handling

[cuso]

what are some ways of getting my cham.. to be more comfortable with me be sides taking them out and letting them walk around. and if thats the only way what are some ways of getting them out of there home. they never seem to want to come out.

 

[MK1]

chams

Its because they dont like to come out. There really isnt any way to gain their trust like u can a dog or cat. They arent that type of animal.

I suggest reading all the threads u can tonight and for the next few days. There is alot to know in chameleon care. Are you keeping the jackson's together?

 

[ChameleonNerd]

if you have experimented cup feeding, you can do a little trick with that. put their favorite food in a dish, clear, plastic, whatever they are comfortable with. you basically want to get their attention so they try to get it, but keep it out of their tongue's distance. lure it on to your hand (it might take a little while, especially the first time) then once you have it on your hand, let it eat the food and then sit there for a minute. move slowly and then put under it's chin. they all seem to be suckers for the chin rub

 

[cuso]

No I'm not I no that it is not wise to keep them together

 

[cuso]

Hahahaha the old chin rub gets them every time lol. I do cup feed them it seems like there to young to catch the crickets. The first time I put crickets in there home they all seemed to die because they never got eaten

 

[ChameleonNerd]

good, then using the cup feeding method to get them out of the enclosure with minimal stress should not be a problem

 

[Olimpia]

I think I learned something with my last two panthers that I wish I'd known for all of them. The way I figure it now, being locked in a cage and then having a big hand come reaching in towards you, where you're cornered, and then have the hand chase after you trying to grab you or scoop you up is just plain starting everything on a super traumatic foot. It's like starting the relationship off in a way that terrifies the poor guy/gal.

So what I did was leave their cage open and put a fake tree or plant in front of their cage so that they could come out on their own. The first couple times I let them come in and out as they wished, which usually took hours of me sitting on the floor of the same room (to be lower and less scary) watching tv on my laptop. Then once they seemed comfortable enough to come out of their little "territory" I tried putting my hand in front of them to use as a bridge between branches or to climb on. Then I'd hold them for a couple seconds (seriously, only a couple seconds) and then put them back. Short enough so it's like "omg I'm on a hand! Oh, now I'm off again and I'm ok... cool." Then I started increasing this. After a couple weeks they were getting shoulder rides to outside time in the sun or stuff like that.

This, along with hand feeding, seemed to make my last two panthers very much tolerant of handling. They don't by any means love it, but at least it's not a fight to get them to the vet or out for a cage cleaning. I wish I would have tried it with all four and seen if it worked well on more chameleons. But it may be something you can try.

 

[cuso]

Sounds like a great way to not stress them out and to get them out of there enclosure thanks for the tips