RedMountainHome
Established Member
I've had my male panther, Toby, for over a year now, I reckon he's about 18 months old. He's always been a really picky eater, flatly refusing everything but crickets and super worms. He has three modes: asleep, shy, and p*ssed off. I've always (affectionately) referred to him as a jerk.
After many months of trying to warm him up to me and introduce new foods I had given up on changing him and appreciated him from afar. I only took him out of the cage for showers or trips to his outdoor cage, and I did that with a paint stick so he would bite that instead of me.
This past weekend I purchased a female panther and enjoyed how chill she is, and how readily she eats. It prompted me to try again with my boy, Toby.
The first thing I tried was feeding his favorite food, crickets, from tongs. He knows food comes from his feeder bowl so I held a cricket above it with a pair of tongs when he was "hunting", and *snap*! Success! After a day of feeding crickets further and further from the bowl I tried a wriggling dubia on the tongs, and *snap*! Another success!! I can't tell you how awesome it is for him to hand feed, and hand feed dubias at that!
After that success I got a bit more bold and attempted to get him from the cage without using a stick. Low and behold, he did not attempt to bite the hand that now feeds him!! Even cooler, after spending an afternoon playing in the rain he willingly stepped onto my hand from atop his outdoor cage <3
I don't know what caused his attitude change. Maybe it's age, maybe it's he settled in after I stopped trying so hard, maybe he's jealous I got another chameleon, maybe he's finally learning that I am his sole source of food and sun and water and all that is good in life, or perhaps a mix of all of the above. Whatever it is, I'm a happy chameleon keeper =D
After many months of trying to warm him up to me and introduce new foods I had given up on changing him and appreciated him from afar. I only took him out of the cage for showers or trips to his outdoor cage, and I did that with a paint stick so he would bite that instead of me.
This past weekend I purchased a female panther and enjoyed how chill she is, and how readily she eats. It prompted me to try again with my boy, Toby.
The first thing I tried was feeding his favorite food, crickets, from tongs. He knows food comes from his feeder bowl so I held a cricket above it with a pair of tongs when he was "hunting", and *snap*! Success! After a day of feeding crickets further and further from the bowl I tried a wriggling dubia on the tongs, and *snap*! Another success!! I can't tell you how awesome it is for him to hand feed, and hand feed dubias at that!
After that success I got a bit more bold and attempted to get him from the cage without using a stick. Low and behold, he did not attempt to bite the hand that now feeds him!! Even cooler, after spending an afternoon playing in the rain he willingly stepped onto my hand from atop his outdoor cage <3
I don't know what caused his attitude change. Maybe it's age, maybe it's he settled in after I stopped trying so hard, maybe he's jealous I got another chameleon, maybe he's finally learning that I am his sole source of food and sun and water and all that is good in life, or perhaps a mix of all of the above. Whatever it is, I'm a happy chameleon keeper =D
