Result today

[EXPL0S1VE]

After having my cham for just under a week I let him settle for few days and tried offering food by hand which he hasn't taken to as yet but I managed to take him out of his tank and hold him for a little I think looking at his colours he's ok with it after 5mins he all of a sudden freaked out and tried running which I took as him having enough and put him back any tips would be great thank you

 

[Graves923]

Patience. Less than a week is not a lot of time for him to adjust. Start of by doing something quiet in the room with his cage so he gets used to you being around and in sight. Ignore him while doing cage maintenance or misting. Then, when he isnt trying to hide when he sees you, try hand feeding so he starts to associate your hand with food.

Every cham is different though. Mine, for example, always tries to hide from me and hiss anytime my hand is in his cage but will eat from my hand with no problems. When my girlfriend opens the cage, he comes right to her and will climb up her arm . No hissing or bribery needed.

Chams can build trust with their keepers. This probably explains why my cham wont let me near him but will practically run to my girlfriend. I had to be the bad guy when he was sick and take him from his cage and give him nasty medicine every day for a week.

 

[EXPL0S1VE]

Thank you for replying I'm trying my best to ignore him so I don't scare him it's so hard I just wanna hold him more or as often as he lets me. I was told today by pet store that if he hisses or trys biting to carry on and pick him up as he will only get worse? he hasn't come to the bottom yet I'm guessing he will when totally settled in tank

 

[jamest0o0]

You got the wrong animal if you want to hold them, it is stressful even for Chams that take to it. Those are stress colors btw.

 

[EXPL0S1VE]

There his normal everyday colours as far as im aware and he produces spots and gose really dark when stressed out. I no there not a hands on pet but they are intelligent and can learn

 

[jamest0o0]

Your cham looks stressed in all of the pictures. they learn certain things, like the best way to run away from something. They've evolved to not form social bonds, how many times am I going to have to type this to people that bought veileds and want to treat them like dogs. Handling your cham every day isn't going to change its physical stress response to being touched. Clearly you're only going to hear what you want to hear and somehow you are a chameleon expert asking newbie questions. I'll leave now

 

[EXPL0S1VE]

Yea best jog on your attitude stinks I only asked a question and for tips your attitude comes across as if what's the point in having one Graves923 had a brilliant response your just arrogant cheers anyway

 

[Virgil1972]

I would give him a few weeks to settle in. If you want him to tolerate you enough to be handled the worst thing to do is try and force it. Give him a few weeks to get used to his new surroundings. Then try just sitting in the room where his cage is and don't pay attention to him. Then move to trying to hand feeding, use something he will really want to eat like a hornworm or silkworm. It can take a lot of time to get him to get acclimated to you. If he does at all.

 

[Graves923]

Try not to take Jamest0o0's response too personally... We get alot of new keepers on these forums who saturate the forums with posts about how they just want to hold their cham but it wont let them and such.

Try to remember that chameleons are a prey item to any animal larger than themselves, such as humans. They dont have the mental capacity to realize instantly that you arent going to hurt them. Like James stated, they are not social animals so handling, petting and such doesn't benefit they at all. If the cham cant get away or feels cornered, they hiss and lunge at the perceived threat. If that doesnt deter the threat, they bite.

With my veiled, I ignored him while doing cage maintenance and I only handle when he comes out of his cage on his own. He usually climbs out and on top of the cage and proceeds to try and climb the picture frame next to his cage. At which point I scoop him up slowly and move him to his freerange for a little bit.

I never remove him from HIS territory unless absolutely necessary

 

[Zephalia]

You have received some great suggestions here already but one that I will add is to get a big plant or tree (even fake works) and set it in the room where you spend most of your time. Let him spend an hour or so a day on that tree but leave him alone other than placing him there and putting him back. This will also help to associate you with getting out of the enclosure and many chameleons that are cage aggressive will be more tolerant when they are out.

I wouldn't recommend actually handling him all that much - not all of them ever get to that point.

 

[Crashbandit05]

One thing that worked for me and my panther is slowly introducing feeders in my palm. I used black soldier fly larva and held my hand open and as still as possible. Obviously didn't take to it the first time but after several attempts, days apart, he started snagging them up. Now if I walk by and he sees me, he climbs the screen to come out.
Patience, patience, and more patience lol. Good luck with your little guy, they grow up way too fast!

 

[EXPL0S1VE]

Wow didn't excpect so much helpful advice i really appreciate it ive taken everything on board just want to no everything i can about chams so he has the best life thank you all for your comments

 

[jajeanpierre]

There his normal everyday colours as far as im aware and he produces spots and gose really dark when stressed out. I no there not a hands on pet but they are intelligent and can learn

"Intelligent" is not a word I would use to describe a chameleon. They are very simple animals. Engaging and entertaining to watch, yes, but intelligent? Compared to what? They are definitely NOT problem solvers.

All animals learn. Did you know that you can train bacteria? You can even train worms to go through a maze.

You've had your chameleon for only a week. I really doubt you have any idea of what his "normal everyday colours" are. (Are you from Canada or Britain?)

I have a large collection of animals and it took me forever to even scratch the surface of understanding their behavior.

Chameleons are a very very difficult animal to read partly because they have almost no facial expressions. Their faces are pretty much frozen. Unless they are baring their teeth, gaping, hissing, puffing or exhibit an overt color change, you really have no idea what is going on in their minds.

Your chameleon panicked. Chameleons rarely use flight as a defense strategy. They tend to stay put which is why you can see pictures of adult chameleons in the wild apparently sitting calmly on researchers' hands. Believe me, they are not calm.

 

[EXPL0S1VE]

He's been the same coulor since pet shop hence why I assume there his every day coulor why dose everyone have to sound so bitchy with there comments everything I've learnt has been reading on internet which I don't 100% trust so I thought I'd join here for help and advise but there's a few bitchy people on here fair play especially when I'm only asking for help not to be taken the piss out of sorry for language and I'm from Britain btw

 

[jajeanpierre]

He's been the same coulor since pet shop hence why I assume there his every day coulor why dose everyone have to sound so bitchy with there comments everything I've learnt has been reading on internet which I don't 100% trust so I thought I'd join here for help and advise but there's a few bitchy people on here fair play especially when I'm only asking for help not to be taken the piss out of sorry for language and I'm from Britain btw

You think I am being bitchy? I thought I was being polite. I could have said what I thought which was: Keep it up and you will likely have a sick or dead chameleon within the next two years because stress kills chameleons by suppressing the immune system.

Was it because I tried to help you better understand your chameleon? Or because I tried to show you that you probably had very little understanding of your chameleon's behavior?

No one likes to be criticized, but I didn't think I did that. There is nothing wrong with not knowing. We all started as rank novices with no understanding of a very difficult group of reptiles to understand. What you do about your lack of knowledge is what matters. Poor husbandry--and handling/stressing chameleons is a part of husbandry--kills chameleons.

 

[Sloppysponge]

His "store" colours are most likely will be his "stress" colours.

@jajeanpierre is a wealth of knowledge and skills and experience, she is by no means "cooshy" in telling you what to do.

She says the things that other people try to beat around the bush about.

Don't get me wrong like she says no one want to hear about what they are doing wrong, but the take no shit kind of response has offended me in the past but when I looked at the bigger picture she was right way before anything happened in my situation at least.

P.s trust me people can be a lot more harsh than her. She is trying to help.

 

[EXPL0S1VE]

I no what your saying but I'm made to feel incompetent. We're as I feel I've made progress I'm trying to get my cham to trust me and aproch my hand or eat from it I only attempt this in the mornings I offer my hand to see if he will walk on it for few mins only and only a few seconds if he walks away and only try hand feeding once a day so far he's walked on my hand and today for the first time he tried to eat from my hand but I shit myself as didn't excpect it are these not Results??

 

[EXPL0S1VE]

My English is terrible I do apologise

 

[Sloppysponge]

Do what you wish to your animal, now you know what you are doing to it, it's now in your court how you would like to proceed, for the good of the cham, tone it back, or do how you see fit and don't blame anyone but yourself when the health of your animal declines rapidly.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I no what your saying but I'm made to feel incompetent. We're as I feel I've made progress I'm trying to get my cham to trust me and aproch my hand or eat from it I only attempt this in the mornings I offer my hand to see if he will walk on it for few mins only and only a few seconds if he walks away and only try hand feeding once a day so far he's walked on my hand and today for the first time he tried to eat from my hand but I shit myself as didn't excpect it are these not Results??

Chameleons are a challenging animal to care for, partly because they are so difficult to read. Learning about chameleons means you realize very little is known about how to keep them and most people don't do a very good job with them.

Honestly, why would you feel competent with a chameleon after owning one for only a week?

I don't think any chameleon ever trusts a person in the sense most people think of as "trust." Like all creatures, they make decisions in their life to get what they want. Some are very tolerant. Some are not. They will all become used to your presence and less fearful of you the longer you have them whether you do anything with them or not. Some will be jerks their whole life. I have one male that wants to kill me and any other human that walks by his cage. He comes running the the front of the cage, lowering his head and horns thinking about how he can get at me and gore/bite me. Some come running when I open the cage, looking for food. This little girl, a wild caught T.q.quadricornis will thwap me with her tongue whenever she can, thinking my fingers (which put her roaches in her tub) are food that just got away. That steely focus is on my fingers. Maybe she thinks they are little nestling birds from Cameroon... I've never tried to tame her and have only handled her in non-trust building ways--grabbing her up to weigh her or medicate her. Not exactly trust-developing activities.