Thank you so much. When free roaming do they make their way back on their own? Gonna research that some more.
Some do, some don't. I've had free range melleri who learned their way around the house quite well. They would march back to their mini-forest in the second bedroom after completing the daily "patrol" of warm sunny windowsills, plant stands, and the horrible glass fronted stereo cabinet where their rival always seemed to lurk. My biggest female preferred taking her mid-patrol time outs on the compressor housing on the back of the refrigerator...it was nice and warm there. Other free range chams didn't orient as well, especially if they wandered into a cool darker area. Brain cools down, thinking slows to nothing, and so do they. The worst spot in that house was the chilly ceramic tile floor behind the toilet...and of course that was invariably where a missing one ended up going. I had to hunt them down and retrieve them myself. If your house tends to be a lot cooler than their cage they can end up getting chilled fairly fast.
Best to first confine roaming to the area around their cage. Chams tend to stick to known safe routes, so encourage them to do so by creating one for them. Make sure there aren't any hazards before you let them wander. You don't want them touching hot basking spot fixtures, trying to climb on things that can fall on top of them, getting stuck behind or under furniture, touching room heaters or fans, falling into water, tangling with other pets, getting stepped on, etc.
As for getting your cham to "love" you, forget it. They can certainly recognize you as a trusted source of good things and allow you into their presence without a fuss, but they aren't really wired to "love" other beings or care anything about what that other being might want from them. If you want love, get a dog. You'll learn that the ultimate compliment a cham may give you is voluntarily choosing to crawl up your shirt and rest on your shoulder...when there are other places higher up they could select. If that gives you a thrill, you've officially become a resident of the cham-lover-slave-servant domain.
