Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i attempted to type this yesterday but the comp reloaded and erased my post...so here goes again!
saturday the 18 i went to the lititz herp show and i got a pair of jacksons, unrealated, that i planning on breedign in a few months. i bought them from a breeder named joey wolf for a very decent price (i got the pair for 100 even.)they are housed in a new wire reptile cage that has bars about 1 inch high and half inch wide. it has a pull out metal tray on the bottom that i have paper towels on. there are two basking spots/ lights, one fluorescen light and a rainforest dripper system on the top. i have fake plants vines and flexi branches all throughout the cage and i have two containers of live crickets and mealworms in it. so far, this is how they have fed, could anyone give me an opinion on whether it is ok or not for the first few days? thanks
saturday night-female ate small pinkie mouse
sunday-male ate 5 crickets, female regurgitated mouse(dont know why)
monday -didnt eat
tuesday-female ate 1 mealworm and 2 crickets, male ate 1 cricket

then i will feed them again today. i think they would eat more if the crickets could free roam in the cage but that isnt possible because they will walk right through the bars, and since i just ordered 1000 crix from cali i have enough of them loose in my room, i dont need anymore.
so, any advice or comments/ questions would be appreciated. thanks
oh and i will try to get some pics later and i thought i would add that my female has one rostral horn, how odd is that?
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UroKnight...coming soon
1.0.0 mali uromastyx
1.2.0 green anole
1.0.0 brown anole
1.0.0 emperor scorpion
1.0.0 cuban knight anole
1.0.0 ribbon snake(currently escaped)
1.0.0 african clawed frog
1.0.1 green iguana
0.1.0 eastern kingsnake
0.0.1 3 lined salamander
0.1.0 albino leopard gecko
0.0.2 house gecko
0.0.1 crocodile gecko

Your setup sounds pretty good, however, you really shouldn't feed pinkies to Jackson's. The female probably regurgitated it because her system just couldn't handle it. Pinkies are best reserved for the largest species (Veiled, Oustalets, Panthers, Parsons, Meller's), and even then only as a rare "treat". Chameleons are insectivores and insects should be their primary diet. I've read that they don't posess the proper enzymes to properly break down mammal tissues, and that baby mice can harbor bacteria in their stomachs that can be harmful for Chameleons.

The old screen vs. wire/cup-feed vs. free-range debate goes on...

I have a wire cage much like yours, and my Jackson's cup-feeds with no problem. I can also place the insects in his tree and he will usually hunt them down and eat them before they can get away. Cup feeding is good because you can monitor food intake precisely, but it's disadvantage is that it prohibits natural hunting behavior to an extent.

Recently someone posted the idea of combining the wire with the screen, so I might explore this.

Personally, I avoid screen anymore because my Male pulled 5 toenails out while climbing on it, and they don't grow back. Also, one of the toes got a mild infection after the toenail was pulled out. This doesn't seem to be a common problem, but I can attest that it does happen, and causes harm to the Chameleon. Plus, they can't climb quite as well without toenails. I recommend sticking with the wire. Mine is PVC coated, to prevent rubbing injuries.

I had a pair of jax myself (female jsut recently died so i only have the male) and the eating patterns you described are exactly like mine. eat a few then next day maybe eat none, then the next day eat maybe one. I guess jacksons dont eat as much as others like my brother's veilds who eat tons of crickets. Like the previous post said the pinkies are not really suited for jacksons considering they are smaller then the chams you would normally feed pinkies to.

i was also wondering how old they are? do you have them housed together? did you say you have all fake plants?

i believe he said my male is 10-12 months and the female he said would be ready to breed in about two months. as of now i have all fake flants but that wont be for long. they prolly wont last for long though either because i cant seem to keep plants alive...ever. lol and yes, they are housed together. i asked joey,the breeder, if i should keep them housed seperately until i want to breed and he laughed at me.he said that for years he has kept numerous jax together in big room sized cages(like 50 plus chams.) at his table he had big screen cages and he showed me two males sitting beside each other bright as can be. i told him about how most people on kingsnake said not to and he said that jax are very tolerant of others. and i have seen his proof(nice happy healthy chams) and i know of his experience so i went with what he said. i also know that he wasnt just saying that so i would buy a pair instead of one(the pet store scheme as i call it) because i told him i would have gotten them either way. oh, and my cage is also pvc coated with green pvc.
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UroKnight...coming soon
1.0.0 mali uromastyx
1.2.0 green anole
1.0.0 brown anole
1.0.0 emperor scorpion
1.0.0 cuban knight anole
1.0.0 ribbon snake(currently escaped)
1.0.0 african clawed frog
1.0.1 green iguana
0.1.0 eastern kingsnake
0.0.1 3 lined salamander
0.1.0 albino leopard gecko
0.0.2 house gecko
0.0.1 crocodile gecko

yeah, I talked with Joey at the show as well and he was full of useless and wrong info. While housing Jacksons together (M/F) may seem to work for years be aware that they will not exhibit the stress levels that they are actually feeling. Jacksons should only be together (actually ALL chams) only when neonates and when breeding and then only briefly.

I too have had Jacksons for a long time and they only time they are together is when they are outside (Daytime, weather permitting)in the very large walk-in cage I built them in the backyard. They are separated by cage all other times. Do not take all Joey had to say to heart. He has a lot of weird ways of keeping his chams. I noticed from looking at them that they all seemed to be from the same clutch (Inbred). They were mostly the same size with the same color patterns (I know this isnt 100% but, from what I saw there, there is NO way he could have kept the unrelated pairs separate with the caging he has setup). I am sad to say you may have bought an inbred pair from Joey.

In the future, always ask how the breeders can differentiate the different bloodlines when you see that many jackson's together that are the same relative size and color patterns.

In my opinion, you should NOT breed the pair you bought from Joey together. If you feel the need to breed, get another female from a different breeder. Since you're in PA like me, I may have a couple of Jacksons available in a couple of months from my re-phase female and my green male that I am 100% sure are unrelated.
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Raf

1.2 Jacksons Adults (Frank, Patty, Lucille)
0.0.6 Jackson's baby
1.1 Nosy Be's (Mars and Roja)
0.1 Adult Sulcatta (POOPIE,I bought it from Victor at Kobey's in SD)
0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
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1.2 Red ear slider babies (Hingis, Dingis and Dorkus)
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0.0.1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle - No Name Yet
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0.1 Black Lab (Krissy)
0.1 English Bulldog (Alice)
0.1 Blue Merle Great Dane (Wednesday)
Saltwater Fish and Inverts too