Handling Pygmy Chameloens

[petefromsouthampton]

Since getting my chameleons a few weeks ago, apart from picking them up to put them in viv, i haven't handled them assuming this may stress them out.

But now I wonder if it's a good or bad thing to sometimes pick them up and say hello.

Sometimes I will put my hand in close to them to guide a cricket towards them, but apart from that they see little of me beyond my ugly big face looking in.

What do you think? handle them or not?

(I was going to post a poll but I can't see how to do that)

 

[kdc5019]

Pygmys are shy solitary creatures that freighten easily. I don't handle mine at all unless I'm cleaning out the vivs or taking it apart to dig up eggs.

They stress very easily and over handling them could be harmful. A few minutes a week will be fine but don't feint when you see the
Then feint. They use it as a defense mechanism where they will just fall over. So always have an extra hand under them.

 

[petefromsouthampton]

OK, well that seems to fit I with what I suspected. I haven't yet cleaned out the viv, what is required regarding that? I have some thriving springtails in there and it's not getting smelly or anything.
It's good to know that a little bit of handling is OK, they are lovely animals just to watch but I wondered about occasional handling so that's OK then.