I previously had a Veiled Chameleon when I was a teen and I would handle her all the time without a problem. She seemed to enjoy getting out of her cage. Sometimes I would keep her on my arm or my shoulder or if I was doing homework I would let her do what ever she wanted but keep an eye on her. I am now getting another Chameleon years later, and frequently see articles about how it is bad to handle Chameleons in general...Is this always true? Does it help to handle them from a young age to get them use to coming out of there environment?
Handling Questions.
- Thread starter ShamroQ
- Start date
Ulrich
New Member
Welcome to the forum. There is really no rule to handling. Each Chameleon has its own character. You should observe its general temperament and make your judgement on how often you can handle it. I had chameleons that got aggressive being handled. So I let them be. I had some that crawled and pooped all over me, so I let them be around me more. I also have currently a case that was very interactive, but due to a lot of traveling, I didn't touch him much anymore. Now he is rather happy in his enclosure and refuses to come to me. Having said this, the amount of handling can also determine the level it will tolerate you to an extend.
Takani1
Member
Handling
Hello,
I would like to share with you how I taught my veiled chams to love handling and ask for my attention, I am a positive reinforcment dog and cat trainer, I know that chams are way different but I read in one of my Cham books that chameleons will and can retain information..
when I was doing my research before buying my first ever female chameleon I saw and read alot on how aggressive and stressed they can be during handling so I thought I'd teach them in the lowest stress way possible! How did I do it? FOOD ASSOCIATION of coarse! How I started was baby steps,
first I hand fed, then I simply held my hand in front of my girl and the food cup a little closer toward my elbow and let her make the CHOICE to step onto my hand, when she did she also ate her food on my hand, when she was comfortable stepping onto me and after her breakfast she was allowed to free range in her own jungle gym of vines and sticks above her cage this made her associate me with not only food but also more freedom!! And this was all done by her choice in the least stressfull way possible, my goal was not to train but to avoid aggression and stress completely while handling, so far I'm the only one I know of who has tried it.
Now thanks to my patients and somewhat easy work she really enjoys coming out and being handled and since it's by her own choice it keeps the stress of it all way down if any!and imagine the advantage you will have if you ever need to handle for medical reasons!
I recently got a 3 month old male veiled and I have been using the same process with him for the past month iv had him and I'm getting the same results!!!!
here is my female walking onto my hand with no food lure she now eats in her cage and walks onto me for free range time
http://m1281.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/takani1/1362382031_zpse40788aa.jpg.html
i hope ull give it a try
and feel free to let me kno how it goes,
and I don't know if you will have the same results but it worked for me it's worth a try
Hello,
I would like to share with you how I taught my veiled chams to love handling and ask for my attention, I am a positive reinforcment dog and cat trainer, I know that chams are way different but I read in one of my Cham books that chameleons will and can retain information..
when I was doing my research before buying my first ever female chameleon I saw and read alot on how aggressive and stressed they can be during handling so I thought I'd teach them in the lowest stress way possible! How did I do it? FOOD ASSOCIATION of coarse! How I started was baby steps,first I hand fed, then I simply held my hand in front of my girl and the food cup a little closer toward my elbow and let her make the CHOICE to step onto my hand, when she did she also ate her food on my hand, when she was comfortable stepping onto me and after her breakfast she was allowed to free range in her own jungle gym of vines and sticks above her cage
this made her associate me with not only food but also more freedom!! And this was all done by her choice in the least stressfull way possible, my goal was not to train but to avoid aggression and stress completely while handling, so far I'm the only one I know of who has tried it. Now thanks to my patients and somewhat easy work she really enjoys coming out and being handled and since it's by her own choice it keeps the stress of it all way down if any!and imagine the advantage you will have if you ever need to handle for medical reasons!
I recently got a 3 month old male veiled and I have been using the same process with him for the past month iv had him and I'm getting the same results!!!!
here is my female walking onto my hand with no food lure she now eats in her cage and walks onto me for free range time
http://m1281.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/takani1/1362382031_zpse40788aa.jpg.html
i hope ull give it a try
and feel free to let me kno how it goes,
and I don't know if you will have the same results but it worked for me it's worth a try
schwingirl89
Member
This seems like a great approach. I have read similar approaches, but not really with any detail as how to go about it. The first cham I had was Fischer, and he seemed to get used to us quickly without too much effort. It may have helped that he was free range though. My current Jackson is super shy, and will try to "run" away from us. Of course, we only try to handle him when we need to. But, I'd like to try your approach to make him less shy. I hate stressing him out! Thanks for the infoHello,
I would like to share with you how I taught my veiled chams to love handling and ask for my attention, I am a positive reinforcment dog and cat trainer, I know that chams are way different but I read in one of my Cham books that chameleons will and can retain information..
first I hand fed, then I simply held my hand in front of my girl and the food cup a little closer toward my elbow and let her make the CHOICE to step onto my hand, when she did she also ate her food on my hand, when she was comfortable stepping onto me and after her breakfast she was allowed to free range in her own jungle gym of vines and sticks above her cage
Now thanks to my patients and somewhat easy work she really enjoys coming out and being handled and since it's by her own choice it keeps the stress of it all way down if any!and imagine the advantage you will have if you ever need to handle for medical reasons!
I recently got a 3 month old male veiled and I have been using the same process with him for the past month iv had him and I'm getting the same results!!!!
here is my female walking onto my hand with no food lure she now eats in her cage and walks onto me for free range time
http://m1281.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/takani1/1362382031_zpse40788aa.jpg.html
i hope ull give it a try
and feel free to let me kno how it goes,
and I don't know if you will have the same results but it worked for me it's worth a try
Awesome!
Thank you for the advice this was the response I was hoping for! When I was a teen I didn't know any better and handled my veiled all the time, but she seemed to like it. She would come to my hand like yours is in that picture. Thanks for the advice with associating freedom food as well, I think in a sense that is what I use to do by getting her out. I would hand feed her as well but I would do it by holding one of the crickets legs between my fingers and letting her snatch it from my other hand.
Thank you for the advice this was the response I was hoping for! When I was a teen I didn't know any better and handled my veiled all the time, but she seemed to like it. She would come to my hand like yours is in that picture. Thanks for the advice with associating freedom food as well, I think in a sense that is what I use to do by getting her out. I would hand feed her as well but I would do it by holding one of the crickets legs between my fingers and letting her snatch it from my other hand.
Olimpia
Biologist & Ecologist
What type of health concerns? It's prudent to worry about dogs/cats and any small animal like this, so I strongly recommend that you use common sense and never let them be together without supervision. Also, make sure that the cage is on a tall, sturdy counter or piece of furniture where the dog can't get to it. Most dogs don't seem to care about chameleons at all but just in case, it's better to treat them with suspicion!
But health as far as them catching the same bugs, that's not something you have to worry about, personally.
NVcham89
New Member
I have three large dogs and a male veiled cham. I keep my cham in a different room, mainly because it gets the most sunlight and stays at a consistently warm temperature, but occasionally my dogs will follow me in the room when I go to feed the crickets or my cham. So far, I have not had any issues health wise or stress wise with having my dogs in the room... Of course my dogs do not pay any mind to my cham and he's high enough up to where there really isn't anyway for them to reach him. I'm only speaking through my own experiences, but my dogs do not make a difference in my chams health.
