New Veild
- Thread starter Stephen98
- Start date
JamesBryan
Member
Hand feeding is usually the best, as they'll trust you as a source of food.
jajeanpierre
Chameleon Enthusiast
I'm pretty new to chameleons, but not new to dealing with animals that view humans as big scary predators. I studied under one of the leading zoo consultants who teaches zoos to train their (untame) animals to accept medical procedures without anyone restraining the animal. Animal behavior theories work whether the animal is a reptile, bird, or human. You can even train bacteria.
Food is a big motivator, and hunger can be manipulated. Animals can work for their food or go hungry. I wouldn't try manipulating hunger on a stressed chameleon, but delaying food for a couple of hours shouldn't hurt if the animal is acclimated to the new home and under no physical or mental stress. Keep in mind, food deprivation is a stressor, so you don't want to stress your chameleon by withholding food. At the same time, I think we give our pets too easy a time with food. They do want to work for their food (contrafreeloading). Working for food, whether hunting/foraging or being fed for performing behaviors ("tricks") is mentally enriching for our captive animals. Enrichment is incredibly important to captive animals.
Probably the most critical thing to taming is your observation skills. You need to learn the very subtle signs of stress in your chameleon and you need to notice it right at the start of it. Even better is knowing what is going to stress the animal before the animal is stressed, and preventing the stress to begin with. Learn to recognize that almost imperceptible flattening and shift of weight before they back away, the subtle dropping of the head. The sooner you get yourself out of your chameleon's fear zone and back into the comfort zone, the quicker your animal learns not to be afraid of you. Stay in their comfort zone. Reward the animal for showing calm, comfortable behaviors and body language. If you have a hungry chameleon, you could offer it food from a distance with say, long tongs.
You can also reward them for allowing you close with your going further away from them. Sounds bizarre, but it is effective. You find the line where your presence starts to elicit a stress response. Back far away. Approach that line again and if you get to it and the animal is still calm, reward it by backing away. Gradually, the animal will allow you to approach just so it can get you to go away.
You want to avoid any stress response caused by your presence. If they stress, back away out of their zone. If you continue to stress them with your presence, they will be practicing the behavior of fearing you and stressing at your presence, and we all know how practice makes perfect.
If you want to be really quick and scientific about it, you'll make notes of exactly where that line is that the chameleon is uncomfortable with you and the number of seconds you are at each distance. That line will change day to day based on a lot of things. By recording where that line is, you'll learn things such as what your chameleon is afraid of. Maybe it's your red shirt.
Holding an animal that is afraid of you, a big predator that is about to eat it, is not a good way to tame them. They don't get used to it. Sometimes their response is complete submission, which is known as "flooding." You basically force an animal to endure an aversive stimuli, usually one that causes fear, until they accept it and basically give up. There is a lot of physiological consequences to putting an animal in a situtation where they give up and wait to die.
Along that line, don't ever grab a chameleon. A chameleon that is grabbed in the wild has been captured by something that is going to eat it. It is the most fear-producing thing you can do to them. If you need to move them, approach them from below and try to guide them to step onto your hand. If you can't get them to cooperate, try to get them to step onto something that you can hold like a stick.
The biggest risk when moving a chameleon that is fearful of you is that he will drop to escape and they can get hurt. You need to balance their need for not feeling as though you are about to eat them with their safety. You have to manipulate the environment so their dropping and getting hurt isn't a risk. Getting them on a branch and then putting the branch in a big box or carrying a box under the chameleon you are moving them might work.
In a perfect world, you want to set it up so your presence never causes a fear response in your chameleon. Having an enclosure where they feel very safe helps, so they can watch you without worrying you are going to eat them.
Any training should be a choice for the animal. The animal chooses to participate or it doesn't. It is not about force.
I think the people that have been the most successful with taming their chameleons have been the most observant of what bothers/frightens their chameleons and responding to the chameleon's body language. I also think certain individual chameleons are more likely to be tamed than others.
I'm a new chameleon owner. My two veileds came to me recently. Both have been handled (or not handled) pretty much the same way. The male sees me and flies to the front of the cage and will run up my arm. He doesn't like me, he just wants out. The female will never approach me and is shy.
I haven't "tamed" the male. He came to me 6 weeks ago as a gaping, hissing boy of about 65g. I just tried hard not to ever stress him or set up a situation where he feared I would eat him. His innate personality is such that he allows my presence without being afraid.
I think it is important to accept that not all chameleons will tolerate handling. They are not a pet that wants to be handled. They are asocial. If you view them that way, you won't be disappointed you don't have a "tame" chameleon. If your chameleon is tamed, it is a bonus.
At some point, I might try training one to do a trick or two, just to see how they work.
Food is a big motivator, and hunger can be manipulated. Animals can work for their food or go hungry. I wouldn't try manipulating hunger on a stressed chameleon, but delaying food for a couple of hours shouldn't hurt if the animal is acclimated to the new home and under no physical or mental stress. Keep in mind, food deprivation is a stressor, so you don't want to stress your chameleon by withholding food. At the same time, I think we give our pets too easy a time with food. They do want to work for their food (contrafreeloading). Working for food, whether hunting/foraging or being fed for performing behaviors ("tricks") is mentally enriching for our captive animals. Enrichment is incredibly important to captive animals.
Probably the most critical thing to taming is your observation skills. You need to learn the very subtle signs of stress in your chameleon and you need to notice it right at the start of it. Even better is knowing what is going to stress the animal before the animal is stressed, and preventing the stress to begin with. Learn to recognize that almost imperceptible flattening and shift of weight before they back away, the subtle dropping of the head. The sooner you get yourself out of your chameleon's fear zone and back into the comfort zone, the quicker your animal learns not to be afraid of you. Stay in their comfort zone. Reward the animal for showing calm, comfortable behaviors and body language. If you have a hungry chameleon, you could offer it food from a distance with say, long tongs.
You can also reward them for allowing you close with your going further away from them. Sounds bizarre, but it is effective. You find the line where your presence starts to elicit a stress response. Back far away. Approach that line again and if you get to it and the animal is still calm, reward it by backing away. Gradually, the animal will allow you to approach just so it can get you to go away.
You want to avoid any stress response caused by your presence. If they stress, back away out of their zone. If you continue to stress them with your presence, they will be practicing the behavior of fearing you and stressing at your presence, and we all know how practice makes perfect.
If you want to be really quick and scientific about it, you'll make notes of exactly where that line is that the chameleon is uncomfortable with you and the number of seconds you are at each distance. That line will change day to day based on a lot of things. By recording where that line is, you'll learn things such as what your chameleon is afraid of. Maybe it's your red shirt.
Holding an animal that is afraid of you, a big predator that is about to eat it, is not a good way to tame them. They don't get used to it. Sometimes their response is complete submission, which is known as "flooding." You basically force an animal to endure an aversive stimuli, usually one that causes fear, until they accept it and basically give up. There is a lot of physiological consequences to putting an animal in a situtation where they give up and wait to die.
Along that line, don't ever grab a chameleon. A chameleon that is grabbed in the wild has been captured by something that is going to eat it. It is the most fear-producing thing you can do to them. If you need to move them, approach them from below and try to guide them to step onto your hand. If you can't get them to cooperate, try to get them to step onto something that you can hold like a stick.
The biggest risk when moving a chameleon that is fearful of you is that he will drop to escape and they can get hurt. You need to balance their need for not feeling as though you are about to eat them with their safety. You have to manipulate the environment so their dropping and getting hurt isn't a risk. Getting them on a branch and then putting the branch in a big box or carrying a box under the chameleon you are moving them might work.
In a perfect world, you want to set it up so your presence never causes a fear response in your chameleon. Having an enclosure where they feel very safe helps, so they can watch you without worrying you are going to eat them.
Any training should be a choice for the animal. The animal chooses to participate or it doesn't. It is not about force.
I think the people that have been the most successful with taming their chameleons have been the most observant of what bothers/frightens their chameleons and responding to the chameleon's body language. I also think certain individual chameleons are more likely to be tamed than others.
I'm a new chameleon owner. My two veileds came to me recently. Both have been handled (or not handled) pretty much the same way. The male sees me and flies to the front of the cage and will run up my arm. He doesn't like me, he just wants out. The female will never approach me and is shy.
I haven't "tamed" the male. He came to me 6 weeks ago as a gaping, hissing boy of about 65g. I just tried hard not to ever stress him or set up a situation where he feared I would eat him. His innate personality is such that he allows my presence without being afraid.
I think it is important to accept that not all chameleons will tolerate handling. They are not a pet that wants to be handled. They are asocial. If you view them that way, you won't be disappointed you don't have a "tame" chameleon. If your chameleon is tamed, it is a bonus.
At some point, I might try training one to do a trick or two, just to see how they work.
Djturna4thakidz
Established Member
I would let him be for 3-4 weeks, then try to hand feed.
Thanks guys you helped out a lot never knew how useful this forum could be always just looked at it for cool pictures because i always wanted a chameleon. Appreciate the help i am gonna wait a few more days and watch how he reacts to my presence and then try the hand feeding idea and get him to know im his source of food and then ill try the handling part once i set up a basic trust factor.
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