Juvenile handling

[BriAlme]

I have a question about handling. I know each individual chameleon is unique as far as their tolerance to be handled goes. My reason for asking is, I see quite a few photos of juvenile chams perched on a hand when the photo was taken. I'm wondering if there may difference between an indivdual breeder who will probably handle their chams more often thus making the animal accustomed to being handled verses a large scale breeding operation where they are less likely to be handled until being sexed or shipped. My new male who I've only had three days is frightened when I'm placing feeders in his cage, which is to be expected.(He's drinking fine and eating well, crickets and silkworms.) I was just wondering if anyone may have noticed any difference between different breeding situations and their young chams tolerance to being handled.

 

[mbondy]

Not particularly. I have both situations, a panther that was probably handled much more then my other cham. He's fine with handling, was afraid of me for the first few days.

Then there is my fischer, he spent most of his life outside without much human interaction yet he LOVES being outside and crawling on my shoulder. The first few days he was afraid of me then he learned he actually liked me.

It really just depends on the cham.

 

[jannb]

I think a small breeder would have more time to interact with the babies and you would be getting a baby that been around humans and touched more. I spent all day with Luie and Camille's babies and the are all still very friendly to this day and they are 15 months old now.

Here they are at 19 days old.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY5tNIrr9V0

Then 6 weeks old.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MzulorMdTE

 

[Olimpia]

I agree with Jann, I have one of her babies and she's always been a super friendly social chameleon. She's the type of cham that will claw to get out of the cage and sit happily on your shoulder as you walk around the house or go sit in the sun. I've gotten my second friendliest cham from a big breeder who I assume doesn't have time to sit and hang out with each baby but that's an example of nature over nurter, his personality is just a delight. But I think all of Jann's veiled babies were raised with lots of attention and turned out to be super social and remained so if their owners kept up the handling and attention.

So I would say yes, it probably makes a big difference. Sometimes you get lucky with chameleons from huge breeders but the odds are probably better if you can find other small-scale, attentive breeders like Jann.