Little Breakthrough with Ickis!

[jcarlsen]

Since I got Ickis at the end of October, he'd grown very weary and defensive over his new home and was not thrilled to see a hand coming anywhere near him even with food, and he proved his willingness to bite even when I was offering a tasty treat. So for a while I just put any attempts to get him used to me on hold as my priority was making sure he ate well and was hydrated, in addition to all the other parameters. But I read @Beman 's post about gaining trust with your chameleon and one thing I just started doing was leaving the door open with a tall plant in reach in case he wanted to venture out. The perks of working from home and having your desk near the enclosure! Well, I've been doing this fairly consistently for a few weeks, and honestly Ickis seemed even more weary with the door open and definitely didn't take a step on that plant...that is until today when my partner walked into the room and gasped! And sure enough while I'd had my attention away for a few minutes, the little bugger had not only climbed on the plant, but managed to crawl halfway across the floor!

I was pretty nervous to pick him up since I didn't want to take another bite on my hand, but luckily all I got was some puffing and gaping and no further aggression. I held him up on my hand for a few minutes, snapped a few of these images and put him back, but now as I walk by the cage he seems far more chill, as if he's had this epiphany that I am not, in fact, trying to eat him haha. But now I know I'm gonna have to keep a closer eye on the cage whenever I decide to leave the free range plant near it!

 

[Beman]

lol now the little man thinks he has free reign over the room

 

[Tkrd69]

Now he owns you. You are now being trained and will be bent to his will. As long as he knows he's being watched will move super slow. He notices you not paying attention they move like the wind. Likely hiding spot on top of curtains or whatever is the highest spot they can get too

 

[MissSkittles]

Yay! Congrats! It’s so awesome when all of your patience finally pays off.