Hi all!

I have a pygmy cham for about a year now and he's 2 years old (give or take a few months). Since I got him I only handled him maybe 5, 6 times, he's very shy and starts vibrating when a touch him, so I leave him alone. I watch him a lot, seen him eat a few times, but that's it.

Browsing through this forum I see lots of people with their cham on the shoulders, hands, hand feeding them,...
Long story short, should I interact more with my cham? Would that make him more sociable (even if he doesn't like it at first)? Any chances of teaching him to eat from my hand in the long run?

Thanks!

My cham started climbing on me and eating out of my hands totally by surprise. He's still somewhat cranky and standoffish, but he associates me with food and water now so he just waits for me to open his cage. He has never bitten me but he generally puffs himself up at me. There's really no way to get them used to handling or interaction, either they'll do it or they won't, and even when they do it can still stress them out. There is a trick to hand feeding if you want to do that, you have to get behind the food, picture holding a bug directly in front of your face, so they concentrate on the food instead of on your body or eyes. Even using this trick, it may or may not work. Pygmy chams may be even more secretive and solitary, but my only experience is with a panther chameleon. If it doesn't work, don't be discouraged. They're sort of like fish in that it's better to look than to touch.

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Christen
1.0 Ambilobe/Ambanja cross

Your the one who knows your cham the best. If your going to try to socialize your cham make sure that not stressing them out is your higher priority.

There are several ways to make your cham more social. Hand feeding is definatly a big one. Do you take yours out for cage cleanings or sun bathing?
You can try to make your presense in the cage a more normal event, just make sure that your don't stress em out and that you do it very slowly and casually. Remeber it just may never happen.

I have had a ton of success in socializing my cham, and I plan on creating a post giving more detailed information on it before too long.

Be careful...these chameleons can play dead very convincingly when frightened or startled. IMHO its best not to handle them.

yea, I have heard storys about them fiegning death, being thrown away, and then crawling out of the trash can.

omg.....lol

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1.1 Ambilobe,1.0 Ambanja,1.0 Nosy Be,1.0 Sambava,0.1 Veiled

I'm very interested in reading this. My cham has become very anti-social as of late, and I'd like to make him a little more Civil with me.

I have an ultra aggresive cham, he always snaps and bites at me when cleaning etc.. he is a captive bred veilded but his instincts always impress me. These animals are not fully intergrated to us yet a few more generations are needed, the fun is all in the watching, feeding and making them feel as at home as possible.

My pygmy not only fears me, but he also ignores when I put food in the enclosure... I've only seen him eat 4 or 5 times and actively hunt a couple of times (one of the times because there was a delay in shipment and he was REALLY hungry when I put those crickets in), I waved at him some waxworms and he just stares at my hand thinking "what the hell does this guy want?? I better get the hell outta here!!"... I know he eats because he looks healthy, but thats about the only proof I have. I tried gently grabbing him and putting him near a small cup with a few crickets and the minute he touched the ground he completely ignored the crix and made a run into the wild, away from me!

Damn little bugger!! Ohh... how I envy those guys that put videos on youtube feeding their chams...

My Yemen, unlike the many I have read about, is so friendly. he has never attempted to bite or hiss at me and is always very keen to climb on me as soon as I open his viv.