Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My new Jacksons cham (had him for about 5 days now), is often climbing the walls of his cage, even the top of it (so that's upside-down). He doesnt sit on the walls, but climbs around on it.

Is this a bad thing? Maybe it means I don't have enough branches in the cage for him to climb on?

Also, I randomly will find him with his mouth open, but only for a few seconds, Last night he was sleeping with his mouth open.

Now I *know* this cannot be a case of over-heating because his cage is in a rather cool basement (along with all my other reptiles). The cool part of his cage is 60, while the warmest barely reaches 83.

All help is appreciated Thanks!

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Randilyn -;,-
Desolate Gray: Reptiles

How big of an enclosure is your Jax in, and how is it decorated? Kinda hard to say without this info.
Noticed you included a picture of a snake. Is this snake in your Jackson's view? I've noticed that some chameleons get stressed when they see a potential predator. Could be your Jackson's attempts to get away from the snake.
Could also be that its trying to get used to its new environment, checking things out.
On another note, did you look inside its mouth for mouthrot while it was asleep with it open?
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

This is his cage, you can kind of see him in there. He's misted several times a day, along with his water-dripper going several times a day. UV light and a low-wattage heat lamp. There is a good gradient in the cage.

He's still eating and drinking great. So I'm not exactly worried.. I just don't know if wall climbing is good or not

And no, he cannot see any of the snakes. The only thing he ever sees is me at my computer, but I'm well across the room and kind-of out of view.
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Randilyn -;,-
Desolate Gray: Reptiles

i was wondering what plants you have in there they look short and i need short leafy trees

I honestly have no clue what they are called at the moment. I got them from Wal-Mart as very small babies and they went through intense cleaning and growing before I put them in the chameleon cage.

Go check out wal-mart, they were only 3 bucks a piece.
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Randilyn -;,-
Desolate Gray: Reptiles

>>I honestly have no clue what they are called at the moment. I got them from Wal-Mart as very small babies and they went through intense cleaning and growing before I put them in the chameleon cage.
>>
>>Go check out wal-mart, they were only 3 bucks a piece.
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>>Randilyn -;,-
>>Desolate Gray: Reptiles
>>

it needs to be quite a bit larger for a jax to live happily - it is most likely climbing on thae walls because it is bored with its house
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Jason, Ichiro, Mika & Toki

razior_@hotmail.com

Are you sure? It's not a very tall cage, but generally it's fairly large and I thought it was perfect..

But I still moved him into a very slightly larger cage. He's now in a 20g Reptarium, much taller but not as big around. Think that will work until I finish building him a larger cage? Thanks
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Randilyn -;,-
Desolate Gray: Reptiles

your cage should be 4 feet high, 3 wide and 2 deep AT LEAST
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Jason, Ichiro, Mika & Toki

razior_@hotmail.com

For a really small sub-adult? Seems like an awfully large cage for such a small chameleon. I should be done building his new cage in a few days anyways.. its 5ft high.
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Randilyn -;,-
Desolate Gray: Reptiles

that perfect - the jax really need a lot of climbing room

where did you but it from anyways? its really amazing looking
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Jason, Ichiro, Mika & Toki

razior_@hotmail.com

I bought him from a local friend of mine (kansas city, kansas). He's Hawaii stock apparently I'm really happy with him.
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Randilyn -;,-
Desolate Gray: Reptiles

Regarding the cage size, I keep my Jacksons in 38gallon Reptariums (most people here HATE reptariums, BTW). Although you should keep your chameleons in as big an enclosure as possible, my opinion is that a 5 ft cage might be a bit overkill for a sub-adult male jax, depending on how you're feeding. If you're free ranging prey items, your Jax might have some troubles finding crickets and such in that huge an enclosure. Of course, this point is moot if you're cup feeding.
If the picture shows, it should be of 3 of my female Jacksons that I keep together, along with one male. Once a week, I'll move the male out and replace him with another male.

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Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com