(reposting from the Health board)
Hi guys! I have two Jackson's which were WC in early June. They both seem to have been doing really well until earlier this week...but I'll elaborate. I apologize for the REALLY long post, but I want to be sure to include all pertinent info.
I have 1m/1f, keeping them in a 175 reptarium, which I have been told is plenty of space for the two of them. Both are about 45g, and the female appears to be gravid.
The female has always displayed a much darker color than the male, very dark green, sometimes with almost black bars. The male is light green and yellow, with some blue, depending on his mood and where he is in the enclosure. I know that live bearing snakes darken significantly when they are gravid, to absorb more heat and help turn themselves into little incubators, as it were. Do chams do this also? The female also displays a rather odd behavioral (?) pattern of rocking herself from side to side, very rhythmically, on her branch.
Worried that the female is stressed by having the male in her enclosure, I have ordered a separate screen cage for her. It should be in later this week.
They are under a Reptisun 10.0 (about 12" above their typical basking area) and 2 60w incandescent bulbs. I mist the tank 2-3 times daily, and put a dripper on for a couple of hours every day. There is also a fountain with a fogger at toward the bottom of the enclosure. Temps are anywhere from 85-90 in the warmest basking areas, down to about 75 in the cooler spots. Humidity is in the 45-75% range, depending on how long ago I misted. Both have shed twice since I have had them, and appear to be keeping on weight and growing.
They are eating mostly crix, with an occasional freshly shed super, and occasional waxworms. Probably 5-10 crix per day each.
The female just seemed "off" for a couple of days, although still eating and drinking, I knew she needed a vet visit. I knew that they should also be dewormed, and I took the male along both for comparison, and to be dewormed.
I'm a vet tech, but we mostly deal with fuzzy critters at my practice, so I took them to a friend who is a herp vet.
Until now, the male has appeared to be VERY healthy.
We went to the vet yesterday, both were dewormed with IM injections of droncit and ivermectin. We X-rayed the female, and, although we cannot be 100% sure, she does appear gravid. She seemed a little dehydrated, so we gave her 3cc of normosol SQ. He couldn't find anything else wrong with them.
Now the male seems "off" too. He's much darker than he has been in the past and neither of them appeared to eat today (cannot be 100% sure, as I was at work for most of the day, but there are still a LOT of crix in the cage).
Today, the female was literally hanging off her branch, and I have repositioned her several times so that she's upright. I'm worried that she's too weak to hold on, but I have no idea why.
I have been thinking about putting them into smaller tanks for a couple of days (I have a 20L aquarium and one of the large Exo-Terra glass arboreal terrariums I could use if need be), but I'm worried that relocating them right now would just cause more undue stress.
Any ideas or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!! Hopefully they'll still be alive to help out!
I'm also afraid that the stress from the vet visit has done far more harm than good, and now the male seems unwell also.
Thank you so much for your help!
Brianna
First I would like to say I do not have jacksons, only werneri, and panthers, and you probably should speak to someone more knowledgable on jacksons. 