Mean/aggressive panther??

[k6gsxr600]

Hello, I received my 6-7 month old male panther chameleon. Its been well over a week now and he is still very angry and mean. If me or my girlfriend any where near his cage he puffs up right away and opens his mouth. If i open his door to water or feed him he does the same thing except he will lunge at my hand and try to bite me. I understand he needs to get used to his new cage and environment but this seems a bit over the top.

My friend has had 2 chameleons and neither of them were nearly this aggressive and mean. I'm new to this so im asking people who have been doing this for a long time. How long will this last? Will he ever calm down? Is it better to stay away from him or be near him more? Try to handle or dont?
Any info is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Let him chill. Only handle him if its necessary to clean or move him outside for sun. It usually takes a few weeks for them to get used to a new cage and new faces. Pretty soon he will recognize your face means you bring food, water, freedom, etc... At that point he will calm down a bit. Wait a cpl of weeks than try to get him to hand feed. That always helps to get them to accept you. Main thing is take it slooow you have many yrs together to bond. Let him accept you on his time frame not yours.

 

[k6gsxr600]

Okay, thats what i wanted to know. Will he eventually recognize me and let me be near him or handle him without upsetting him. When you say hand feed do you mean put a cricket in his mouth or let him grab it out of my hand with his tongue? Or is there something else i can hand feed him? Thanks again!

 

[Julirs]

He may eventually calm down in your presence, but may never let you handle him. I have quite a few male Panthers that will not let me go near them, but are OK with me putting food in the cage.

 

[carol5208]

you can hand feed him worms, like silkworms, waxworms. those you can put right on your hand and they don't bite! Superworms bite! Or you can hold with your fingers a cricket and let him try to snatch it with his tongue. Julirs is right, you may never be able to handle him. Some chams are just not friendly. They all have their own individual personalities like any other animal. He is still relatively young and may turn out to be a nice cham. But as the others have said, just let him settle in and give him some time to gain some trust in you.

 

[krbshappy71]

You can try opening his cage and just standing there. No noise or talking sweetly very quietly. I would also avert my eyes, looking at the floor or just anywhere not directly at him.
Then close the cage. Stand for longer instances each time, watch his body language to see if it settles down. Then close the door and leave him again.

I did this with Swyft and each time he became more and more calm when I initially opened the door and stood there. I made sure that cleaning and disrupting the cage was not his only interaction with me. I also cup-fed him (I am too squeamish to hand-feed) and that seemed to help him also associate me with a positive experience. I don't know if it matters, but when feeding I did not do ANY thing else to the cage. I didn't adjust vines, clean, nothing else but quietly offer food during those times, stand there a while, then quietly close the cage again.

Swyft is now free-ranged and about 2 weeks before I took the leap to free-range he was climbing out of the cage, right onto my hand, and would again climb onto my hand to be returned to his cage at night. I've only owned him a few months now, maybe I just got lucky with him, he was a year old when I got him.

I'm a newbie, I just know what worked with Swyft. I did the above standing-in-front-of-cage-quietly several times a day every day when I got him.