Can I sign up for handling 101?

Gdawg79

Gdawg79

New Member
Hello all I am new to the cham forum family and have gotten a ton of great advice from u guys, thanx. I have an 8 week old veiled cham named Max short for (Maxameleon:D). Me and Max have gotten along well so far, I have gotten him to eat small mealworms from my hand, and have actually held him on 2 occasions so i could upgrade his enclosure. However i think it is too early to tell if he trusts me or not. He freaked out a little both times I had him but, calmed down after a couple of minutes and started checking out the rest of my apartment. I only had him out for about 5 - 7 minutes on both the occasions. Is there any sort of way u guys get ur chams to come out of their enclosure on their own terms? Is it still too early for him? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. I would really like to be able to take him outside, and maybe even set up a little free range spot for him in my appt.
 
Honestly, its best to never handle chameleons at all-- they will be most active when they think no one is there.

I probably wont handle my guy all summer actually...

If I left the door to his cage open and left, he would come out on his own.. and run away!!
 
how long have you had him? I got some great advice from my breeder at Kammerflage Kreations on handling and it worked very well for me. For the first 2 weeks or so I did not attempt to handle my chameleon at all. After that, I used a small stick and tried to get him to climb onto the end of that. I didnt push the issue too much if he freaked out but tried it on a daily basis. So once I got him on the stick, I would sit down and lay the stick on my lap with the cham on the stick and try to get him used to you so he learns you are not going to hurt him or eat him!. Maybe would do this for 5 minutes or so and that would be it for the day. Another thing to try is opening the cage door and put a large tall potted plant in front of the door. See if you can get you chameleon to venture out on to the plant and try approaching him while out of the cage instead of inside. One lasty thing that really got my chameleon to mellow out, was to open the door and see if he will climb on the top of the door. My chameleon used to love to sit up there and then I would slowly approach him by bringing my hand underneath his chin and lifting up on his front legs to get him to climb onto my hand. These things all worked for me and not saying they will for you, but are surely worth a try. It makes life much easier when you can handle them and transport them back and forth to various places. I handle my chameleon about 5-6 times a day moving him between, indoor and out and he never seems to mind. I think they enjoy a change a scenery and begin to associate your hand as the their taxi!!lol!
 
Chamero said:
Honestly, its best to never handle chameleons at all-- they will be most active when they think no one is there.

I probably wont handle my guy all summer actually...

If I left the door to his cage open and left, he would come out on his own.. and run away!!
Click to expand...

I am curious why you say this? If they don't mind the handling, then why not and what harm does it cause?
 
harm "could" be caused from a chameleon that does not feel safe and gets scared then falls or jumps. most chameleon dont like to be handled and if you didnt push the issue most would never care to. i handle my guys everyday in the summer and some still hiss, puff, strike, run away, kung fu pose, jump/fall etc.

carols suggestions are great.
 
First off, Love the name (Maxameleon, Classic!), I have a Max also (not short for anything).

what I did with my Max was just started handfeeding (I was kind of shocked he hand fed the first day, even tho the breeder said he had not been hand feeding him), I would only get him out for deep cleanings, ever 2-4 weeks, but when I did I tried to make it sort of a treat, first just allowing him to chill on one of his trees in a sunny spot (where I could still keep a eye on him while cleaning), then later I started using this like 7 or 8' fake ficus (which he LOVED)

he never was really shy, and only got "mad" when I had my camera phone pointed at him.

so slowly I started letting him get used to me being part of his world, watching him, hold my hand still near the entrance of his cage,
One of the days I was holding my hand there he finally got brave one day and put his front feet on my finger, I held my arm there till it started hurting then eased it down and he slowly backed off of it. I think all that finally got him to see me as a non-threat and a free ride to good places, now he's pretty friendly. I can handle him when ever I want (as in he never trys to hide/run and never acts threatening) but unless I need to move him, such as cleaning, sunning or to see the vet. I leave him alone unless he comes to me (I'll offer my hand from time to time if he acts like he wants to go for a ride, some times he does and some times he's just checking me out)

mostly it's going to depend on him/her, the rest is just showing yourself to be safe (try not to move quick and wildly), also being viewed with good things (like food, sun and freedom) helps I think.
I'd use cage cleanings to give a bit of a treat in the way of freedom and maybe some out side air/uv. just make sure you can be right there, make sure the weather and temps are good and that no predators are around (watch out for birds of prey too!). if you can't get them out side you still might let them chill on a large fake tree (where you can watch, but safely way from any harsh chemicals)

hope that helps, but if he never come around to handling they are still great! I have a jacksons thats pretty shy so I haven't even tried messing with him othere than cleanings, but he's still way cool.
 
ataraxia said:
harm "could" be caused from a chameleon that does not feel safe and gets scared then falls or jumps. most chameleon dont like to be handled and if you didnt push the issue most would never care to. i handle my guys everyday in the summer and some still hiss, puff, strike, run away, ninja pose, jump/fall etc.

carols suggestions are great.
Click to expand...

thank you! As I said it may not work for all. You just have to know your limits as to how far you want to go with handling if your chameleon absolutely hates it.
 
First of all thank u guys for ur comments. I will deffinately try several suggestions a little at a time.I am feeding him about 17 - 20 crickets a day and 2 - 3 small mealworms. For now I will be happy hand feeding him daily. He doesn't seem to mind me when I have something crawling on my hand for him to eat. I have had him for four weeks now, and I'm sure he'll eventually figure it out. I can't believe how quickly I've become attached to him. Like I said in another post, I just want him to enjoy my company as much as I enjoy his. :)
 
Yea I just think that most reptiles dont show immediate signs of stress and its just better not get into the habit of handling-daily especially.

I think consistent handling stresses this animal that likes to be alone.
 
I think the biggest thing to keep in mind is that for a caged animal (whatever animal), if they feel cornered and a big scary hand is coming in towards them for what they can only imagine is to eat them, they are going to be terrified. So automatically you are starting off on the worst foot possible!

At first I let my last two panthers come out of the cage on their own, leaving their cage open with a plant or something infront as I sat somewhere nearby doing something else. And once they were out of the cage I would put my hand across where they were walking and it became just another branch. I would do this for short minutes and then let them go back into their cage if they wanted to.

Thanks to the fact that I did try to get them more or less used to handling, going to the vet or moving them is just much less stressful for them. If you think about it, the more scared you are of the people taking care of you the more terriying daily life is, even if they never take you out of your cage. But if your owners are associated with good things (food, water, outside time) the easier it is for a solitary animal to live in your livingroom.
 
When I got my first chameleon I had never heard that they weren't suppose to be handled. My daughter had always handled hers. My guys free range and they are handled multiply times each day and seem to love it. Even Luie & Camille's babies were friendly and loved getting out of their baby bins. All I had to do was give them a hand to crawl out on. To this day all the Luie and Camille kids are still friendly. Below are a couple of videos of the babies getting out of the bin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MzulorMdTE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY5tNIrr9V0
 
Those are great vids jannb, put a smile on my face. Totally cute, you are chameleon magnet.
 
jannb said:
When I got my first chameleon I had never heard that they weren't suppose to be handled. My daughter had always handled hers. My guys free range and they are handled multiply times each day and seem to love it. Even Luie & Camille's babies were friendly and loved getting out of their baby bins. All I had to do was give them a hand to crawl out on. To this day all the Luie and Camille kids are still friendly. Below are a couple of videos of the babies getting out of the bin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MzulorMdTE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY5tNIrr9V0
Click to expand...


man i love those vids, the first one is like a race to get to momma lol
 
haha Forgot to post my reply to the thread

I let Sayid get used to his enclosure for about 2 weeks before I started handling him. I started every three days for a few minutes and creep up to every other day for longer periods. Now I hold him everyday, sometimes for hours while he hangs out with me. He does perfer me to my husband or daughter but visits all of us.
It makes it so much easier to clean his enclosure, take him to the rain locker (shower lol) and his basking enclosure in the yard.
He has been getting a little crouchy with age but I hear that is normal, and it is only when he is up in a certain corner of his cage...which is a territorial thing I think.:p
 
Sweet. My Male Veiled has been getting used to his big boy viv (the worlds only wardrarium) - he's been in 2 weeks and seemed very happy with it from the start. He's enjoyed a mist shower in there and comes to the door to eat a waxworm from my hand. I'm going to start handling him again soon, because it's beautiful weather in Hull now............
I hope it all goes as well for me as for you :D
 
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