Cham intelligence

Chamfan123

Chamfan123

New Member
On the rare occasions that I feed my Cham superworms, I give them to him out of a clear plastic cup. Now, whenever he sees the cup, even if it hasn't got anything in it, he runs straight for it. Has anyone else noticed any examples of intelligence like this?
 
I free range feed all my bugs one at a time using thongs. Whenever my cham sees the thongs in his cage, he will start to run towards it :D.
 
Yes thats common. They 'learn' to associate the bowl with tasty food. Its called a pavlovian response. Many kinds of animals ,even snakes can exhibit this kind of behaviour, which makes sense in terms of survival, AKA recognise and remember
the behaviours of both prey and predator for example.
Not sure id nessesarily equate this with intelligence as such. Define intelligence.
I tend to stop short at the border of appreciating an animals 'learning' and anthropomorphising them.

That said, until we smart monkeys can personally experience the conciousness of another species, we cant know for sure exactly how like us (mentally) they may be.
I think its enough to respect life and appreciate it, wherever and whatever it is, not only if it can kill you. :)

Enjoy your chameleon
 
One veiled chameleon I had figured out that the "little white thing" moving in the cage had something to do with the door opening and figured out how to move it to open the door.

A fischer's I had figured out how to open the sliding door of the cage...as did 2 of my c. chamaeleons.
 
kinyonga said:
One veiled chameleon I had figured out that the "little white thing" moving in the cage had something to do with the door opening and figured out how to move it to open the door.

A fischer's I had figured out how to open the sliding door of the cage...as did 2 of my c. chamaeleons.
Click to expand...

LOL thats so cute
 
jojackson said:
Yes thats common. They 'learn' to associate the bowl with tasty food. Its called a pavlovian response. Many kinds of animals ,even snakes can exhibit this kind of behaviour, which makes sense in terms of survival, AKA recognise and remember
the behaviours of both prey and predator for example.
Not sure id nessesarily equate this with intelligence as such. Define intelligence.
I tend to stop short at the border of appreciating an animals 'learning' and anthropomorphising them.

That said, until we smart monkeys can personally experience the conciousness of another species, we cant know for sure exactly how like us (mentally) they may be.
I think its enough to respect life and appreciate it, wherever and whatever it is, not only if it can kill you. :)

Enjoy your chameleon
Click to expand...

Pavlov at its best!
 
this theory of chams going to the cup when they see it because they associate it with food and pavlovs dogs salivation when they hear a bell. Does not hold true to either of my chameleons. i leave their cups in there all the time. they after eating all the food will leave them alone until i have refilled them which is a process that takes a decent amount of time. after i have completed this they will then go to the cups eat what they want and go about their business. i have never witnessed them charge an empty cup
 
this theory of chams going to the cup when they see it because they associate it with food and pavlovs dogs salivation when they hear a bell. Does not hold true to either of my chameleons. i leave their cups in there all the time. they after eating all the food will leave them alone until i have refilled them which is a process that takes a decent amount of time. after i have completed this they will then go to the cups eat what they want and go about their business. i have never witnessed them charge an empty cup
Click to expand...

Thats probably why you dont see that response. If i put a stuffed bird in the cage, initially it may scare the hell out of them and illicit a typical defensive/alarm behaviour.
If i remove it and reintroduce it again another time, they will surely do the same.
But if i left it there all the time, eventually they will fail to see it as a threat and therefore ignore it.
Its likely a glimps of insect movement in the cup that encourages them to feed. If thats not there ofcourse they wont be interested in it. Its an inanimate object that is neither predator nor prey nor another cham.
No reptile will be interested in anything that dosent fall into one of the above categorys unless it can be mistaken for it, or illicit the appropriate instinctive response, IE a chameleon puppet might initially illicit territorial or receptive/nonreceptive behaviour. A warm moving hand might be mistaken for food by a hungy snake in the right circumstances, but a peice of garden hose will be ignored.
 
jojackson said:
Thats probably why you dont see that response. If i put a stuffed bird in the cage, initially it may scare the hell out of them and illicit a typical defensive/alarm behaviour.
If i remove it and reintroduce it again another time, they will surely do the same.
But if i left it there all the time, eventually they will fail to see it as a threat and therefore ignore it.
Its likely a glimps of insect movement in the cup that encourages them to feed. If thats not there ofcourse they wont be interested in it. Its an inanimate object that is neither predator nor prey nor another cham.
No reptile will be interested in anything that dosent fall into one of the above categorys unless it can be mistaken for it, or illicit the appropriate instinctive response, IE a chameleon puppet might initially illicit territorial or receptive/nonreceptive behaviour. A warm moving hand might be mistaken for food by a hungy snake in the right circumstances, but a peice of garden hose will be ignored.
Click to expand...


even so i have taken them in/ out and still no response. now if it was a new item in a new spot they will move into position to look at it and determine if it could be eaten, or what it may be. i put romaine lettuce in with calcium powder on it and they look at it really far away then decide by slowly moving in to see.

dont belittle their intelligence. an empty cup honestly shouldn't stimulate them to charge it. they have super eyes since they are down a sense the others pick up the slack. they can see if there is motion in the cup, and probably know what it is IE cricket/ supers/ what ever, and after seeing the cup with junk in it they would move in. thats my observation
 
You guys freaking crack me up! HA HA HA but seriously when my veiled was a baby, he sat at his cup for an hour, no joke. And i finally thought may b hes hungry, so i dropped some little crickets in and he devoured the 5. He stayed on the cups rim..... i gave him 5 more......... one more time and after he ate 4 he walked away from the cup. So there is my input. He had to have known the cup meant food.
 
well i did consider my cham intelligent, untill of course she started trying to zap bugs (on the inside of the cup)through the clear outside of the cup, and then her tongue stuck to the outside of the cup. then all ideas of intelligence flew out the window. lol
 
Trace said:
Thongs?!?! :eek:
Click to expand...

Jesus, Trace, you crack me up. I was thinking the same thing... I pictue some guy with superworms clinging to some skimpy underwear!

On a serious note, I agree with the Pavlov references. You'll find plenty of posts of "my cham hates me" oh wait, "now he really loves me!". It's an association of the handler with the food. All chams love food and now you're the person that is providing it.
 
dont belittle their intelligence. an empty cup honestly shouldn't stimulate them to charge it.
Click to expand...

Ofcourse it wont! I just said that! because its there 'all the time'. They will if they associate it with food, more so if food is not constantly available.

even so i have taken them in/ out and still no response.
Click to expand...

Thats probably because they are use to it being there and used to taking their time to investigate if it contains food. Again, its there all the time.
If you only introduced the cup to the cage when it had food and removed it when it was empty, you would see they will get used to idea of the cup appears=theres food!
This is how the pavlovian response works.
I beleive they get used to timing aswell. mine heads directly for the dripper when the lights come on at the same time each morning. This is because I turn the dripper on when the lights come on ....at the same time each morning!

Get it now? :)
 
jojackson said:
Ofcourse it wont! I just said that! because its there 'all the time'. They will if they associate it with food, more so if food is not constantly available.



Thats probably because they are use to it being there and used to taking their time to investigate if it contains food. Again, its there all the time.
If you only introduced the cup to the cage when it had food and removed it when it was empty, you would see they will get used to idea of the cup appears=theres food!
This is how the pavlovian response works.
I beleive they get used to timing aswell. mine heads directly for the dripper when the lights come on at the same time each morning. This is because I turn the dripper on when the lights come on ....at the same time each morning!

Get it now? :)
Click to expand...

My cham recognizes the cup as food, I leave the cup in there all the time as well, but when I come take it out, and bring it back...... That's when he comes running to it, he knows there's goodies in there now. When he's eaten and it's empty he doesn't care. I'm agreeing with pavlonian response even with virtually the same circumstances as the post you replied to.

Cup out, back in = Food
Cup just hanging = something to climb or rest on
 
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