A nice Story for upcoming Chameleon Trainers

Dominik H.

New Member
Hey Guys,

This is my first post here so please leave your thoughts about it :D
Rango lives with me sinde 3 Months now. He is a veiled chameleon and is abot 5 months old.
He was always very easy scared but never aggressive towards me. Sometimes i was allowed to touch or hold him, and sometimes i wasnt.
I am very slow and gentle with him, he is doing great with eating, drinking and walking around.
I always knew that chams are very easily stressed so i gave him all the time he needed to get comfortable with me.
So this is the story how Rango started to love me from one to the next:

I got a lamp cage for him because he slowly reaches the age and size where he could reach his lamp and i obviously dont want him to bun himself.
So i always thought about trying to get him out of the cage when it arrives and set him into our huge Benjamins fig to not stress him while i was working in the cage and so he could see another spot than his enclosure.
So the day the lamp arrived, i got him out of the cage and he didnt even panic as i started to move him away from his cage. I thought "this is the moment you waited for!!!"
I set him into the new plant and went to work on the cage.

Of course he didnt want to get out of it anymore so trying to get him out i stressed him a little and then left him alone.
I would never just grab him or anything, even if he is my first chameleon i already worked a lot with them and its just sooooo stressful for the.
So i waited to the night and the i just cut off the small branch he was sleeping on and he didnt even notice.

Because of all the stress he had because of me, i thought i did more damage in trusting me than actually training him to associate my hand as a tool to get to cool spots. Because thats how it works, right? :p
BUT the next day, as soon as he heard my voice coming down the stairs and greeting him, he nearly ran up to the cage door and literally like "SCRATCHED" on it.
I could not believe my eyes as i opened the cage and he went staight on my hand and looked at me, saying: "hey new buddy, wanna bring me to a nice spot in this big world?"
So i obviously didnt set him into a plant again because it was so much stress for both of us!
I just sat him on my bed and watched him climg over my sheets and my pillows. I was so happy!!!

That was yesterday, so when i came home from work today he did the same again. He really built trust to me because of one little move i did, its unbelievable.
I knew it would be a good way to make him trust me but i thought ihad to do it over and over again. I feel like i showed him that there is a world outside of his Enclosure and that he can explore it if he wants.

I hope you enjoyed my little situation as much as i do right now.
Obviously this trust was a lot of work from the start.
I started handfeeding him slowly and after he was comfortable with my hand in the cage, I started slowly and mildly touching him at some spots when i felt like he is ok with it.
I would say it was a big factor but i can just ell you guys:

Try it!

Maybe will work, maybe not but i am so happy right now and from this point i can continue training him.
I hope you guys had fun reading, if you have any questions, you know where to put them :p
 
Hi Dominik H. Welcome to the forums. :)
It’s great that you’ve built up trust with your cham. Sometimes that’s one of the hardest parts of keeping one.
Might I suggest that you fill out the help form and have your husbandry reviewed as Kinyonga suggested. With so much misinformation about chams out there, forum members could review and make sure all is correct for your little guy.
 
I cant resist.

You chameleon does not love you. But I'm glad he doesn't feel threatened by you. Welcome to the forums, a place for cham keepers with diverse opinions.

Hi Brodyreaux25 :D
With my story i didnt want to say that he loves me and i hope i didnt accidentally write that at some point.
It should just show the way, Rango changed behaving towards me and i would never speak of love, just of the first form of trust.
 
Hi Brodyreaux25 :D
With my story i didnt want to say that he loves me and i hope i didnt accidentally write that at some point.
It should just show the way, Rango changed behaving towards me and i would never speak of love, just of the first form of trust.
Yeah you said love, as long as you know and understand that they are not capable of such a thing we’re good. I catch hell pretty much every time one of these threads come along but I’m sticking to my guns...

it’s nothing against you specificities, just trying to correct all the BS myths about chams on the net.....
 
Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you are very patient and thoughtful with Rango!
If you want to answer the questions in the how to ask for help thread near the top of the health forum we can check out your husbandry to see if it's alright.

Thank you kinyonga! :)
I read posts in this forum since a while but i never noticed this.
I will answer the questions when i am at home and have some time! :D
 
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Yeah you said love, as long as you know and understand that they are not capable of such a thing we’re good. I catch hell pretty much every time one of these threads come along but I’m sticking to my guns...

it’s nothing against you specificities, just trying to correct all the BS myths about chams on the net.....

Oh yes i just found it now :)
I am from germany so sometimes i confuse a few words, my english is by far not perfect as you maybe will notice while reading my texts :p
But thanks for telling me and posting your opinion, its just the right thing to clarify misunderstandings.
 
Yeah you said love, as long as you know and understand that they are not capable of such a thing we’re good. I catch hell pretty much every time one of these threads come along but I’m sticking to my guns...

it’s nothing against you specificities, just trying to correct all the BS myths about chams on the net.....

How do you explain all the love bites that Chameleo Estevez gives me then? He loves me so much that he breaks the skin sometimes.
 
Guys.... How did the subject of this post change its topic SO QUICKLY?!?!?! o_o
The video is disgusting, of course it shows that you shouldnt keep them together but pleeease dont post that under posts that are not related to this context at all...
 
Sry. Back on topic.

A lot of the time when a chameleon wants out of their terrarium it means there is something wrong with it and they are looking for better territory.

Not saying this is the case. He may just enjoy exploring the free range tree.


I also noticed you said you got him a lamp cage? Is his light inside the cage?

When you have time can you post a picture of your terrarium lights and all.
 
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