Hello! New Member from UK

[chammiesMammy]

Well Hello, My Name is Katie i am 30 years old and live in the UK.
I have a 5 month old Male Yemen Chameleon called George (as in Boy George chamma chamma chamma chamma chamma chameleon) lol.
He is my first chameleon, and up to now i am enjoying having him in our family.
Just lately he has become Very Hissy when i try to put my hand near him to get him to come to me, but when reading advice on the forum i noticed that this is just normal "moody, male, teenager" behaviour, but that won't put me off as i think he looks adorable when he focus's with both eyes towards me, he looks some what "boss eyed" and that makes him look cute.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Welcome to the forum!
I hope you find it as informative and interesting as I do. Feel free to share a picture of your George

 

[Miss Lily]

Hehe! Welcome! I am also in the UK! I also love that song, as did my first cham, Lily!

Your boy is probably just becomign a bit more territorial, like you say. He may calm down again, or he may remain 'hissy' - Yemen/Veileds are well known for their grumpy attitudes! I am lucky and have two l'il sweeties!

 

[jastate09]

Welcome to the forums Katie and George.
Miss Lily I love that picture.

 

[txskunk]

hey hey hey

Welcome glad you found a new home and glad to see a Cham making your family just that much better!

T.Skunk

 

[laurie]

A big welcome from this side of the pond. i love the different take of care of chameleons offered by our UK members. It is always good to learn.

 

[growing zoo]

Hi I am also fairly new to the forum and also from the UK
Welcome and am sure you will get all the knowledge and advice as I have from this friendly place

 

[Bokaru]

Welcome!

I am a new chameleon owner as well and do not have much experience with chameleons, but from my brief time raising mine this is what I have found to work well.

I have found that one way to make your chameleon more friendly towards you is to hand feed them. This way they become familiar with not only you, but that "evil" grabby thing they keep on seeing coming towards them.

Try to make yourself very visible as you approach, then present the food and move you body to where your chameleon cannot see you (especially your face, eye contact made my Peppers very nervous when I first got him). After a few days or weeks try feeding with your body visible and then a little later eye contact can be made.

A lot of people say that handling your chameleon too much is dangerous, but if you can create a trusting bond your chameleon will happily climb right out of its cage and onto your hand. I recommend that once you have your chameleon in your hand you take them to a comfortable place most of the time to associate your hand with not only food, but a nice destination. I take Peppers out of his cage a few times a week to place him on a bonsai tree I have outside in the sun for him to bask on.

I hope my insight will help you,
Good luck

 

[KingJulien]

Welcome!

I am a new chameleon owner as well and do not have much experience with chameleons, but from my brief time raising mine this is what I have found to work well.

I have found that one way to make your chameleon more friendly towards you is to hand feed them. This way they become familiar with not only you, but that "evil" grabby thing they keep on seeing coming towards them.

Try to make yourself very visible as you approach, then present the food and move you body to where your chameleon cannot see you (especially your face, eye contact made my Peppers very nervous when I first got him). After a few days or weeks try feeding with your body visible and then a little later eye contact can be made.

A lot of people say that handling your chameleon too much is dangerous, but if you can create a trusting bond your chameleon will happily climb right out of its cage and onto your hand. I recommend that once you have your chameleon in your hand you take them to a comfortable place most of the time to associate your hand with not only food, but a nice destination. I take Peppers out of his cage a few times a week to place him on a bonsai tree I have outside in the sun for him to bask on.

I hope my insight will help you,
Good luck

I think this is good advice. I offer my chameleon food or water every time I approach the cage, and now I can tell if he is hungry or thirsty, he comes to the front, or watches me intensely to see what I have for him. It's very cute. He's about 7 months. This does not work at all with my 4 month old girl, but I think it will in time.

 

[Bokaru]

I think this is good advice. I offer my chameleon food or water every time I approach the cage, and now I can tell if he is hungry or thirsty, he comes to the front, or watches me intensely to see what I have for him. It's very cute. He's about 7 months. This does not work at all with my 4 month old girl, but I think it will in time.

I agree. Some chameleons are more stubborn than others. I forgot to mention about the water, this is a good idea as well. I found that my Peppers loves to drink out of a pipette so he is always scampering towards me when I open the door.

A final note: if you really want to attempt to speed up the process, you can force the chameleon to climb on your hand by offering food or water a large distance away and and placing your hand in between for them to walk across to get to it. I would recommend allowing it to step back over onto its enclosure afterwards or at least until it is more comfortable with handling.

 

[Pascal2017]

Hi Folks
Just got my first Yemen called Pascal [girl]
Hope I can get useful help here.