She’s bitten

[Bro Bott]

Guys I’m back with me lady Marge. She is a sweet gal but resently she has turned intl a biter. I went to hold her and she tried to bite me. This is the 3rd time this has happened. She’s never been a biter and has never tried to bite me except for recently when I reach in there to get her but only when I come close, not when I reach in to get her food I wonder if this is a temporary thing whether it’s a health thing or this she’s just going through a funk any advice would be good

 

[MissSkittles]

Welcome to the wonderful world of keeping a beautiful sassy lady veiled. You will soon learn how to avoid those cute little jaws of destruction, as well as no longer be surprised when she does succeed at causing her little triangle dents in your flesh. You will also grow to just adore her sass and spirit. Don’t let her attacks prevent you from still working on building trust and continue to hand feed when you can. In time, she will start to see your hands as a provider of food and try eating them before biting whenever they get too close. Usually once she realizes the fingers are not fat worms, she will then initiate the biting. She will never kindly accept being touched and will detest being held, but she may not try to bite once on your hand. At least this is how it is for my sweet and fierce old lady, Stella. While she has never been what one would call ‘friendly’ and has always been out for blood, she does know that she is safe with me. As she’s become old and slowed down, she’s needed some help at times with eating (too slow some days to grab her food) and had some other needs, that trust has really been essential with/for her.
My advice to you and anyone with a gorgeous and spicy lady veiled is to enjoy all of her physical beauty and unbreakable fearless spirit. Accept her on her terms and just love her as she is. Don’t give up on working on building/maintaining trust and learning how to avoid those bites.

 

[ehdee6]

Welcome to wonderful life of owning a female vailed, my friend.

Littlefoot has only gotten sassier with age, sort of like me.

How is Marge's eyes and weight gain going?

 

[LizardLurkin]

Girl chameleons seem to be built different. My veiled boy is a pretty big sweetheart these days, meanwhile my young panther female is the feistiest little thing, often getting into the t-rex "ready to strike" pose. I love it though ^^

 

[Bro Bott]

Welcome to wonderful life of owning a female vailed, my friend.

Littlefoot has only gotten sassier with age, sort of like me.

How is Marge's eyes and weight gain going?

It’s great, she is now a ferocious eater and is filling out

 

[Bro Bott]

Any advise on how to gain her trust more? She used to let me take her out of her enclosure just a few weeks ago and ate out of my hand but all the sudden stopped.

 

[Fridolyn]

Hello @Bro Bott just having the experience from one male veil chameleon, I can say: they do not care about you ️ Our chameleon was in his terrarium without any issues for weeks. After shedding he became an explorer and walking around. With his new skin, it was like we have a new chameleon.

We hand feed him from the beginning and we hadn't a big issue here, but we also agreed to never "grab" him (if it's not an emergency) to take him out. But it's ok to bribe him ️ What worked for us is that when he got a wax worm, we put the worm in a way, that he has to walk over our hands to get it (never grabbing him then). After a few weeks he started to look around and after his morning and noon basking, he leaves the terrarium (we let the door open, when we were around) and climb on the tree directly beside. To get him back was another issue.

In many cases he walked back by himself and we supported him coming over the gap between terrarium and tree (why using the easy way with vines and sticks we built, when you can go the risky way ️). Again never grab, always be the bridge he can walk on but does not have to.
When he is staying on the tree we wanted him back at least one hour before the lights go out so he can do some final warming up, we also don't want him more than 2h outside. At the beginning we bribed him with insects, but probably it's not the best idea too feed close to sleeping time. What we try is to be part of the tree.
Means, we put the hand a bit lower but in front of him and try to anticipate his next steps and get him put one foot at our hand and then nudging him to go fully on top (raising slowly the hand so he does the next steps and is fully at the hand). Always have the hand lower than his height.

The last days we started to become accepted as a climbing spot. He started to explore more (going down in the terrarium to the bottom and also climbing down the tree outside). Good thing we had him outside only when we're watching him.

Anyways, he had never a bad experience with out hands by grabbing or something like that, it's more like a feeder and support for climbing. When he now is climbing and sees the hand, it's ok to use it. Most of the time we either put him back on top of the tree or back in his terrarium. Today he climbed on top of me, having his relaxing colours and observing how I offered him a path back to his basking spot, so yeah....animals never do what you think they should do as a proper animal. He stayed on me for some time, relaxing, while I was working, observing the world. When he started to move down, I went to the terrarium and he went back in. As I said, official accepted tree.

So long story short:
- feed always with your hand
- never grab
- never force and give bad experiences with the hand
- give the special treats (not every day) in a way that he walks on the hand and
- give him anytime the chance to leave your hand

Probably it's different from chameleon to chameleon, but that worked for us.

 

[Beman]

Are you noticing changes in her coloring? When last did she lay eggs? Could be hormonal and the change is due to incoming eggs... In this case you would leave her be. With most chams you just need to back off from handling and do it on her terms if she comes out to you. Normally you are going to know if they are about to bite. They show signs like gaping at you, putting the front arm up, drastic fired up color change, some will try to strike a hand first before it is even near them.

 

[MissSkittles]

Any advise on how to gain her trust more? She used to let me take her out of her enclosure just a few weeks ago and ate out of my hand but all the sudden stopped.

I’ve found hand feeding works best for building and maintaining trust. This is a great blog to check out. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/building-trust-with-your-chameleon.2396/

 

[Bro Bott]

Are you noticing changes in her coloring? When last did she lay eggs? Could be hormonal and the change is due to incoming eggs... In this case you would leave her be. With most chams you just need to back off from handling and do it on her terms if she comes out to you. Normally you are going to know if they are about to bite. They show signs like gaping at you, putting the front arm up, drastic fired up color change, some will try to strike a hand first before it is even near them.

I don’t notice a crazy change although she is a little lighter and kind of looks like she is shedding a little bit. But she is supper different, I mean like I walked in there and she ran away. It could be that a few days earlier, I came in and she was stuck in her fern weaved around and under a leave and had gotten twisted and it was 2 hours after her lights turned on so I went to help her out and I think the fact that she was stuck and had her back turned, made her scared and defensive and that was the first time I noticed gapping behavior and her trying to bite me.

 

[Bro Bott]

Are you noticing changes in her coloring? When last did she lay eggs? Could be hormonal and the change is due to incoming eggs... In this case you would leave her be. With most chams you just need to back off from handling and do it on her terms if she comes out to you. Normally you are going to know if they are about to bite. They show signs like gaping at you, putting the front arm up, drastic fired up color change, some will try to strike a hand first before it is even near them.

I’ve found hand feeding works best for building and maintaining trust. This is a great blog to check out. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/building-trust-with-your-chameleon.2396/

She also has never laid. I will try hand feeding with some worms but she runs away when I walk up so I don’t think she’d see me. But if I do it enough maybe that will reinforce it. Also, right now I really just want to make sure my animals are alive, healthy, and thriving. Marge is alive, healthy, eating, and thriving. Walking around her enclosure and using all her lights to the fullest. I know that I might not be able to hold or see her beauty up close until she is really comfortable with me, but at least I get a super cool reptile. Thanks guys.

 

[Fridolyn]

At the beginning my chameleon was shy when I went to the enclosure. He was not a hiding one, but not the outgoing one, either. I tried to walk very calm to the enclosure. In the corner (~2m away) are all the insects. He can observe me how I pick and powder the insects. Then I walk to the enclosure, open the door and just hold it there between my fingers.

What he really does not like is hectic or fast movements. Especially not when I (accidently) surprise him. His terrarium is "protected" by the tree (he likes to climb) from the "traffic" in the room. So I try to come to the terrarium in an angle so he sees me as early as possible. Feels like a bit like a "dog school" where not the dog is trained but the owner ️.

What I also did in the past was sitting between my insect boxes and working with my laptop. I was visible for him, but did not interact with him at all. Beside feeding I do not handle him inside the terrarium, outside it's more now as he is starting exploring.

Hope that helps.

 

[Beman]

She also has never laid. I will try hand feeding with some worms but she runs away when I walk up so I don’t think she’d see me. But if I do it enough maybe that will reinforce it. Also, right now I really just want to make sure my animals are alive, healthy, and thriving. Marge is alive, healthy, eating, and thriving. Walking around her enclosure and using all her lights to the fullest. I know that I might not be able to hold or see her beauty up close until she is really comfortable with me, but at least I get a super cool reptile. Thanks guys.

How old is she? Might be good to post some pics of her from today. From what you are saying about her actions she is showing that she does not want interaction.