Handling?

[Djturna4thakidz]

I have a 8 month old female panther chameleon and I just got a 3.5 month old male panther. I bought the female as a baby and it was my first cham. She is a wonderful pet but I was so scared about stressing her out, I never attempted to handle her and now she is very skittish. When I have to move her she turns black and hisses. I would like to attemp to handle the male while he is young, in the hopes that he will tolerate being held acasionally. I know that chameleons are not social anaimals, but a lot of people on this site handle their chams and i would love to be able to easily move him outside into the sun. I have tried several times to hand feed him crickets but he just gets scared and moves away. I would like some advice from those that have docile chams, what should I do to start the process of trusting one another? What type of a schedule should I use? hat are the good signs that he is coming around? I could pretty much use any information ie techniques or approaches that anybody has regarding this issue, thanks!

 

[SunnyBaby]

I make sure everytime I have to handle my guys no matter what the reason and no matter how long to include a yummy treat. That way they know they get something good out of it. Also no sudden movements. I put my hand below their tummies and slowly pick them up.

 

[ISA my Veiled]

To get mine "used to a little bit of handling I often times would just let her know I'm not scared of her and ease her onto my hand by sliding my fingers under her feet. That way she has no choice but to grab your finger and you can ease the rest of her on your hand. Also they will hiss as we all know so just stand your ground and let him his and nick at you but from my experience with my chameleon she only does it once or twice and then just sits back and doesn't do anything lol another good way is to always, always, always be there and let them know you are the person feeding them. I normally will take my little cricket tote and dust them in it and let her climb on out and go ahead and climb out, look at me and then go ahead and eat a couple and let her retreat, try not to force it to bad, if they are really resisting obviously try another time, but good luck! and with the female wear a glove lol

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

I will try to offer a treat. He usually just looks at it and then trys to locate an escape route outta there. I will attemp to pick him up by putting my hand under him. Should he start becoming more relaxed when I am near him?

 

[Kate]

I think it's best to socialise them when they are young. I have had 3 chams. 2 veiled and 1 panther. My first and last were very small when I got them and were easy. The second veiled was a juvenile and hadn't been handled, he was evil

 

[AngieL]

We have never handled our girl I believe she was sub adult when we got her but she's not mean, just very very scared of us. We tried to take hire out for some sun and she dropped herself off her vine to get away!

 

[Carlton]

I will try to offer a treat. He usually just looks at it and then trys to locate an escape route outta there. I will attemp to pick him up by putting my hand under him. Should he start becoming more relaxed when I am near him?

Is this treat an insect he has seen before? If it's something new he won't necessarily recognize it as food. Do you cup feed him now? Try holding the treat in a similar cup in your hand. You can also try putting his normal food in the cage when he's warmed up and active for the day so he is more likely to associate the arrival with food with you. If you put his food out early before he's warmed up he may not be as aware of you.

Some chams, even if handled from a young age, just don't warm up to their keepers. Others are much more tolerant. I don't think you have permanently "ruined" a cham by never handling it when it was a baby, and I also don't think every cham will accept handling even if started young.

 

[pssh]

I've also noticed that sometimes babies dont hand feed until they get a little bigger and more used to you. How long have you had him? Start with hand feeding and make sure he gets really comfortable with that before you start to handle him. Once he is used to hand feeding, slowly ease into the handling part. It might take a while though.