Juvenile Handling Question

[slamwise]

I am trying to get my my juvenile Sambava (a little over 5 months) to "tolerate" or calm down when being handled, instead of running all over the place like a crazed maniac.

A lot of pictures have people with their chameleons just sitting still in their hand.

Do juveniles become less panicked when they get older? Or do they just slow down in general?

Thanks.

 

[yoza717]

Most do calm down. As long as you are not forcing yourself on him, your chameleon will soon figure out that your presence means food and will tolerate you more.
You have plenty of time in your hands. Approach your cage slowly and don't wear flashy clothes. Hold out his favorite food and see if he comes to you. This may take weeks or months.
Out of the 7 chams I have only one would rather have nothing to do with me. The rest will eat from my hand and some of the times will climb on me to get to their outside basking tree (usually once or twice a week).

 

[Dean Pulcini]

I'd leave him alone at let him be a chameleon some never warm up to their keepers only tolerate them.

 

[xanthoman]

I'd leave him alone at let him be a chameleon some never warm up to their keepers only tolerate them.

definitely good advice, the more you try and force the situation the worse it will get, in terms of stratagies , rather than just grabbing your animal and hoping it will calm down , you might try more hand feeding and less independent feeding , so that it learns (over time) more to associate you with food , you might also start try rationing his food some and rather than just grabbing or chasing him around the cage, you might try using a small hand held climbing branch, and keeping the branch between you and the food , allowing him to step onto the branch of his own accord, and if this begins to work , dont just take the branch out of the cage as soon as he steps onto it , try to think like a chameleon, slooooooooow and cautious, patience is the one thing most likely to improve the situation , like dean said , some chams never do warm up to being handled, my chams initially hate being handled, but if you let them sit on you for any lenght of time , without constantly trying to reposition or puting your hand in front of them, they will usually mellow out after a few minutes. just because you see a picture of a cham sitting calmly on somebodies hand does not mean they got there without protest , they usually appear to be calm in photos because that is about the only time you can take photos. sometimes mine will calm down enough for photo sessions, sometimes they wont, if its a hang out on your shoulder buddy you want , a cham is probably not the best choice

 

[slamwise]

I can hand feed him, and he gets noticeably happy when I do. However, he refuses to use my hand as a branch. One time, I lured him out on to my hand (a looong process) and as soon as he realized where he was he freaked out and rushed back up the ficus.

 

[Jono]

Its that sort of patience that might get him to warm up to you in the end. Use food to lure him to you, make sure you are sitting comfortably and be prepared to sit still for 10minutes each time. Let him come to you on his own terms. Dark clothing and slow movements really help. You can imagine what a human hand looks like to a cham when it comes bursting through the foliage: 5 legged sausage monster!

That said after almost a year of this my veiled will climb onto me for food but will never stick around, hes just to much of a grumpy old man I guess.

I did have a dwarf at one point (who was wild caught as an adult) who was quite happy sit on my finger and shoot insects. I would carry him around the garden on my index finger like a six-shooter and he would shoot any bugs we came across. Quite the party trick, especially when you add your own spaghetti western sound track.

 

[xanthoman]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-handle-chameleon-18438/index5.html

 

[slamwise]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-handle-chameleon-18438/index5.html

Yeah that thread would work if I could even get a hand on him. As soon as he realizes that I'm about to pick him up he runs like crazy.

 

[Gluuvan]

it is a very common reaction for chameleons to do this. Their edgyness seems to settle down as they age, or for some will always be that way. Its natural for them to be iffy about you its instinct, They are used to watching out for big hairy things in the wild that want to eat them.

 

[Chameleon Company]

Do juveniles become less panicked when they get older?

Patience Grasshopper ..... patience

 

[LittleLionLover]

As everyone stated just be patient. IMHO handfeeding is the best way to make your cham more comfortable around you. Personally I implemented this before every feeding and made no move to touch my guy just gradually moved my hand closer to his range each day. After about a week when he seemed more comfortable in my presence I slowly moved in and gently touched him with the tips of my fingers, at first he seemed okay but then quickly moved away. Eventually though as I continued to hand feed him at a close but non-imposing distance, he warmed up to me. He won't just clamber on to me, but hes become alot calmer when it comes time for him to be handled, which is a huge step forward . Hopefully given time he might warm up to me a bit more.

Perhaps this method might yield some good results for you. Just move slow and relaxed, and don't be discouraged if you don't recieve exactly what you expected. Chameleons are like people in the sense that they are all different, some are more receptive to being around others and some aren't. Be happy with any progress made because in the end it's all about what he feels and wants, so any show of tolerence I feel is a small token of appreciation from them.

Best of luck
-Jaz

 

[slamwise]

Good to hear.

Thank you for all the responses!

I will just hand feed him for now and see what happens over the coming weeks.