My Veiled is grumpy

[cooper9934]

After his last shed a couple weeks ago he has been a complete grump! He is about 6 months old and each time I walk into the room he starts to hide from me. I hand feed him all the time had he has no problem with that but he REALLY dosn't like being picked up. I was trying to clean the cage yesterday and he was hissing and trying to bite me was I put my hand in there.

I then feed him from my hand he is was ok... but he really seems not to like any interaction. This is fine, I didn't want to get a chem to play with outside the cage.

Any suggestions on making him less grumpy? He is getting crickets and misted a couple times a day. His poop looks good... so for the most part he looks healthy.

Thanks!

A.

 

[ChameleonsInMyHouse]

After his last shed a couple weeks ago he has been a complete grump! He is about 6 months old and each time I walk into the room he starts to hide from me. I hand feed him all the time had he has no problem with that but he REALLY dosn't like being picked up. I was trying to clean the cage yesterday and he was hissing and trying to bite me was I put my hand in there.

I then feed him from my hand he is was ok... but he really seems not to like any interaction. This is fine, I didn't want to get a chem to play with outside the cage.

Any suggestions on making him less grumpy? He is getting crickets and misted a couple times a day. His poop looks good... so for the most part he looks healthy.

Thanks!

A.

guess what, my veiled is grumpy too! i think 90% of all our veileds are grumpy

though i would agree with the cham that interactions and handling piss him off. hes at the age now where hes starting to change and know his personality.

he will always be your friend if youre feeding him, but a side from it all, hes letting you know he doesnt like you lol. sorry to break it to you

 

[laurie]

Just give him time, he may go back to being agreeable. I would hand feed such that he has to walk on your other hand to get the food. Just back the food up until he has to "climb on the bridge" to get it.

 

[DavidBuchan]

Congratulations! He's a big boy now, and he needs his independance - I may be oversimplifying but I reckon if you want a Cham to comfortable being handled you need to 'befriend' them as babies, and re-train them from almost scratch when they are grown-ups........keep patient, disturb and handle as little as possible, he'll maybe learn to trust you properly again (but as said before - he's a Veiled Chameleon! They hide from everything, it's in their nature to be pissed off if you let him know you've seen him........)

 

[okiroo]

guess what, my veiled is grumpy too! i think 90% of all our veileds are grumpy

though i would agree with the cham that interactions and handling piss him off. hes at the age now where hes starting to change and know his personality.

he will always be your friend if youre feeding him, but a side from it all, hes letting you know he doesnt like you lol. sorry to break it to you

haha well at least their super cute when they're puffed up and hissing

 

[cooper9934]

Yep

Nice! I totally agree. Like I said before I didn't think that I would be able to take him on walks... and not holding him is fine.

The only issue is when I want to clean the cage and NEED to take him out.

I like the idea of having him walk to the food. I'll start doing that little by little and see if I can get him to come out on his own.

Its funny too that when I do take him out, when I put him back in he wants back out! Funny little guy. He climbs right up to the top and wants to climb out the top of the cage. If I didn't have it closed I'm sure he would fall.

Thanks for the advice for my grumpy Chem...

 

[DavidBuchan]

Nice! I totally agree. Like I said before I didn't think that I would be able to take him on walks... and not holding him is fine.

The only issue is when I want to clean the cage and NEED to take him out.

I like the idea of having him walk to the food. I'll start doing that little by little and see if I can get him to come out on his own.

Its funny too that when I do take him out, when I put him back in he wants back out! Funny little guy. He climbs right up to the top and wants to climb out the top of the cage. If I didn't have it closed I'm sure he would fall.

Thanks for the advice for my grumpy Chem...

Exactly the situation I was in recently (mine is 10 months now). There was a very slight hiccup when I was bribing him to approach me again. I gave too many waxworms - it was all he liked enough to come nearer, lol. He sulked for a week and still doesn't seem enthusiastic about crickets like he used to......
Anyway, the Calciworms arrived today, so all is well in the jungle..........