Any help to hand feed my chameleon?

[Cacti3]

So yesterday, Spyro ( my 10-12 month old male veiled chameleon ) finally took 4 hornworms from my hand. He was hiding behind a plant, and he couldn’t see my face. Today when I tried again, he could see my face. I tried for about 10 minutes but he didn’t take it and kept just staring at me. Any tips to help him trust me more? Or so he can just take it without any type of fear?


As you can tell from this photo, he gets nervous when I open up his enclosure.

 

[Beman]

You can take a look at my blog on trust building. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/building-trust-with-your-chameleon.2396/

 

[nightanole]

"treats they dont get unless they get it from the hand" works for me. No supers for you unless you risk it all.

 

[ehdee6]

Don't get discouraged either! Most days my I can hold up a bug to my chams and they'll run to me... others they'll be like, "WHO ARE YOU?!??? What IS that? Just put it in my feeder dish, and get out of here, peasant!"... They're like people some days are better than others LOL... But starting with treats is the key, no treat unless you take it from my hand! Also, when you're cleaning their cage and have your hands all up in their space, try to offer a treat before and after. They'll associate your hand with good things, eventually.

 

[nightanole]

Don't get discouraged either! Most days my I can hold up a bug to my chams and they'll run to me... others they'll be like, "WHO ARE YOU?!??? What IS that? Just put it in my feeder dish, and get out of here, peasant!"... They're like people some days are better than others LOL... But starting with treats is the key, no treat unless you take it from my hand! Also, when you're cleaning their cage and have your hands all up in their space, try to offer a treat before and after. They'll associate your hand with good things, eventually.

In tegu land we have "the bath tub". You see tegus sometimes associate the evil hand as "food". They dont know why, but the hand always has food. Must lunge at hand because why wouldnt hand have food, why would hand want to pick us up.

So instead you put food in bath tub. Then when the evil hand appears they go "oh its the hand that picks me up and puts me in the magic tub of food".

Kinda helps when you got n00bs that want to pet the tegu, and you have a tegu that just sees a bunch of food sources heading straight for it.

Also works with chams. The evil hand also provides hand rides to their favorite house plant by window sun.

 

[MissSkittles]

I use the methods in @Beman blog still. One of the most important things I’ve found is to keep my body as far away as I can and just fully extend my hand out while not making any eye contact at all. Eventually neither of those things will matter much, as your chameleon has learned to have some trust in you. It took him about a year of adjustment, but my wild caught male veiled will now rush over to me when he sees I have a yummy silk or horn worm for him. As long as I’m respectful of his space and desire not to be touched, he’s ok with me. My veiled girl, who I’ve had for 6 years, hand is food - if no food, punish with hard bites.

 

[Cacti3]

Thanks everybody for responding, I tried again today with a hornworm but Spyro ran away from me I’ll try again tomorrow I also watch chameleon academy’s hand feeding video and I’ll also try some things he does.

 

[nightanole]

Thanks everybody for responding, I tried again today with a hornworm but Spyro ran away from me I’ll try again tomorrow I also watch chameleon academy’s hand feeding video and I’ll also try some things he does.

i have foot long tongs. could try that as a starter.

 

[Beman]

i have foot long tongs. could try that as a starter.

Until the cham hits the tongs and a horrible accident happens.

 

[nightanole]

Until the cham hits the tongs and a horrible accident happens.

Is this from beginners yonking the tongs away? I mean ive been doing it for 20 years. But i guess if you panic or drop them. Then again i learned my lesson with kids to only have them open palm feed the chams, as they do panic if the finger feed them.

 

[kinyonga]

You might like to read these…
“Hand feeding or using tongs can lead to severe tongue injuries. The primary danger arises when the insect is not released in time as the chameleon's tongue strikes it. This can cause overstretching of the retractor muscle, leading to tears and resulting in limited or lost tongue function, sometimes necessitating amputation.”…
https://www.chameleons.info/l/tongue-injuries-of-chameleons/

“The worst thing you can do is to challenge the injured tongue right after the injury and try to feed him and force him to shoot again.”..
https://www.chameleons.info/l/tongue-injury/

Neptune the chameleon…
https://rutube.ru/video/1fec0af3d814e4b23d8a5c7221f0168a/

Tongue Injuries in Chameleons Petr Necas…​

Tongue attack in slow motion…

 

[nightanole]

You might like to read these…
“Hand feeding or using tongs can lead to severe tongue injuries. The primary danger arises when the insect is not released in time as the chameleon's tongue strikes it. This can cause overstretching of the retractor muscle, leading to tears and resulting in limited or lost tongue function, sometimes necessitating amputation.”…
https://www.chameleons.info/l/tongue-injuries-of-chameleons/

“The worst thing you can do is to challenge the injured tongue right after the injury and try to feed him and force him to shoot again.”..
https://www.chameleons.info/l/tongue-injury/

Neptune the chameleon…
https://rutube.ru/video/1fec0af3d814e4b23d8a5c7221f0168a/

Tongue Injuries in Chameleons Petr Necas…​

Tongue attack in slow motion…

Ah. Yea when i tong feed i just grab a leg and have the feeder face the cham, and i dont feed worms/caterpillars. I never let go, and end up with a leg just dangling from the tongs.

I could see how this would be hard mode to release just as they hit.

Guess im just a bit bias since i have had two chams that needed tong fed most of their lives due to tongue injuries. As neptune alluded to, you will get injuries if the feeder has a death grip on anything(fingers, clothing, tongs, etc). I now 100% place feeders on leaves only. As most of the tongue injuries was placing the silkie or horn on a stick section of the plant. And then the cham hits, and proceeds on pulling its self across the cage by the tongue to the feeder, vs letting go.

The cham tongue really isnt that sticky. Its just a beardy/iggy tongue with one adaptation. Its "a bag" and so it wraps abit around the feeder, then uses a wee muscle to pull the center of the bag to make a vacuum. And thats how it "sticks". They even did experiments by severing the nerve to said muscle, and sure enough the tongue just bounced off all the feeders.