How should I go about taking a new chameleon out of his cage

DiannaBanana

DiannaBanana

New Member
TLDR: I have a new, young chameleon who isn’t comfortable with me handling him yet, but I need to clean his cage.



Hello! I am new to the wonderful world of chameleons! I’ve done months of research and studying and, finally, I’ve purchased my first chameleon! He is a healthy, 5 month old Veiled Chameleon, and I love him with my whole heart. I’ve had him for about 3 weeks now. His enclosure is from the ZooMed chameleon kit, but I’ve added more things for him. He has plenty of sticks to climb on, a bunch of foliage (both real and fake), and he seems very happy where he is! He is almost always a bright green color, but sometimes he develops black dots when I approach too abruptly for his liking. I try to only go into the cage while sitting down on a chair in front of it (he is on my desk and usually hangs out at the top of the cage, so he’s way higher than me when I sit), and I only go in for feeding and misting. That being said, his cage is beginning to get a little dirty, and I want to clean it, but I don’t want to freak him out and I know he isn’t exactly comfortable with me yet. He will not eat out of my hands just yet, but has become comfortable with me feeding him off of the tongs. I know I have a long way to go with building trust between us, but what do you suggest I do in the mean time so that I can clean his enclosure? Also, if you have any other advice, I’d love to hear it! Thanks!

Also, I attached a picture of his enclosure! I am getting a bigger UVB light for him soon.
 

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Mine will hiss and open mouth and scares me. Comes out and crawls on couch and carpet and when gets tired of exploring gets on hand. Then it is back in cage.
 
I can’t really see well from your pic, but do you have the long uvb or the screw in bulb? The screw in bulbs don’t provide adequate uvb and you’ll need a T5HO with a 5.0 uvb bulb.
Also, as your little man grows, he’ll be needing a much larger enclosure...minimum of 2x2x4’. I would say get the 24” T5 and just have it hang over the small enclosure for now. Save a little from buying another.
Can you post some pics of your cham? Just want to make certain you do have a male. Pet stores too often tell people the wrong gender.
If you’d like, you can have someone review your husbandry to make sure all is correct. Go to the health section under forums, ‘How to ask for help’ and copy/paste the help form with your answers.
For your question, just clean around your cham as @Klyde O'Scope said. He will probably get as far away from you as possible, so avoid where he is and be quick. To build trust with him, this is a great blog to learn from. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/building-trust-with-your-chameleon.2396/
 
MissSkittles said:
I can’t really see well from your pic, but do you have the long uvb or the screw in bulb? The screw in bulbs don’t provide adequate uvb and you’ll need a T5HO with a 5.0 uvb bulb.
Also, as your little man grows, he’ll be needing a much larger enclosure...minimum of 2x2x4’. I would say get the 24” T5 and just have it hang over the small enclosure for now. Save a little from buying another.
Can you post some pics of your cham? Just want to make certain you do have a male. Pet stores too often tell people the wrong gender.
If you’d like, you can have someone review your husbandry to make sure all is correct. Go to the health section under forums, ‘How to ask for help’ and copy/paste the help form with your answers.
For your question, just clean around your cham as @Klyde O'Scope said. He will probably get as far away from you as possible, so avoid where he is and be quick. To build trust with him, this is a great blog to learn from. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/building-trust-with-your-chameleon.2396/
Click to expand...
He currently has the screw in one, but I am getting the longer one. Also, I guess it looks small in the picture, but his cage is actually pretty big (not sure of the exact measurements, but it’s taller than me if I sit next to it). I’ll attach a picture of him!
 

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you don't have to take him out. Make sure he isn't right where you are cleaning don't make direct eye contact and your good. But if you have to take him out take a small cage with a stick put It by the enclosure hold food infront or put a bowl of food inside where he can see it.Then if he gets in put, a towel over the top and he will most likely will go to sleep.then to get him out of that remove towel wait till he wakes up and do the same thing you did to get him in the small enclosure but do it in the big one.:)(y)
 
Welcome to the forums! I'm excited that you're excited. It's such a great feeling getting a new little guy to hang out with :)

Regarding how to take him out of the cage, I'm not sure I have any more to add than what has already been recommended. It's clear you care for him and want to do what's best for him. That's great! It looks like you have a fantastic set up.

There are a ton of very knowledgable people on this forum with years and year and years of experience. I would recommend creating a husbandry post and filling out this form here https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/. It can be easy to miss little details that have huge effects on our chams. As you probably know they are good at hiding sickness for a loooong time before it's too late.

I'm on my 4th chameleon and am still learning so much! I've learned a lot recently from: https://chameleonacademy.com. Check it out if you'd like :)

Congrats on your new friend!
 
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