Handling and trust

[hagmegsis]

I know some chameleons just really hate attention. My boy is just so against any interaction. I try to hold him for a little bit a few times a week. He rarely turns dark. He just hisses a lot and tries to escape. Hand feeding is completley not an option.
He throws a huge fit if he sees the tongs and I'm not holding worms. Crickets I have no problem holding, but turns out he doesn't care what's I'm my hand; he doesn't want it any where near him.
Every time I open his terrarium he moves into a retreat pose. If my hand comes in he begins to move away while hissing. To remove him I have to chase him and gently pry him from his decor. Ohio hasn't offered many days for outdoor time. I'm hoping I can get a routine of handling in exchange for sun time, but Ohio isn't cooperating.

Does anyone have any advice? I don't need him to cuddle, but it would be nice if I could put my hand in with out hissing and lunging.

 

[Veild Cham Owner]

When I got my Cham he was a baby (2months the most) and absolutely despised me. whenever I got near his cage or even walk in my room he would turn black. He was always in a pissy mood and wanted to do absolutely nothing with me. But now he is super friendly and loves to be outside his cage. So the first step I took was to just let him know that I am safe and won't hurt him. Since his cage is in my room I was always in it. So what I did was whenever I was in my room, I had his cage door open. Always always always had it open but, I never touched or tempted to go near his cage. This was just kind of letting him know ok this is a good person and she can be nice to me. I slowly each day got closer to the cage with the door open until I was able to sit next to the cage w/ the door open and him not hissing at me. After one week of doing this I started to hand feed. THIS IS I TELL YOU THE LEST WAY TO HAND FEED!! What I started with was teaching him that tweezers meant food. And with whatever I put in the tweazers meant food and he can eat. So I started by putting some of his fav food in a clear/glass bowl and had him eat the food from there. I would put the worm or whatever food in the tweazer and have him see it. Once he would see it and try to grab it I would drop it right away into the little bowl and he would have to eat it from there. Now this has to be a glass/clear bowl bc he will see ur hand behind the cup as if he were to eat it off ur hand. Do this a couple times a day for a couple days until he gets the swing of eating from "your hand". After he has mastered that put the food in your hand and he will get the same idea. Both of these tricks are all kind of letting him know that the hand is safe and the hand doesn't want to hurt you. The next thing I did was invade his territory, big time. All I would do is just put my hand in his cage near him and just leave it there and do nothing. If he tries to bite u pull away slowly and put it again in the same spot. Keep doing that u till he doesn't try to bite u or lunge bc he will eventually learn that your hand is safe. I also started to bring my hand towards him like scratching his beard and trying to have my hand interact with him by touching him. I am still continuing to do all these steps as for I have had him for about 3 weeks now and he still doesn't like me. So I finally just said screw it I'm just gonna try and pick him up. So I did. He didn't care. Didn't try to bite or lounge at me. I just slowly slid one finger down his belly until he let go of his leaf or whatever and walked onto my hand. When I pulled him out he wasn't the happiest but he didn't do his little lounge thing. So I started to do this every day until I was able to just pick him up with no problem. I would do this for a straight week, take a break for 2 days and re introduce my hand and try to pick him up. It is all about having trust in you Cham and letting him know that you are safe. You also need to have lots of patience. I got my Cham Febuary 21 and sometimes he still hisses and lounges at me. And always remember chams are wild animals and their first instinct towards a hand is to bite it or run away but by teaching them it is safe, you should be good!! I hope this helped it helped with me

 

[Duma]

Mine does the same thing. I handled him last Sunday and he hissed and even bit me. He didn't turn black but he still hates me. I can't imagine trying to hand feed him when any time I go near his cage he runs and hides. I will try tho! But @hagmegsis you are not alone!

 

[#Chams4life]

Is your Cham a veiled? To get mine use to me I would put lettuce in her cage, then after she got use to the lettuce and started eating it I would give it everyonce in a while and then I started hand feeding her the lettuce, I then started to hold it out of the cage and put my other hand in for her to climb on to get to it. I use it as a treat, she goes wild when she sees it in my hands and can't wait to just crawl on my hand to get to it. I did the same with my Panther but I used crickets.

 

[jcarlsen]

I know some chameleons just really hate attention. My boy is just so against any interaction. I try to hold him for a little bit a few times a week. He rarely turns dark. He just hisses a lot and tries to escape. Hand feeding is completley not an option.
He throws a huge fit if he sees the tongs and I'm not holding worms. Crickets I have no problem holding, but turns out he doesn't care what's I'm my hand; he doesn't want it any where near him.
Every time I open his terrarium he moves into a retreat pose. If my hand comes in he begins to move away while hissing. To remove him I have to chase him and gently pry him from his decor. Ohio hasn't offered many days for outdoor time. I'm hoping I can get a routine of handling in exchange for sun time, but Ohio isn't cooperating.

Does anyone have any advice? I don't need him to cuddle, but it would be nice if I could put my hand in with out hissing and lunging.

Can you tell us a little more about your cham, like how long you've had him for example? I have a panther and it took him several months to warm up to me, let alone hand feed. He wasn't as aggressive as your veiled, but he wanted no part of me. He'd rotate away from me on the branch and puff up whenever my hand came near him. I even took a bite once because I was trying to get him out of his free range plant and couldn't see where he was exactly.

I think as they get older, they tend to mellow out at least a little bit. Since they're bigger, you don't look quite as huge to them, and through time they do get used to the sight of you. I dunno if your guy's in his adult cage already, but that transition for my little panther made a big difference. Once he had a bigger space to explore, it made him feel much safer, and I found that he sat out in the open more too.

 

[hagmegsis]

I've had him since December 29th. He's in an 18"x18"x24" right now, but I built him a customer 4'x3'x3' enclosure. It's not completley finished yet so he hasn't moved into it yet. It's big enough to fit his current cage 4+ times. He hasn't bit me yet or even tried. I'm not afraid of him so when he lunges he never lunges close enough to actually bite me.