My Cham is terrified of me!!!

[jamenryder]

We just got a baby veiled cham a week ago today. We (my 7 yr old daughter and I) gave her space on the first four days, only opening or going into her tank to feed or spray, then the fifth day I let my daughter feed her a worm from her hand. I have been letting her do this two or three times a day (its spring break!), but our little baby girl is still terrified of us. I have put my finger near her to see if she will climb on but she just looks at me and freezes for a while, then goes the other direction. I will usually stay still until she turns away, and then I will pull my hand out. I always put my finger/daughter's hand in coming from below her, as I have read that coming from above her will scare her.
Finally today, on the one week anniversary, I decided to just gently pick her up with my hand. I did so, and she walked up and down my arm faster then I have seen her move so far. I let her climb on me for about one minute, but felt like she was scared and kind of panic-y, so I put her back.
I dont want to stress her out, or have her be scared of me or my daughter. Any tips on how to get her to trust us?? Did we just not give her enough time to adjust?? I would love to be able to do some of the cool things I have read some of you are doing with your chams, like taking them outside and things like that, but mostly I just want my daughter to be able to be able to at least touch her.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

 

[Rolon88]

You should wait about a month before you try grabbing her let her get adjusted too her new home ... afther a while shell start noticing who you are and lil by lil do it

 

[brandon1]

It's a patience and trust game. Very rarely do people acquire Veileds that are real friendly as youngsters. Continue hand feeding as that tends to make them more acquainted with you, and give her time. Don't try to handle her too much while she's a baby and never be forceful. You have to earn her trust but once you have she will be more comfortable with handeling.

 

[Dynasty]

It's all in time my friend.

A lot of the time a chameleon will not voluntarily go near you. That's just the way that they are. But with patience and friendliness comes virtue. If you just let the chameleon do his or her thing, feed her and keep her hydrated. She'll eventually get used to you. The only time I recommend taking your chameleon out of it's cage or handling it is when you need to. Say you're moving a plant around or you're going to clean its cage/tank. Those are good times, limiting the amount you pick them up can really help. But this is a good sign! This means your little baby is healthy if she has the energy to run away. I know that sounds weird but that's the way they are

So good luck with her, she'll grow up to be a beautiful reptile. Enjoy

 

[jamenryder]

thank you everyone! I knew I should have waited, but patience is not one of my strongest virtues!! haha

 

[armyrec1]

Good Luck

When we first got our female Cham she never seemed to like me I felt. She was is a smaller cage seeing as she was young. When she got older we moved her to her "big girl" cage which gives her more room and more importantly it seems, more height.
Now when I go near the cage she seems so much more friendly and confident. When we open the front of the cage to feed her, she comes down to almost greet us and take her food. She seems just a different Cham since getting grown up and getting a larger, taller cage.
Its taken around a year though, during that time we haven't pushed her and let her go at her own pace, I think she prefers Hubby to me but she did come out on her own grounds. If we left the door open then she would choose to come out and afterwards climb on me.

I think she was happier to get on me when she was out of the cage. I don't think they like it when they are in "their" space and you go to them as much. That's just our personal observation.

Good Luck and Im sure with time and patience she will learn to trust you. Just go at her pace I think.
E

 

[CauseNAffect]

This comes up on the thread all the time..

my advice.... handle your chams daily....

each cham is different... however they are creatures of habit, if you make a routine thing out of handling for about 5 minutes a day, your cham will start to recognize you not as an alien probing it for a possible meal, but a provider.....

my cham hated me, and after dilligent and careful handling, now he yearns for it, and gets jealous when i hold my other chams, I was holding my meller the other day in front of him and he climbed off the tree onto the ground and up my leg.

 

[stephen gedman]

wants to kill me

cant get near my little guy yet, put my hand near him &he wants to rip it off, hes 7mths old but only got it a day ago.

 

[allencg101]

don't worry about it in just a little while you will be afraid of her!!! welcome to the world of veileds. and you don't have to wait a month give her about 2 weeks but keep up with the hand feeding!!!

 

[sdheli420]

my chams all hated me when i first got them as babies..after a looong time of hand feeding, hand watering, and a lil outside time, my chams grew to love me, and will come visit when they feel the need (all the time now)..

patients is the first thing you need with chams, they gain trust as slow as they move, it takes at least 6 months for a cham to lose aggressivness/fear and at least a few more to start to associate you with good things like food, water, treats, outside time ect ect..

one day you may get this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb8-JpvzGiM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87H7XnpUSCk

 

[jmwhitel]

my chams all hated me when i first got them as babies..after a looong time of hand feeding, hand watering, and a lil outside time, my chams grew to love me, and will come visit when they feel the need (all the time now)..

patients is the first thing you need with chams, they gain trust as slow as they move, it takes at least 6 months for a cham to lose aggressivness/fear and at least a few more to start to associate you with good things like food, water, treats, outside time ect ect..

one day you may get this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb8-JpvzGiM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87H7XnpUSCk

Wow!! Thats impressive. How old were they before they began to "warm up"

 

[sdheli420]

Wow!! Thats impressive. How old were they before they began to "warm up"

they were around 5-7 months before they would just come to me on their own..