The Taming of the Chameleon

Psychobunny

Avid Member
“Come and play with me,” he says to the fox.
“I cannot play with you,” the fox replies. “I am not tamed.”
“What does that mean – to tame?”
“It means to establish ties. To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you.
And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other.
To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world…please, tame me!”
“I want to, very much,” the Little Prince replied, “but I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand.”
“One only understands the things that one tames,” the fox said.



The Taming of the Chameleons:

I have been asked my methods for taming my chams and thought I would just post it on the forum.
First of all, when I say "tame" I mean simply getting your cham to the point where they don’t run and hide upon your approach. Don’t assume they will necessarily love to snuggle with you ;)

I use the same method for taming parrots; patience, respect, and more patients. Give them their private space, as you would a person, you will learn, through observation, when it's okay to intrude into their space.
Always pay careful attention to your chams behavior and body language, esp. when approaching him/her.


My new chameleon:

I will start from the very beginning; you have your new little friend in a box the FedEx driver just handed you. You want to resist the temptation of ripping the box open and yanking the cham out like a Beanie Baby.
Lower the lights, and carefully and slowly open the box, remove the packing, and gently place the deli cup containing your little guy or girl in the new home which you have already prepared and heated up in advance. Remove the lid and see the frightened face of your new friend for the first time, looking up at you.
Now, just walk away and let him come out of the deli cup and explore undisturbed. Remember, he/she has been through a very frightening ordeal in that dark box. You may want to even cover the cage loosely with a bed sheet for added privacy. If your cham knows he is being watched, he will simply find a good hiding place and freeze there.
You don’t want him to do that, you want him to explore freely without worries, so covering the cage will help with that.
Be sure to keep other pets and kids away from your new cham’s home. How your cham initially reacts to you depends on how he was treated previously, and how bad is ‘trip in the dark box’ was.
He may take food from you right away, but likely not. It doesn’t hurt to offer it to him anyway. Just get a small cricket and hold it between your fingers and slowly hold it in front of your cham.
If he stares at it from a safe few inches away (you don’t want to invade his “comfort zone”) without backing away, that’s a good sign. You may have to hold your hand very still while that tiny cham brain analyzes the situation. Holding dead still is something you are going to do a lot of, so get used to it.
Don’t freak out if your cham does not eat for a few days, this is a normal reaction to unfamiliar environment and your cham needs time to fully assess any potential threats from predators.
Your cham may not take food for a few days, so just keep him/her covered and private.

Dinner time:

In my opinion, the best way to start feeding your new cham is to let them hunt the pray.
This gives them some activity, and familiarizes them with the geography of their home.
Just dust a dozen or so cricket nymphs (not adults) and release them on the vines or screen side walls of the cage. You want to keep them climbing, not falling on the floor where they will die.
If your cham consistently stays in open view and does not slowly slink away to find a hiding place when you approach and open the cage door, you are already 1/3 of the way to taming.

Getting to know you:

After 2 days of keeping your new cham’s cage covered, you should now be able to remove it and only use it at night, which is VERY important that he/she gets a good night’s sleep with lots of nice jungle dark.
At about the same time every day, attempt to hand feed your little guy/gal. Open the cage slowly and hold the food item between your fingers or in the palm of your hand (chams often mistake fingers for food). Watch your chams reaction very carefully. If your cham is not retreating from you, hold the prey about 8’’ from him, making sure his eyes are fixed on the prey, and not at you.
If he sees the prey, but is more interested in keeping his eyes fixed on you, or if he seems to be “frozen” like a rabbit in a headlight, give up and try again later. It’s important to know how far you can go each time, the object here is to earn your cham’s trust, this may not come easy.
Do this routine every day, trying to get a little closer each time, and each time pulling out at the first sign of fear.
Remember, move slowly, hold the food item as still as possible, and do this at the same time every day and eventually (patience needed here, may take days, weeks, or even longer!!) , your cham will snap it right out of your hand. It should not be necessary to “starve” your cham to force a stubborn cham to eat out of your, but a day without food will not hurt him, and use food items that you already know your cham likes.
Hand feeding is used for bonding and taming purpose only, not intended as primary feeding. A few food items per day hand fed, and the rest put into feeder cups, or allowed to roam for your cham to hunt.
Once your cham is eating from your hand every day, and not wanting to hide from you, we can go to the next step.

Free ranging:

Okay, so now your cham is taking food from your hand, great! Don’t think this means it’s time to get him to climb on your hand, though he may be willing to climb on you without baiting at this point, but more likely not.
For that, we need to get him out of his guarded territory and out of the cage without causing him any undue stress.
Several ways to do this, but my favorite is to buy a bendy ¼’’ vine, ZooMed and Flukers (and others) make them.
Secure one end of the vine to one of the upper branches of your chams cage, and the other end to a large fake tree or a climbable free range area a few feet away from the cage (yes, the cage door will still shut, but it’s tight!).
Now, just open the cage door and step back and wait for him to find his way out.
They may be reluctant and insecure to leave their territory, but they will eventually venture out. So, this may take several attempts.
Once your cham is out, and seems to feel comfortable outside his home, you can do the hand feeding again, just like you did before, but now you can get a little closer. You don’t want to move to fast, or in a hurry, but you want your cham to touch/smell your finger when offering the food.
Develop a daily routine; let your cham out the same way, every day, do not change the position of anything he uses to climb on. Make sure you gently touch his nose or head every day and flatten your hand with a worm in your palm so he has to climb on your fingers to get it. Remember, hold very still, and no jerky or sudden movement.
Do this as often as possible. You should work with you cham everyday for at least 15 minutes, even if it’s only to open his cage, hand feeding, and getting close to him.
Never over-do it, once your cham does climb into your hand, that doesn’t mean he is tame yet. Always let him “lead the way” in your relationship, always give him a “way out”, never push, corner, hover or grab.
You will find that your cham will not go back to his cage after free ranging. This is where you will most likely be able to handle and pick him up, esp if they have been without a heat source a several hours.
Flatten your hand directly in from of him (he must be able to see your hand) and gently nudge it under him so he grasps it, one foot at a time. You can use your other hand to gently guide him forward.
Once on your hand, slowly escort him home. Do not get him close to your face as this may scare him and he may jump off of you.

Finally:

Use this as a guide, you will find things that work better for you and your unique animal, but stick with it, every day.
Most animals will respond in a positive way to love and kindness, don’t be discouraged by the slow process, keep in mind, you are attempting to do something some experts say can’t be done, and most people would never even attempt: taming a wild animal.
 
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No, that's just the sound of a ton of lightbulbs lighting over peoples' heads. Very well written and informative - you did a fantastic job and hopefully a lot of keepers on here take this to heart! :D
 
This is a fantastic post!! Very thoroughly and nicely written, made me smile more than once, because I remembered my own ventures in that area :) I think a lot of people will find this useful.

I intuitively came to using pretty much the same approach as described and I can confirm that it works!
I got my veiled cham from a friend, who never managed to tame him. Olfert (that's the chams name) would just do the "hide flat behind the stick" thing or otherwise act really mean, hiss and snap. But after a year of a loooot of patience I have this dude running to me to take food from my hands and even riding my shoulder sometimes :)
 
Thank you for the nice comments :)

I guess you can tell I am not one of those ppl who think chams are "un-tameable" and should be left to sit in a cage for our decoration pleasure :D

You may not always have a cham that will be friendly, but at least he/she can get to the point where you can feed them and work around them w/o getting hissed at or bitten!!

If they still have an attitude after all your hard work, it's not because they are affraid of you, it's because they REALLY DO have an attiude!! LOL
 
Awsome!! What a great post Im sure this will help others learn the ways of the cham charmer :)
Maybe consider making it a blog :)
 
awesome info, i think all first time cham owners would benefit from reading this! its rewarding and wonderful to have these beautiful creatures trust you and feed from your hand. (at least it was for me). i after lots of patience was able to accomplish this trust and would after misting his cage remove the top of my spray bottle and have him drink right outta the bottle while resting on my other hand sometimes! anywho great info
 
Awsome!! What a great post Im sure this will help others learn the ways of the cham charmer :)
Maybe consider making it a blog :)

Thank you Hoj :)
That sounds like a good idea! how do I start a blog? Do I have to cut and past this post into it?! Sorry, dont know this kind of stuff :eek:
 
Awesome post! I LOVE the portion at the beginning with the fox...made me smile!

As I was reading this, I too thought "this should be a blog"...we are forever telling new cham owners to 'leave your cham alone for the first few days...give him/her some peace and quiet in order to get used to new surroundings". It would be a great thing to be able to direct a newbie to this (as a) blog post!

Great job Psychobunny...now, can you come tame my 4 year old son? :D
 
Great job Psychobunny...now, can you come tame my 4 year old son? :D[/QUOTE]

Ha dat definitely made me laugh there's a 3 year old daughter in my house and she's the wildest thing I've came across

As for the taming post very informative ill start trying that straight away I suspect its going to take a long time with Fred though.he's a 5 month old veiled I have him a week now.hes starting to.hide less when I come in now but still doesn't like when I stick my hand in. I have suspicions he wasn't handled well before I got him.when I eventually get him out of the cage will I have to pick him up against his will to put him back when he gets cold
 
Awesome post! I LOVE the portion at the beginning with the fox...made me smile!

As I was reading this, I too thought "this should be a blog"...we are forever telling new cham owners to 'leave your cham alone for the first few days...give him/her some peace and quiet in order to get used to new surroundings". It would be a great thing to be able to direct a newbie to this (as a) blog post!

Great job Psychobunny...now, can you come tame my 4 year old son? :D

LOL! The Taming of the 4 year old son is a little out of my line :)
But good luck on that one, maybe your not feeding him enough gut-loaded prey!? ;) :D
 
fantastic, informative and well written!! it may be long but it is so right in most cases.

now, do you have any ideas for if none of this works? i have a seven month old male i have had since he was 1 month old. to this day, the only time i can get anywhere near him or his cage without him freaking or running away is when he is all settled in for bed. then i can put my hand on the cage right next to him but, god forbid, if i open the door! :) he has finally eaten from the cup when i am holding it but that is about a 20 minute process. but most times even that is unsuccessful. i've come to the conclusion he is a meanie and best just left alone which would be great if he didn't have shedding issues which means i have to catch him and clean the strangling shed off his toes on both front feet. i think he would rather lose the toes!
 
LOL! thanks. I havent encountered a really mean bad-to-the-bone cham yet :eek: hope I never do, I want to keep all the digits I was born with :D

Is this guy in a area of your home where he sees you move about every day?

Sometimes, just seeing you go about your business every day will get them at least to the point where they no longer think your a threat (as long as you dont invade their territory).

I would put him where you spend most of your time, near your PC, kitchen :)D) etc.

I would also cover him up at night like a bird cage. It gives them some added security. I have noticed my guys will sometimes wait until they see me coming with their cage cover before queing up to their favorite sleeping spot (if they have one that is!!)
 
I saved this in my favorites. I think this is awesome. One of my chams hates being handled (I got her from a family who used to grab her by her back to get her out of her enclosure), and these are some great tips for working with her.
 
It may be long, but its a great read! Lots of us are nodding our heads, and for the new owners some questions will be answered that you wont get from books or research on the web. I also think this would be a great blog topic. I would only suggest adding pictures next time so you will get everyone's attention :D!
 
Thank you for the information, Two months of research and hopefully by Saturday I might start the taming process...
 
Another vote to make this a blog would love to be able to easily find this as I work with my new chameleon!
 
Great info, im sure it will help a lot of people... I hand feed my veiled and also let him hunt for them as well. He still puffs up and is now starting to hiss... i hope he grows out of this meanness ...
 
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