Desensitizing my Cham

[Jelloman]

I have a baby veiled that is super shy. I have had him 3 weeks and he is in an entry room, pretty quiet area except when someone enters or leaves the house. He hides whenever I enter the room. If he is basking he will make for cover when I get close. Would it be better to move him into a busier area to desensitize to our presence or will that cause too much stress. I want to be able to observe him but he is always making himself skinny and hiding aropund the backside of a baranch.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[LazardLizard]

Yes moving him to a more traffic/people area should(not always) help him.

 

[Solid Snake]

Id say that is a terrible idea.

Chameleons are very stand-offish overall. They are mostly solitary creatures in the wild.

Keeping them in the most un-busy area you can manage is the way to go.

You want them to feel comfortable, and stay stress free.

The more stressed they are, the more time they spend in a state of high apprehension. This causes them to hide more, and spend less time thermoregulating, hunting, drinking, and basking. These things are essential to there survival, and you want them to thrive, not just survive.
Health issues can occur after a short time of too much stress.

You say the animal is a baby. Over time, of you moving slow, and leaving it be, and letting it do its thing, it will become accustomed to you. It will learn to associate you with food, and will trust that nothing awful will happen when you come around, provided you give it no reason to think otherwise.

Understand that even with chameleons that dont seem to mind being handled, its best to observe them from across the room.

They should really only be handled when necessary.

Leave it be, and give it time, but also make sure you understand that its not a kitten. Not that you think that, but just saying...

You must respect the animal, and its needs if you are to keep it.

 

[Cainschams]

Id say that is a terrible idea.

Couldnt have said it better.

 

[LazardLizard]

I keep my 3 panthers in the livingroom(on purpose) with running screaming kids and crazed dog running around, the Chams don't even flinch or care. So most Chams are CB and will adjust to what ever enviroment they are put into... You say "No",...... The panther female acted the same way as this persons hiding and running away, after a few weeks BOOM, this girl could care less and has become extremely friendly! Most of these pet Chams people have are CB, so they are not scared stressed freaks that just came from the wild!

 

[Kaianuanu]

In my experience when you put a Cham in a stressful situation, like hen you walk in the room, even if they are not actually harmed, they perceive it as being harmed. So every time you walk by, he's like " oh my gosh he keeps coming by, I need to get away from here". It's not like "that was scary, but he didn't hurt me, so I'll be okay next time". So repeatedly exposing them to stressful situations will Only make them more fearful. They can even develop a paranoia or anxiety of when you're going to walk by next. The only way to make them more "friendly" is by making your presence a positive thing by building their association of food and yourself, or yourself and time on the freerange.

 

[Solid Snake]

I keep my 3 panthers in the livingroom(on purpose) with running screaming kids and crazed dog running around, the Chams don't even flinch or care. So most Chams are CB and will adjust to what ever enviroment they are put into... You say "No",...... The panther female acted the same way as this persons hiding and running away, after a few weeks BOOM, this girl could care less and has become extremely friendly! Most of these pet Chams people have are CB, so they are not scared stressed freaks that just came from the wild!

My first reaction, is to call you out on your trolling. ;/

What in the heck makes you think that just because an animal is CB that it has different care requirements/psyche/behavior?

Your posts should be blocked by all of the 27,980 other members of this forum. That way no one has to hear this drabble, and no one accidentally takes your heathen advice.

Just how long have you been at this so called "chameleon keeping" that youve been doing?

Are you mad!?!?!!!

In my experience when you put a Cham in a stressful situation, like hen you walk in the room, even if they are not actually harmed, they perceive it as being harmed. So every time you walk by, he's like " oh my gosh he keeps coming by, I need to get away from here". It's not like "that was scary, but he didn't hurt me, so I'll be okay next time". So repeatedly exposing them to stressful situations will Only make them more fearful. They can even develop a paranoia or anxiety of when you're going to walk by next. The only way to make them more "friendly" is by making your presence a positive thing by building their association of food and yourself, or yourself and time on the freerange.

Exactly, positive reinforcement of your presence.

POSITIVE. Its the only way to go about things. Otherwise youre stresssing out the animals, and when they are stressed, they do badly, when they do badly, they will die.

 

[Kaianuanu]

My first reaction, is to call you out on your trolling.

What in the heck makes you think that just because an animal is CB that it has different care requirements/psyche/behavior?

Your posts should be blocked by all of the 27,980 other members of this forum. That way no one has to hear this drabble, and no one accidentally takes your heathen advice.

Are you mad!?!?!!!






Exactly, positive reinforcement of your presence.

POSITIVE. Its the only way to go about things. Otherwise youre stresssing out the animals, and when they are stressed, they do badly, when they do badly, they will die.

For a sec there I thought you were calling me a troll, I was about to say . . .

 

[Psychobunny]

Snake, you crack me up sometimes I bet you are quite the character to know in person

Cham stress can not always be seen. They are not always 'obviously' stressed; ie, puffing up, hissing, etc.

Sometimes, they are very still and in open view, and scared to death!!

Even when they are on your hand, looking at you, they may not be as 'chilled' as they appear to us.
They really dont even want to move for having you notice them all the more!!

They may be in almost constant fear, but not showing it.

Then you will wonder why they stopped eating!!

 

[Cainschams]

I keep my 3 panthers in the livingroom(on purpose) with running screaming kids and crazed dog running around, the Chams don't even flinch or care. So most Chams are CB and will adjust to what ever enviroment they are put into... You say "No",...... The panther female acted the same way as this persons hiding and running away, after a few weeks BOOM, this girl could care less and has become extremely friendly! Most of these pet Chams people have are CB, so they are not scared stressed freaks that just came from the wild!

You are giving terrible advice based on the experience of keeping 3 chameleons.

 

[Solid Snake]

I keep my 3 panthers in the livingroom(on purpose) with running screaming kids and crazed dog running around, the Chams don't even flinch or care. So most Chams are CB and will adjust to what ever enviroment they are put into... You say "No",...... The panther female acted the same way as this persons hiding and running away, after a few weeks BOOM, this girl could care less and has become extremely friendly! Most of these pet Chams people have are CB, so they are not scared stressed freaks that just came from the wild!

From the CCR:


https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/trace/784-six-month-expert.html

Looking at any "Hi Im new! What should I do now that my chameleon is home? Its dark and doesnt move?" Post (there are plenty) will show a number of people advising that the chameleon be placed in a low-traffic area, and be allowed to relax, and settle in. These people will have sometimes 10-20+ years experience with these animals.

Lazard, I beg you to reconsider your current setup. I can somewhat understand your reasoning. Its just wrong though.

OP, do not listen to Lazard, not until they become more educated/experienced anyhow. You can look around at other posts and get the straight for yourself to confirm.

 

[Psychobunny]

To OP, check out my 'taming' blog.
You may find something useful there;

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/psychobunny/746-taming-chameleon.html

 

[Kaianuanu]

Although not always accurate a good way to judge a members experience is to look at their join date, the member that has been getting a lot of heat has only been a member for 2 months. I also have noticed a few members that have been on the forums for a long time but have really low post counts because they're just not into chatting on the forums, but a lot of the time they are still knowledgable and give solid advice.

 

[Kaianuanu]

Snake, you crack me up sometimes I bet you are quite the character to know in person

Cham stress can not always be seen. They are not always 'obviously' stressed; ie, puffing up, hissing, etc.

Sometimes, they are very still and in open view, and scared to death!!

Even when they are on your hand, looking at you, they may not be as 'chilled' as they appear to us.
They really dont even want to move for having you notice them all the more!!

They may be in almost constant fear, but not showing it.

Then you will wonder why they stopped eating!!

It seems like a lot of the time, chams try to rely on camouflage and decide to go 'deer in the headlights'.

 

[Psychobunny]

It seems like a lot of the time, chams try to rely on camouflage and decide to go 'deer in the headlights'.

I think so too. All those times when they think they have disappeared behind
the branch, and their 'leaf in the wind' walk, instinctively tells them they are
doing the safe thing.

They have no objective reasoning, so cant realize we can still see their eyes
bulging from the sides of that twig they think they are hiding behind

So little is actually known about what they think, how they perceive their world.

What is it that makes (my little Squee, for example) a cham look all hunched over and depressed looking, then, perk up when you give them the attention they have become used to.
This is simple logic for anyone who has owned exotic parrot species.
Though they are very social animals, I have found many similarities between birds and reptiles. In spite of the fact that both have very primitive brains.

 

[LazardLizard]

This is hillarious!!! So... Solid thanks he is the all mighty god of Cham keeping and his word goes and the other one thinks that the amount of time one has with Cham keeping experiance is only as long as there join date..... LMFAO!!!!!

CB reptiles are there enviroment!!! If a baby CB Cham is held from day one and had tons of handling, it will act like a puppy! Take a WC cam and try that from day one of being pulled out of a tree??? Walk by CB Chams and they could care less, walk by newer imported Chams and they FREAK.

If this person puts that Cham in an area where there is more interaction, it WILL get used to people walking by and being looked at!!! There are some that never adapt well to people ever, but most will! Tell me I'm wrong again and your the inexperianced one or haven't owned many chams.


By the way, I have probably owned more Chams then 95% of people on this site.

Heres their mentality...These are the anoying people who point out to the petstore person that there is a (1) dead fish in a tank, when there are 10,000 fish. 1 dead fish is only a big deal when you only have a few in a tank, 1 dead fish out of 10,000 is not unusual! Hell thats doing great!!!

Hahahahaha, thanks for the laugh! Was a great pick me up after a hard day of work!

 

[KingJulian]

When we first got my panther, he was already a year old. The guy we got him from said he was very shy and the only interaction he had was at feeding time and to move him outside for some sun. We knew that we wanted one that we could handle, so we were very nervous, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into...It took a good 2 months of positive reinforcement. Any time we went up to the cage, he would get something in return for not shying away. We don't let him hunt his food, because I found that whatever food he didn't eat, would end up dead under his plant. I like knowing how much he eats everyday, so we hand feed. He's learned that our hand brings the food. Also that when he comes out of the cage, he's going to do something fun like go on his free range, go in the shower, or go outside. I can walk up to the cage anytime I want, put my hand out, and he climbs right on it. People say "oh it's a chameleon, they are reptiles and are nothing like dogs" I disagree, they are very smart animals and know exactly what they are doing. If you go away every time they puff up and hiss, they know that if they keep doing it, they will get the same result. I also know that when he's not in the mood, to just leave him alone. Every animal is different, but I feel that with lots of time and patience, you can get him to a point where he's at least not scared of you, even if you can't hold him.

 

[Solid Snake]

This is hillarious!!! So... Solid thanks he is the all mighty god of Cham keeping and his word goes and the other one thinks that the amount of time one has with Cham keeping experiance is only as long as there join date..... LMFAO!!!!!

CB reptiles are there enviroment!!! If a baby CB Cham is held from day one and had tons of handling, it will act like a puppy! Take a WC cam and try that from day one of being pulled out of a tree??? Walk by CB Chams and they could care less, walk by newer imported Chams and they FREAK.

If this person puts that Cham in an area where there is more interaction, it WILL get used to people walking by and being looked at!!! There are some that never adapt well to people ever, but most will! Tell me I'm wrong again and your the inexperianced one or haven't owned many chams.


By the way, I have probably owned more Chams then 95% of people on this site.

Heres their mentality...These are the anoying people who point out to the petstore person that there is a (1) dead fish in a tank, when there are 10,000 fish. 1 dead fish is only a big deal when you only have a few in a tank, 1 dead fish out of 10,000 is not unusual! Hell thats doing great!!!

Hahahahaha, thanks for the laugh! Was a great pick me up after a hard day of work!

You are putting words in my mouth. I indeed asked you about your keeping experience, and you have not responded to said question.

Doesnt really matter, your opinion differs with thousands of experienced keepers. I dont consider you a threat to anything but your own animals.

My experience is fully documented here, for anyone to see.

I have provided sound reasoning for my advice, you have not.

I dont even keep anymore, I just stop by to prevent people like you from misinforming people as often as I can. Which isnt near often enough...

Im sorry for your animals.

I didnt start off by attacking you, I gave you a chance.

OP, listen to your own reasoning when making this decision. Do your own research. Youve gotten the best advice you kind find though...

 

[LazardLizard]

Well I guess to answer your question..... Only a couple of months experiance, since thats when I joined.

Ah yes, my poor animals... How have I been able to keep these chams, beardeds, tortiose, frogs, etc. alive all this time without Solids words of wisdom??? Must have been pure luck that I was able to breed and produce hundreds of baby chams years ago.... Super luck, since some of my breeders were but babies when I aquired them.....WOW

OH NOOO..... I have Johnstoni coming....... You must see them as already dead as soon as I touch them...... Guess I'm waisting my money and sentenceing chams to death Perhaps I shouldn't buy the couple dozen more chams I planned to this summer, I won't know how to care for them.

Oh merciful Solid, what ever should I do????

FYI... You did start the attack!

 

[Blueberry2223]

I have my chameleons in my living room because i am waiting for my brother to move out then they will go in my room where there is not a lot of traffic. My chameleons are very friendly they never hind or get dark when you walk by also they both will eat from my hand and climb right on to it