Veiled vs Panther - Few Questions!

I am still in the market for a cham, I have been reading and researching for about 3 months and I feel I am ready to take the step and purchase my cham.

I am an experienced herp owner, but new to chameleons. My roomate has 3 of them, so he will be there to help me as needed.

I am torn between a veiled and a panther.

I was told panthers are harder to take care of, but are much less agessive, is that true?

I want a chameleon I can take out and let him sit with me on the couch and bring him out to the living room, not hiss and whine at me when I get near his cage.

Can you train a veiled to do this? What if I took him out every day so he got used to it? Has anyone tried this?

Also, do Panthers get any larger than veileds?

The care is similar for both.
Veileds are a bit hardier in that temperature and humidity fluctuations are more easily tolerated.
There are aggressive individuals in both species.
I do not advocate any excessive handling of chameleons.

-Brad

Brad Ramsey said:

The care is similar for both.
Veileds are a bit hardier in that temperature and humidity fluctuations are more easily tolerated.
There are aggressive individuals in both species.
I do not advocate any excessive handling of chameleons.

-Brad

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What is wrong with handling your chameleon? I live in AZ, so the humidity is typically low (25%).

My Cham which is a European Chameleon likes to be handled but like Brad said it is sometimes not recoomended due to stress related issues. Mine hisses when other people look at her but she doesnt try eating your hand off if you attempt to pick her up. You never want to force a Chameleon to be held, if they want to be held they will come to you if not LET THEM BE!!

While you should not handle any chameleon excessivly, some like it but most don't. The panther adults are generally a little smaller than the veiled. I personally don't think veiled's are all that agressive. I think it's more of a territorial thing with their cage. Whenever I do have to get mine out, he hisses, lunges(sic), spits, puffs up and head butts me repeatedly. However, outside his cage he's very gently and never even opens his mouth. I think that's the response you'll get from alot of veiled owners. He wasn't always like this though, he went through a several month period of retained sheds which required me to handle him daily. I don't know if this is what mellowed him or just becoming used to me. I want to congradulate you on doing 3 month's research before purchasing him. These threads are full of impulse buyers who were no where ready to own one. Many of these didn't make it. Your still going to run into problems and questions no matter how much research you've done, but your a step ahead of alot of them. Keep us posted and ask away. David

I think I may just get a veiled in that case, I will try to tame him but if I see he doesnt like it at all ill just let him be.

My roomates chams sit with us on the couch at night, they crawl around, but usually just sit on his shoulder or hand.

m1ndless said:

I am still in the market for a cham, I have been reading and researching for about 3 months and I feel I am ready to take the step and purchase my cham.

I am an experienced herp owner, but new to chameleons. My roomate has 3 of them, so he will be there to help me as needed.

I am torn between a veiled and a panther.

I was told panthers are harder to take care of, but are much less agessive, is that true?

I want a chameleon I can take out and let him sit with me on the couch and bring him out to the living room, not hiss and whine at me when I get near his cage.

Can you train a veiled to do this? What if I took him out every day so he got used to it? Has anyone tried this?

Also, do Panthers get any larger than veileds?

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Even the meanest veiled I've seen doesn't go crazy when you get near the cage, it's when you get your hand too close and they know you're trying to pick them up. (It's not like iguanas that have that glare in their eye like they're ready and looking forward to hurting you.) I have a male veiled that grabs food out of my hand when I open his cage (he's about 4 inches away and uses his tongue to grab of course) but get's pretty angry when he sees that hand coming from above --and without a cricket! Panthers are much less aggressive on average but as a first time owner a slightly mean living veiled is better than a dead panther.

Its not even close between Panthers and Veiled temperment.
90% of my male panthers will climb out on my hand from their cage.
Not one of the Veiled chameleons I have had ever came close.
They are both beautiful but temperment wise,Panthers are the winner.

Chuck G said:

Its not even close between Panthers and Veiled temperment.
90% of my male panthers will climb out on my hand from their cage.
Not one of the Veiled chameleons I have had ever came close.
They are both beautiful but temperment wise,Panthers are the winner.

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Ditto on everything you said. The female veileds aren't as mean, but I've found that they have a grip that can make you almost cry because their feet are so strong.

I think male panthers win on temperment and tolerate handling better. I've said it here before, but while it may be true that a Veiled is hardier than a Panther, if you are going to rely on that safety factor "cushion", you shouldn't get either.

Steve

Not to be mean, but if you want something to come sit on the couch with you, they should enjoy it as much as you do! That sounds like a dog! You are not going to train a Veiled to do anything. Now, all that said, I have a HUGE male Veiled that when you open his cage he walks right out on your arm, never hisses or gapes, has certainly never bitten. We take him to his outside tree or even let him walk around the living room (we know he is searching for his girl friend). But this is not an everyday thing by any means, and the chance you will find a chameleon esp. a Veiled like this would be rare. We did not train him to be like this. We got him at 2 months, left him alone except for feeding and watering, and he made the decision that we were not a threat on his own. At 4 months he was never a problem to handle. He is a year old and still as mellow as can be.

I had one veiled male that would race down the branches to lunge at me to bite (it was no fake) through the cage door. He never calmed down....always "fun" to clean his cage or even to put the food in the cage.

I have had others that would quite willingly come out on my hand.

Guess which one was the best breeder??!!

I have had female veileds that were very "mean" and others that would wait for me to move them to the egglaying chamber (the time that I find female veileds to be the grumpiest) and never made a motion for me.

With panthers, most of my females have been grumpier by far than the males.

They are just like people and other creatures....they all have different "personalities".

Different strokes for different folks.

kinyonga said:

They are just like people and other creatures....they all have different "personalities".

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Amen

I have two male veileds. They are both different. Although... I must say, getting either one out of their cage is challenging. The other day I tricked Jake out by making him chase one hand while he ran out onto my other hand. Once away from the cage he would try and run back... almost falling a couple of times. He is quick to catch himself. He calmed down after a couple of minutes and allowed me to take a couple of pictures.



I haven't taken Fred out of his cage in almost a month. We shall see how he reacts when I have to move him to his new cage.

m1ndless said:

I think I may just get a veiled in that case, I will try to tame him but if I see he doesnt like it at all ill just let him be.

My roomates chams sit with us on the couch at night, they crawl around, but usually just sit on his shoulder or hand.

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If you do get a veiled, a member on this forum JimnPhx and also a phoenix resident is selling two of his veileds
http://phoenix.craigslist.org/pet/526211736.html

depends on teh veiled

I may have just gotten lucky, but my veiled from day one figured out that i'm not a threat to him at all. I'm not going to say that he jumps for joy at any chance he gets to have me hold him, but he tolerates it very well. There was only one time that he ever hissed at me and that was when i was in the way of a silkworm he wanted to eat. Other than that he tolerates being handled very well. Also, i found that males and females are pretty much equally territorial. They simply do not like having their space invaded. Elijah (my male veiled) will tolerate it because i handled him everyday for at least five minutes.

As for sitting on the couch with your chame i would suggest putting a 6' fake tree next to your couch and let him hang out on there. He would feel much more secure in a tree and he won't mind to hang out on there for hours at a time. Elijah once again is the only exception i have to this rule because he is perfectly happy anywhere he is as long as he's above my eye level.

I would say that panthers and veileds are both equally as cool. Just depends on the owner, i have both a panther and two veileds and i love them both. They are very fun to own and take care of!

SuperRad said:

If you do get a veiled, a member on this forum JimnPhx and also a phoenix resident is selling two of his veileds
http://phoenix.craigslist.org/pet/526211736.html

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I would rather buy them at 3 months old, thanks though.