Taking Chams out

[camaleonte82]

I get that with my snake, followed by swears...

haha. i was bit by my sisters 9 foot albino python.... not a good day

 

[Carlton]

im not taking it out in the dead of winter. it eats when we go out if not before. the sun is in the sky and its warm. i'm not taking them to fishing trips to canada. its across the street or down the road for 10 min tops. i have found them in my clothes closet in the dark, on a sweater in the middle of winter and it was cold in the closet. they had a lamp above the free range and he got down from the tree and went to the coldest spot closet to him and turned really dark. when i found him he was so happy to get back in his cage and he basked. so to me they obviously love to roam

Another thing to remember about roaming chams...they roam if they DON"T have an acceptable territory, are searching for a mate, or searching for something their territory is missing (like just the right temp, someplace higher up, etc). I know, I've free-ranged them a lot too. The problem is, if your roaming cham gets far enough from the basking spot where it can warm up whenever it wants to, they start cooling down unless the air temp in the room is the same as their warmer spot. The longer they are cool the slower their brain works. The slower the brain works the fewer decisions they can make and their body coodination slows down too. So, they are less able to find their way BACK to the good spot. Like a battery-operated toy that runs out of power. That's why you find them dark and still in a closet etc. Not because they chose to sit there.

Also remember that chams have very precise spatial memories...they remember specific routes to safe places. Once they have a travel path in their memory they are more likely to use it because they obviously were safe when they tried it the first time. This serves them well in the wild because they need to know safe getaways, hunting perches, basking spots, sleeping spots that give quick exposure to morning sunlight, and refuges in bad weather. My free range melleri would spend most of their time in their room on particular perches at different times of day. They didn't wander all that much once they knew everything they needed was available there (heat, light, water, feeders, cover, etc). If they did wander out of their room they would literally walk the same path, going around furniture the same way, visiting the same detours, sunning patches in windows, avoiding the same barriers in the same way. And, BTW, showing their "medium stress/excited" coloration as they went outside their room. In the room perched somewhere familiar, they were quiet colored.

 

[Anfsurfer]

Think about chams in the wild...they are very territorial and feel most at ease in their space that they can defend. If they are taken out of their territory involuntarily, they are going to start feeling insecure and at risk. To me, this is what they are thinking when you take them on car rides or someplace it doesn't know.

I don't think your cham really enjoys going places with you. You are a social mammal who likes visiting. Your cham is not. You enjoy change of scene, your cham is probably feeling pretty vulnerable and confused by it.

Captive Bred Chams are not "Chams in the wild". They have an EXTREMELY different life. In the wild Chams hatch, and have to fend for themselves. They roam off, find a territory, and make it theirs. They're vulnerable and that's why they become reclusive. Some breeders socialize their babies. they're used to interaction everyday. Mine is. He runs onto me everyday for our time together. He has never once fired up at me. He shows his best colors after coming in from outside with me. Never while we're outside. He's not stressed by any of it because he was raised that way since a baby.

You don't know this cham's upbringing, nor the person. So kind of bold to say what their cham likes and doesn't like.

 

[animaltycoon]

my jacksons female runs away from me when i put my hand in her cage and sometimes puffs up , is it because i have only had her for 3 weeks?