Reptile & Amphibian Forums

cages for babies......

okay...my jackson chameleon is gravid and I am expecting her to have them within the month. What is the best habitat and cages to use for the babies. also...I have the female with her pair. I have a smaller cage, its not huge....should I separate them?

I had a reply to your post below all ready to go and just when I was about to send it, it got deleted...so I'm trying to find the info again...sorry.

You said..."I have the female with her pair. I have a smaller cage, its not huge....should I separate them?"...I never keep a pair of chameleons together (with a few exceptions, like C. chamaeleon and species like brevs...or it the cage is very large). It usually stresses them out IMHO...and often results in compromising the health of one.

The cage is plenty big for the two of them. And they both seem to be doing great. But I am just worried about if she does give birth, the male eating the babies. lol.

I wish I could have found more but this is it. However, some of them have contacts listed...
http://members.tripod.com/Als3Horns/pages/newborn.htm
http://als3horns.tripod.com/pages/info.htm
http://www.adcham.com/html/taxonomy/species/chjacksonixanth.html
http://www.hear.org/AlienSpeciesInHawaii/waringreports/chameleon.htm
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/bot350/1996/Reyes/reyes.htm

Just for interest...
http://www.chameleonnews.com/index.html
http://www.lovein.com/SpunkBob.htm
http://www.chameleonnews.com/index.html

I don't know for sure about males eating the babies...but I have had that experience with other lizards, so I wouldn't chance it.

thanks soo very much. I will definately take a look at the websites. I am so very excited! But nervous too! I think she is really close......isn't it true that they stay close to the heat lamp the last few days?

As with most things...its not written in stone, but some of them do bask....and the birthing often takes place in the morning.

Here's a site showing the live birth and lots of information on the babies....and a comment saying that the mother may eat the babies, so to remove them right away. Guess that answers the question about them eating their own babies!
http://www.geocities.com/chamjacksonii/breed.html