

Alan,

The differences between keeping veileds and jacksons are that jacksons require a higher humidity and lower temps. Mid to high eighties seem to work perfect for jacksons. On my jackson breeder cages I cram the cage full with live vegetation. This helps keep the humidity up and also provides the more shy jacksons a sense of security.

The biggest problem with jacksons is that the babies are very fragile. Since fewer CB offspring are introduced many of the jacksons on the market are wild caughts. My experience with wild caught chameleons is that it greatly depends upon who you get them from as to the quality. So a store or reseller that has poor wholesale connections would consider them hard to keep as they have a rough time with the poor stock they receive.

Wendy. 100 degrees is too hot. The fact that your cage is large enough that the chameleon can stay in a cooler part of the cage does not change the fact that 100 is too hot. Your essentially removing that 25% of the cage from being used by the chameleon (and running up your electric bill for no reason).

dwedeking said:

Wendy. 100 degrees is too hot. The fact that your cage is large enough that the chameleon can stay in a cooler part of the cage does not change the fact that 100 is too hot. Your essentially removing that 25% of the cage from being used by the chameleon (and running up your electric bill for no reason).

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OK, I raised the bulb up 8", now the tip top left back corner is at 85 and the tip top right front is still at 80 since the room temp is 80.

He is now up in the top left corner so high he can't climb any higher, is it just because he was used to higher temps?

Mr. Beardie Says: Look what you did to me Wendy! How could you?! I can't be..l....ackk....ACKKKKK..... -silence-


You are the LAST person to give anyone any instruction Wendy. When are you going to take a hint?

I'm unsure which I'm getting more tired of seeing......... The photograph of the poor abused beardie, or the person who put that beardie in that condition giving horrid advise to other keepers.

Both of them are equally as disgusting/disturbing.

Wendy! The sad thing is that people out there who are reading "these" posts are not thinking of "YOUR" 6' cage, but they are reading that jackson's (a mountain species) should have a temp of 100 degrees!, and thats just not right!

And for god sake please don't Hi-jack this thread and make it into another Wendy bashing.

I think most of know her 'abnormal" husbandry skills!

Plus wading thru another possible 50 pages, it giving me a headache just thinking about it!

codyremmyloo said:

The left back corner hits 100 at the tip top while the upper right hits about 80 at the tip top, they have a wide range of temps to chose from! If they want an 80 max, they haev it and if they want to get warmer or cooler they can!

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In your first post, you stated that you have a basking temperature of 100. When one is refering to a basking temperature, they should be refering to the actual temperature at which the animal should bask in. The size of the cage would be irrelevant. Example, if "certain reptile" requires a basking temp of 90, then it should be set-up so the actual basking temp is 90, whether it is on a sandy spot of a 5g cage 8" from the heat source, or in the top branch of a 300g Tall cage for an arboreal species.
When several people note that is to high for a Jackson's, you reply...but I only had that in the very, very upper tiny corner (paraphrazing).

This is the same pattern of backpeddling that you did in the Bearded thread. It seems that in addition to Beardeds, you don't quite know how to properly keep/care for Jackson's. I think you would do your animals and your reputation some good to quit posting husbandry advise, at least for a while. Instead read some books, do some research, learn how to PROPERLY care for those 1000's of animals you sell. Learn the proper temps of a mountain Species, learn that a 9 (?) month old Bearded Dragon shouldn't look like a wild small Blue-belly Lizard- Sceloporus sp. and that if it is drinking massive amounts of water it might be a sign of parasites or other health problems. That way everytime you are involved in a thread it won't turn into 50 pages of you trying to explain what you really meant when you said something wrong.