info needed

[Stevo26]

i had a jackson chameleon for about 3months. i bought him from a petstore where he was really stressing they had him in a glass tank. the owner didn't know anyhting about it, age or whether it was wild caught or captive breed. at first he claimed it was wild and they made better/ healthier pets. when he saw i wasn't going for that he decided it must be captive breed because it seemed tame. i knew very little about jacksons, but bought it because i was concerned for it. i put him in a screened enclosure with waterfall and vines/greenery, plenty of misting. he seemed happier and did well for a few weeks. i read books about him and tried to give him all he needed. but then he stopped eating. i hoped and prayed he would pick up on eating again, he seemed fine otherwise and was drinking water. the day before he died he was moving slow and i had a gut feeling he was not going to make it. he died during the night. i had him maybe 3 months total. since then i have seen other chameleons and realize my guy probably had problems from the start, he was always skinny. but it still hurts that i lost him. i really loved the little booger.

anyways i would like to consider another chameleon someday but was wondering are they all so hard to keep in captivity? i have read that jacksons usually don't live 6 months after coming from a petstore. how about from a breeder? how long has anyone here kept one? and what kind are better?

[Manitoban Herps]

Look on a search engine about veiled chameleons, beautiful but not handleable.

Sorry about your Jackson, I admire you for trying to help

[galad]

yea i really dont think it was the best thing to do. As you said yourself you knew very little about jacksons when you bought it.
Chameleons are not something you should buy on impulse no matter what. Not only did you waste your money but now you have a pet shop beleaving they can sell these animals. It would have been better to let him die in the shop where they can loose money and stop selling them. As bad as it sounds it the truth.
DOnt be surprised they start bringing in more chameleons. And I would never support someone who was trying to scam me like that in the first place. Telling you oh its wc then oh no its cb he/she obviously didnt know what they were talking about.

I know i sound horrible but i really do think its the best thing to do. I hope you didnt buy the supllies form the same store.
I know there are people out there who agree with me.
If you ever want to save a reptile make sure you have lots of money for the vet and most importantly have the time and knowledge to take care of it.

most jacksons dont live six months coming out of a pet shop becasue they do not care who buys them. It doesnt matter if you know how to properly care for them or not it only matters if you have the money. Never buy from pet shops if it can be avoided. Some are good but i have experience that most dont really care.
Obviously you take it home stick it in a tank like other reptiles and it will be dead in six months, also there are lots of wc jacksons that come in full of parasites. and take lots of money in vet bills to get back up to snuff if they ever do. ANd from the loks of it it almost looks like a jacksons sub species from mount meru which are harder to keep them the regular jacksons. ANyone else see that. Im just going by how small he is and how long the horns are.

But a captive bred jacksons from a reputable breeder would be an excelent choice, most live form 4 to six years in captivity I beleave. Other good choices are veilds or panthers. they can be a bit pissy but are awsome pets i beleave like most others that chameleons should be kept along the lines of fish look but dont touch. I would try and avoid females unless breeding as complications with egg binding can occur. This is when she produces infertile eggs that tehy are unable to pass. Eventually they produce so many the suffocate from the inside quite a horrible death.


good luck in the future

ws

[Stevo26]

I never said i didn't know ANYTHING about jacksons, what i did say was that the owner didn't know anything about THIS jackson, and i knew little(which is misleading because i knew enough about what kind of habitat and care it needed, i just hadn't had one before) i believe i gave it the optimum care for a jackson. and no it was not a waste of money, i really enjoyed him while i had him and he lived the last few months of his life seemingly happy and well cared for. as for the petstore owner, he knew his mistake and has not had any more chameleons. i agree that we shouldn't buy from petstores, but i couldn't sleep at night with the image of this poor guy stressing out in the small glass enclosure they had him in. otherwise i am not an impulse buyer. i did not ask for advice on whether or not i should have bought it.

[DragnDrop]

No cham species is really 'easy' to keep in captivity, but only a few are downright difficult to accomodate. The typical indoor environment in our homes doesn't cut it with chams, you have to work at making their micro habitat suitable. The closer their needs are to the typical temps and humidity in your home, the easier it will be for you to keep it right for the cham. A small change is easier to do than a major one, and since it's less work and challenge to you, you're less likely to throw in the towel and will enjoy the cham(s) more.
The best thing to do is read up on which species need conditions close to what your house is normally, or conditions you can create easily enough. Those species would probably be the best to go with. In my case, I had no problems with Jacksons, the room they were in during winter was cool enough over night, adding heat was no problem, and the humidity was easy to achieve too. But when I tried keeping panthers in the same room, it was a pain to keep conditions right, so they went into a different room on another floor.
Chams are great pets, though very challenging sometimes, and very addicting too if you're not fighting the environment like a mad fool to keep it right.

[peterm15]

hay steve im sure galad didnt mean anything by it... it honestly did sound like an impulse buy and it did sould like you knew nothing about chams...

but on another note... sorry for your loss, and im sure youll find which cham suits your needs and the enclosure... good luck