Bonding With Cham

[Teenage Herpetologist]

Hi everyone. I know it has been a while, but I was wondering, how do you bond with your cham to where they would actually be fine with me holding them every few days. Every time I try to hold my cham and try to show her that I am not a threat, she just gets dark and slowly crawls away. The only time she ever comes to me is when I feed her.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

Hi everyone. I know it has been a while, but I was wondering, how do you bond with your cham to where they would actually be fine with me holding them every few days. Every time I try to hold my cham and try to show her that I am not a threat, she just gets dark and slowly crawls away. The only time she ever comes to me is when I feed her.

Beman has a great blog and I do that strat every week and it has helped a lot at first he would bite me like a month ago but now he steps on me after 6 secs of holding my hand out

 

[Mountain Dragon]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/blog/my-journey-with-beman-and-what-i-have-learned.40634/

 

[MissSkittles]

It takes a lot of time, patience and consistency. Beman’s blog is awesome!

 

[Mountain Dragon]

It takes a lot of time, patience and consistency. Beman’s blog is awesome!

Agree!

 

[Teenage Herpetologist]

Thank you very much.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

Hi everyone. I know it has been a while, but I was wondering, how do you bond with your cham to where they would actually be fine with me holding them every few days. Every time I try to hold my cham and try to show her that I am not a threat, she just gets dark and slowly crawls away. The only time she ever comes to me is when I feed her.

Chameleons really don't like to be held, and probably shouldn't be unless absolutely necessary (like administering medical care). They're also not the type to chill with you for any length of time like a bearded dragon might.

Handling a chameleon is more like... well, some call it chameleon juggling, or the chameleon treadmill, letting them move from hand to hand.

Do you have any plants outside the enclosure that your chameleon can make use of for "enrichment"?
That's what did the trick for me. I let him climb around on the adjacent plant table for a few hours. After a couple times, now he runs up my arm whenever I open the enclosure doors. But I never try to hold him; I let him climb on and perch, and not really for very long.

This might help some...

 

[Teenage Herpetologist]

Oh yeah, I have seen that vid. He is not happy.