handling my cham

ericcham

New Member
Hi i have just taken eric out of his tank, bearing in mind he is a year and a half old and had a previous owner until 3 days ago, he was hissing like mad and really digging into my hands and pretty much shaking so i put him back in the tank, i didnt man handle him and was gentle taking him out, is this normal behaviour?
 
Hi i have just taken eric out of his tank, bearing in mind he is a year and a half old and had a previous owner until 3 days ago, he was hissing like mad and really digging into my hands and pretty much shaking so i put him back in the tank, i didnt man handle him and was gentle taking him out, is this normal behaviour?

Yes, because he needs to become acclimated to his new surroundings. Give him a bit of time. I can handle my new guy but was very apprehensive (worried about being bit) but he was fine, and I ended up fine to , but he does hide from me period inside his cage. Just give him a couple of weeks. I only took my guy out so he could enjoy the great out doors since our weather is horrible right now. ;) HAHA with pun intended he put a sticky note in his cage asking where Chuck (G) was lol !!!
 
Yes, because he needs to become acclimated to his new surroundings. Give him a bit of time. I can handle my new guy but was very apprehensive (worried about being bit) but he was fine, and I ended up fine to , but he does hide from me period inside his cage. Just give him a couple of weeks. I only took my guy out so he could enjoy the great out doors since our weather is horrible right now. ;) HAHA with pun intended he put a sticky note in his cage asking where Chuck (G) was lol !!!
haha, well he will have to deal with it if i he doesnt let me near him in the near future as for when i clean his tank out, he is a greedy little fecker lol! loved the meal worms and has been eating the locust the past 2 days, does your cham drink a lot of water? eric doesnt seem to touch his
 
He is a Veiled the tend to be very territorial and aggresive when taking them out of their cage. give him about a week and half before handling him. so he can get use to his surroundings like all chams. My baby veiled is like that now trying to take him out. after a while you will get use to it and so will he he will just put up the act everytime you take him out and like mine putting him back in is a chore once you get them out they want no part in going back in!!!
 
well just now he was near the glass doors as though he was trying to get out, so i put my hands out for him and he walked onto them and up my arm :D i sat down and he seemed happy there, also let him wander on the table then back onto my arm so that is a relief and quicker than i thought so im very happy :D

do they actually drink water? i have water in there for him which would be easy for him to access it, the water doesnt seem to go down though, do they not drink much? and how much exercise a week do you think i should give him out of the tank?

thanks
 
Im sure that he will get used to u just give him some time. As to Texas Ranger and his video my male ambilobe does the exact same thing. When I open his cage he comes to the front and will climb on me to check out what's going on.
 
they don't normally drink from standing water! what other type of water source does he have? (drip ststem, mister etc etc)
 
he doesnt have any other source, when i took ownership of eric he just had his standard 'bowl' which he has had for a year and a half, do they tend to drink a lot though?
 
They do not normally drink from bowls but I guess if that was there only option to survive then they figure out what to do. Water bowls are like the cage waterfalls, breeding ground for bacteria especiallyif your chams poops in there and then drinks out of it yuk!! You should be misting your cage or running a dripper. Get a cheap sprayer bottle and you can hand mist. That is what is natural to them. They drink when it rains and lick droplets off the leaves and branches. that is what you want to simulate. As for your question, it depends on your chameleon. Mine is not a great drinker. Some have chameleons that will drink for minutes straight on end. Mine drinks for about 10 seconds and stops. Some will not drink in front of you either.
 
They do not normally drink from bowls but I guess if that was there only option to survive then they figure out what to do. Water bowls are like the cage waterfalls, breeding ground for bacteria especiallyif your chams poops in there and then drinks out of it yuk!! You should be misting your cage or running a dripper. Get a cheap sprayer bottle and you can hand mist. That is what is natural to them. They drink when it rains and lick droplets off the leaves and branches. that is what you want to simulate. As for your question, it depends on your chameleon. Mine is not a great drinker. Some have chameleons that will drink for minutes straight on end. Mine drinks for about 10 seconds and stops. Some will not drink in front of you either.
yeh that is what im worried about as he does poo in it and obviously i have to change it but he has done it a couple of times so its pretty pointless that i keep changing it, i have sprayed the plant at the side of the glass just now, and it is filtering down and dropping specs, but i dont think that will be enough for him as it is pretty warm in there and it will probably evaporate after a while, do they need a lot of water to survive or is there another way i can supply him water for now, by misting the cage do you mean sprayingthe tank glass for him?
 
sorry to keep asking questions i just want to make sure i have everything covered :)

sometimes (he just has now) he will climb up the back of the tank (polystyrene) and he goes upto the top to the mesh, stays there for about 5 minutes, is it him trying to tell me something? also when he climbs back down he sometimes struggles and falls down, not from a high distance, are they easily hurt or am i just worrying?
 
I mist spunky's home with a hand spray bottle i got at the dollar store. I mist 3-4 times a day. Don't be afraid to mist it pretty heavily. It won't hurt your cham, although, like Spunky, it might not like getting directly wet. It'll move out of the way. Sometimes Spunky will drink in front of me, but sometimes she won't eat or drink if I'm watching. She's silly. You can also get a paper cup and poke tiny holes in the bottom. Fill it with water and position it on top of its home to where it drips down on to the leaves. It sounds like you and i have the same type of cage. I clean mine at least once a week since it doesn't have any way for the water to drain out. I'm a new owner, too. :)
 
We need to mist several times a day, and running a dripper for as long as possible, usually in the mornings is preferred I believe, helps too. Lots of us struggle with getting our chameleons to drink enough and keep them hydrated. But it is very important for their health.
Usually misting involves misting the plants that are in the tank. Live plants hold the moisture longer, helping with humidity levels and giving a longer opportunity to drink off the leaves. I will also mist the chameleon itself, one let's me spray him pretty much directly, but the other hates it, so I have to try and get hem with an indirect side spray kind of raining down on him gently while I'm spraying above near him. We do this because often times being "rained on" like this will trigger a drinking reflex. Sometimes it takes several minutes of misting before you'll notice this reaction, that's why you need to have good drainage in place.
They prefer it when the water you put in the bottle is very warm, since the temperature cools when it comes out as spray (so if you started with room
temp, it would come out cold)
The dripper, as it drips on the leaves, that too will sometimes trigger the drinking response.
Generally it's said that chameleons don't recognize standing water as a source. They need moving, dripping, etc to notice that it's water. As said, if a bowl is their only option,well I guess they'd figure it out eventually, but it's really not natural or ideal for them. So now I guess you'll have to train him back to a more natural method, but it will be a more sanitary source and better for him in the long run.
 
Eric, as long as you know you chameleon for a fact poops in there get rid of it. You cannot be there every minute to monitor that. I am surprised he has not gotten ill already. Do they sell dripping systems over there? Feeding your chameleon juicy bugs can help keep him hydrated too. I feed mine alot of hornworms and silkworms which squirt with juice when he eats them (yuk) but I think that might have something to do with why my chameleon is not a very good drinker at all. His urates(the white part of his poo) look pretty white but not all the time. A white urate means a hydrated chameleon. Yellowish or orange in color is a sign of some dehydration.
 
yeh being a new owner is a pain but we all have to start somewhere i guess lol, i had done research but there seems to be a new question everyday, i will try the paper cup for now as that sounds like a good idea for a drip, i will be able to get a proper system for a cham at the weekend and see how he goes.

echoezra i do mist 2-3 times a day thoroughly, though the weater evaporates very quickly (temp of the tank is average, 30 celcius, 80 farenhite, humidity gauge goes up and down between 25-50ish when misting)

the previous owner has always had his water in the bowl though and he is a year old and healthy so he may be used to that but now i think about it, it isnt very healthy is it!
And carol (and my chams name is eric im andy haha, named him after eric cantona, if you like your football (soccer) you will know im a man united fan lol) i will take out the bowl as he does seem to do it a lot and he has pooped a little of the yellowish stuff (only a shade though it isnt bright)

daft question: he has brown and the 'yellowish' poo how come? and i feed him meal worms and every other day wax worms which he loves but are fatty, so he should get a little liquid from those also

andy other advice would be appreciated thanks
 
haha thanks

im a bit worried about eric, i put some worms out for him at about 5 last night, he didnt eat any, i have put a couple more out today plus a couple of locust (he doesnt eat crickets why i dont know) and he isnt touching them he normally eats straight away though, he seems ok and hes moving about, do they sometimes go without food for a while?
 
chams will go on hunger strikes for many unknow reassons at least to me but try crickets again they get board of eating the same old things somtimes do you gut load the feed?
 
Hi, can you explain what i have to do to gutload as i am unsure (i am being a dunce sorry lol) i have been told that it is to cover the feed in calcium powder? an explanation would be aprreciated thanks :)
 
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