Chameleon Hiss

[Lexie03]

so my chameleon (male, about year and a half) i is starting to hiss at me and puff up when I try to hold him. He normally loves to be held and when other people go to pick him up and take him out, he’s fine with it. He just doesn’t like when I go grab him. Why?

 

[renzo0684]

so my chameleon (male, about year and a half) i is starting to hiss at me and puff up when I try to hold him. He normally loves to be held and when other people go to pick him up and take him out, he’s fine with it. He just doesn’t like when I go grab him. Why?

There's probably nothing wrong with him. This is common chameleon behavior. Sometimes they don't want to be held.

 

[Lexie03]

There's probably nothing wrong with him. This is common chameleon behavior. Sometimes they don't want to be held.

Yea. I just don’t want to be the only person he hisses at. He doesn’t hiss at my sister or anyone else

 

[nightanole]

So its like having a dog that humps everyones leg but yours. So you get to feel embarrassed and rejected at the same time

If it makes you feel better, ive had chams that only liked people with long hair or glasses, for climbing reasons. I dont have either...

 

[renzo0684]

So its like having a dog that humps everyones leg but yours. So you get to feel embarrassed and rejected at the same time

If it makes you feel better, ive had chams that only liked people with long hair or glasses, for climbing reasons. I dont have either...

I seriously laughed out loud at this... good way to put it! Bahahaha

 

[Graves923]

Sounds like a normal veiled chameleon mood swing. My veiled used to hate me with a passion and go out of his way to try and bite me. Any time I opened his cage to clean, he would climb down as fast as he could and try biting my hand... But he loved my girlfriend and would climb up her arm when ever she did cage cleaning. He would sit on her shoulder or head and let her hand feed him. It was like this for almost a year... Now, he kind of tolerates me and lets me take him out without hissing or biting but will not let my girlfriend near him without hissing.

 

[Syreptyon]

Might there be any differences in how you versus your sister approach him to lift him up? Chameleons typically feel threatened if you try to pick them up by coming from above them. Try slowly coming up from below him or even see if you can hold a branch up into his enclosure to get him to walk onto. Then you may be able to get him out more smoothly. Otherwise he might just be a typical moody cham!