Help Me Out Please

[StrawberryShort]

i think my jacksons female might be pregnant. shes getting fat and round. i noticed the male gets fat under himself but shes getting fat all around. I have picture. If some one wants to help me out I can send some pictures so you can let me know what you think. I have them in a huge cage. the cage is 6ft tall and 2ft wide and 2ft deep. I also have a smaller cage just in case she is pregnant. and i have another smaller cage for the babies if she decides to have any. Anyways plz help me out. Thanks.

[labomb2]

how long have you had them? I am surprised they live peaceably together even in that size cage.

[StrawberryShort]

ive had the female for about 2 months and the male for about 2 weeks. the thing is when i got the female the pet store had this small room all for themselves in their and it was set up like an oasis. there were different kinds of chameleons and there male jacksons in there also. she might have gotten pregnant when she was there but im not sure. they dont bother each other. the female likes to stay at the top of the cage and the male likes to stay in the middle. the male loves to roam around but the female doesnt. Im not sure why that is either

[kinyonga]

Here's a link to information about Jackson's chameleons. (You can look up more if you need more information.)
http://ADCHAM.com/html/taxonomy/species/chjacksonixanth.html

First of all (a little late in your case, but something you should know if you intend to get more reptiles) I recommend that you keep newly aquired reptiles in quarantine from the one(s) you already have. 6 weeks is the minimum that I would keep them in quarantine for. I always house mine in a room as far away
from my others and observe good hygene. I always look after those in quarantine AFTER I look after the ones that are not in quarantine too, so that there is less chance of spreading something to the ones not in quarantine.

Newly imported chameleons can carry parasites, viruses and bacteria. Its even compounded more when they are housed as you described because coming from different areas, they bring with them viruses, bacteria and parasites that are found
in the (wild) areas that they come from...and when housed together like you describe they can all be transmitted to the others in they are housed with. They may have picked up other different viruses, bacteria, parasites as they were
moved from place to place until they arrived at the place you bought them from too.

I also recommend keeping most chameleons in separate cages unless you can provide a space the size of a "room". In the wild, if one annoys the other, they have the option of moving to a different area...but in captivity one can only get as
far away from the other as the size of the cage allows. Some species can be kept together, but it requires expert knowledge of chameleon behavior/response indicators of stress...and some stress is almost invisible with chameleons. They are very good at hiding signs of stress in some cases as well as signs of illness until it is too late to overcome them.

Generally, Jackson's have one clutch...but sometimes they may have two clutches in a year. This is the time of year that those in Hawaii are having their babies...so its quite possible for your female to be gravid.

Based on my own experiences and on information that I have aquired from reading and personal conversations with others who have kept live-bearing chameleons, often the stress in livebearers of being moved while gravid (pregnant)
can have a bad effect on the babies being carried and some/all can be born dead or in less than great condition. IMHO it is important to make her life as stressfree as possible until she has them (if she is gravid)....so I would separate her from the
male and keep her so that she can not even see him. I would leave her alone as much as possible too. Of course, you need to observe her a little to make sure that she is okay and to feed, water her and clean the cage when needed, but
other than that, I would let her be.

She needs to be well looked after and be provided with all the nutrients that are necessary for her health and that of the babies she might be carrying. Gutloaded insects should be provided. I assume that you maintain the cage at the appropriate temperatures during the daytime and night? IMHO, a UV light should be on the cage (not placed over glass or plastic either)...although being outside in the sunlight as much as possible would be better. UV light is necessary in order that chameleons can make vitamin D3 so that they can use the calcium in their diet. Calcium is important not only for bones and development of offspring, but for muscles and other things too.

Survival rates of liveborn neonates is not always good either...especially on newly imported chameleons...but it has been achieved by some and with more experience it seems that there are more survivals lately. There is still lots to learn.

Hope this has helped! Hope I didn't scare you too much. Chameleons are not one of the easy lizards to keep in captivity successfully.
Good luck with them!

[StrawberryShort]

thanks so much this helped out alot. i do believe she is pregant and im get getting her cage set up now. it was the cage i first had her in when i got her. but i got the two from the same pet store and they were fine in there and they had a small room that was about 9ft x 4ft it was like a closet almost and they have all these snakes, chameleons iguanas, frogs and stuff put in there together and they all got along and everything so i dunno but i do think she might defnitly be pregnant. so hopefully by the end of the year she should have some babies. I just hope i dont put her in the cage by herself for that entire time and then nothing happens :-/ NE ways thanx for the help