Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been researching for a long time on jackson chameleons and i plan to get one in a couple of months. I also want to breed them but some websites say that they must be kept alone. So that i don't have to spend twice as much on two setups i was wondering if it is really that for me to keep a male and female together with a large cage. any personal experiences with them and tips or good caresheets are all recomended. What is a good breeder of them out there and are there any interesting morphs.

I would say no to having two Jax in one cage, unless you have an absolutely enormous enclosure. (we're talking greenhouse size) Jaxx are VERY territorial and generally dont thrive if they have any contact with each other, in my experience.

Someone will probably come along and correct me though, and if they do, they do, no biggie.

There arent any unusual jaxx morphs, theyre basically green for males and olive for females. The speices hasnt really been worked with that much in captivity to my knowledge. But, why would you want weird morphs when theyre beautiful and unusual enough as it is?

Also, what specifically made you want a Jaxx? Theyre not ideal first chams, they have some pretty sensitive requirements and they dont take to handling well at all. I'm not lecturing you, im just curious. If you want a cham that will stand up to a little handling, get a Panther or a Veil. If you want a cham that just looks really cool and is happy in his cage being looked at, then go ahead and get a Jaxx.

Hope that helps a little, just my $.02.
Jamie
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Jamie A. Stine and the Gang:

1.1 Jacksons Chamelions (Ratchet & Clank)
1.1 Bearded Dragons (Lancelot & Guenivere)
1.1 Giant Frog Eyed Geckos (Peanut Butter & Jelly)
0.1 Borneo Short Tailed Python (Ezmerelda)
0.1 Red Tailed Boa (Buffy)
1.0 Short Tailed O'possum
1.0 Greyhound (Hank)

Save a life, adopt a retired racer!

are you sure they are that territorial because today I was in the pet store and they had two males in one cage and they were not terrirtorial or fighting at all. what size cage are your jacksons in. is it okay to switch between back and forth between uv lights

Pet shops comonly place them together in cages. Pet Stores also have some horror stories that I have read on this forum as they don't always know how to house and care for chams. Chams take a tremendous amount of work and need a very specialized level of care.

I tried to keep my two baby Chams together as I thought it would be fine. I had heard they could co-exist until they were six months old. That wasn't even close. My two couldn't stand each other from day one and they were only two months old and smaller than your pinky! They would hiss, open their mouths at one another, not eat, etc. It was brutal in there...

So, as it turns out, everyone on this forum was right: they said that Chams cannot co-exist together, regardless of sex. Chams are solitary creatures that are very territorial. The presense of another chameleon (even just within eyesight) is enough to stress them out making them ---and you---miserable.

I did the right thing, so at about age 2 1/2 months, I moved my chams into separate cages and they couldn't be happier. Both are happy, healthy, and well-adjusted. They are completely different animals since they were separated and I know I did the right thing.
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4 Month Old Ambanja Male I - LESTER
4 Month Old Ambanja Male II - SHOGO

I agree 100% that new cham owners should never house two chameleons together no matter what the ages, sexes or species are. Although, I have housed plenty of females together without any noticeable effect on life span, breeding, eating or anything else. I also have all my cages siting one right next to another and there is no visual barrier between them and none is needed. Chameleons are smart enough to know there boundries and territory. I can hold one of my males directly in front of another of my male's enclosures with absolutely no reaction from either animal, but when the cage door is opened they both fire up. But I would never house a pair or two males in the same cage for any length of time.
Paul

Please don't misunderstand. The purpose of our advice is for the well-being of the animals. The theory of seperating animals is simple:

Chameleons are very territorial.
Chameleons will either intimidate other chameleons to leave their territory or they, themselves, will flee to another territory.
In a cage, they cannot flee one another and will come across one another pretty frequently.
Just because you put two chams together doesn't mean that it is instant battle, but over time, you can really hurt the cham by exposing it to combatant stress.
The goal is to let these guys live in happiness and be healthy. The less chances you take, the better your odds for keeping your chams from ending up on the bottom of the cage.

Pet stores package chameleons to be sold. They do not intend on keeping the animals on the shelf. By no means is this the "correct" way to keep chams. I'm sure many of us (who have been doing this awhile) have rescued chams from pet stores over the years.

well there are some corrections sorry:

-interesting morphs well there is the normal green with weither a powder blue tail or a yellow shoulder usually depending on the subspecies you get....also there is the mt. meru subspecies witch is smaller and loads mor colors full only it have greeens blues yellows and somtimes oranges.
those are the subspecie the real morph is the red phase...most commonly expressed in females where the uniform green ifof a female is replaced with uniform red....when stressed they get blacks and rusty brown.

males are usually green with the back spikes beining red and they get some red when stressed.

TAMING
jaxs are usually afriad to bite a human...unlike veileds and pathers...jaxs usually will show calm colors when being held if they get used to it...wiether that means they like it or not is a differnet story.

2 per cage.

these has been done with 2 females or 1 male and 1 female.
everytime i hear about this the keeper has them in a 100,175, or a 260 gallon reptarium...they give each cham a ficus tree and then weave lots of branchs and vines in the cage...the cage usually has lots of plants and each cham has a backins blub over its tree with a uvb tub placed between the bulbs

diagram of bulbs:
O-O the O 's are the heat bulbs the - is the uvb

pairs in a cage tend to live a shorter life then ones in thre own cage usually due to the stress of seeing an other cham every day or from finding a male that wants to breed every day (LOL)

There is a chameleon breeder in Florida that I got a male Jackson's from that has a red female. You can go to his web site at http://www.geocities.com/CHAMSRUS2003/ and click on "for sale" to see it.

The truth is, there is no One Answer to a question. Each chameleon has its own personality, and i think you should evaluate whether two chameleons have compatible personalities to be housed together. Although generally, males don't do well toghter, Females housed together tend to be okay . but even so, you have to check out their personalities. Personally, i have tried to housed a couple of panthers together, some didin't work out at all. One female would be constantly puffed up and staring at the other female, while the other won't stop hissing and gaping. But when i tried putting another female in place of the aforementioned hissing girl, both got along fine. Even to the extend whene one can just walk past the other within centimeters of each other, and they don't seem to mine at all. But cases like that are extremely rare. I have even heard of female panthers sleeping side by side. Getting one cage would save you money, but you can't go worng in geting two cages. Good luck in making your decision!