cushcameleon
New Member
I know it can be very stressful for chameleons to be handled, but I also know there are owners on this site who have chameleons that literally walk right onto their hands. So my question is, how do you reduce the natural fear that chameleons have of humans so that they actually desire to be held occasionally? I have already developed some of my own methods, which have worked very well and have drastically reduced the amount of fear my cham has of me. For example, I will leave the door open to the cage for several hours (as long as I am next to it to supervise him) and while I do the chameleon will sometimes climb all the way to the edge of the cage and watch me work at my desk. I also place my hands in the cage and hold them there for several minutes, and my chameleon has got so used to them that he does not crawl away or stare them down, in fact my chameleon even allows me to place my hands very close to his body. He is also starting to become less frightened when I touch him and is begginning to crawl away from me less and less. I think he is really starting to like me . But my last step is to hold him without having to force him to climb on my hand. So to those of you owners who have done this successfully, what techniques did you use?