Veiled chameleon loves to cuddle

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I know this is obvious bait, but I mean.... in hopes that you legitimately need help let's be honest here. You have fake plants in your picture. It is currently on a fake vine in said picture. We don't mind if there are issues in your husbandry as long as you are honestly concerned about your chameleon and want to provide it the best possible care. Please, fill out the form so that someone a bit more experienced can help you.

Also, regarding shed skin... yes, it is harmful to your chameleon. Helping them shed should only be done as a last resort, and you don't pull it off as much as you take a wet qtip and gently massage it off.


What form?????
 
I know this is obvious bait, but I mean.... in hopes that you legitimately need help let's be honest here. You have fake plants in your picture. It is currently on a fake vine in said picture. We don't mind if there are issues in your husbandry as long as you are honestly concerned about your chameleon and want to provide it the best possible care. Please, fill out the form so that someone a bit more experienced can help you.

Also, regarding shed skin... yes, it is harmful to your chameleon. Helping them shed should only be done as a last resort, and you don't pull it off as much as you take a wet qtip and gently massage it off.

If you’re referring to the picture she’s not in her enclosure in the picture.
 
What form?????

So here is the form in question. Just take your time to be as accurate as possible as there are folks on here that have been breeding/raising chameleons for quite some time and could give you some really fantastic feedback.

Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
  • Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
  • Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

--------------

Please Note:
  1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
  2. Photos can be very helpful.
 
Very mature responses. I must be nostradamus predicting a well-educated cham keeper, like yourself, would respond so rationally.

I'm sure your exotic vet has spent thousands of hours studying chameleons too. I stand corrected, you have upheaved the cham world with such knowledge. Please write care sheets for us all to follow. I'll adjust my husbandry immediately.

Our chams are living triple that in the wild because we're not cuddling them enough. We must cuddle them harder. Everyone on this forum should be ashamed.
 
Dramaaa. No need to get defensive, people are honestly just trying to help! This forum is a wealth of knowledge and an incredible resource if you decide to use it that way! Regarding your girl’s behavior, just as others have said, people tend to anthropomorphize their chameleons and assign human-like behaviors such as affection to them, when in reality they simply aren’t capable. Their brains aren’t wired like mammals, which are oftentimes social species that rely on more advanced behaviors and social cues to establish hierarchy in their groups, etc.

Also, I would really suggest removing that bark at the bottom of her enclosure because if she grabs a cricket off the bottom she may accidentally take a piece of bark with it, which could lead to impaction.
 
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon -
  • The species VEILED
  • sex, FEMALE
  • age of your chameleon. ?
  • How long has it been in your care? 8 weeks

  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? DEFINE HANDLING

  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
  • MEALWORMS. HORNWORNS CRICKETS. FRESH GREENS. COLLARD GREENS. LIVE PLANTS
  • TWICE A DAY FOOD CHANGES

  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
  • EXOTERRA MULTI DAILY

  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
  • FLUKERS DRIP 2 of them. Auto Misters set 2 hours for 4 seconds

  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
  • White, brown solid consistency
  • No parasites

  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
  • None

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
  • 8 foot tall wood based china cabinet refinished to a full screen enclosure with wood frame

  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
  • Various

  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
  • Three thermometers plus humidity gauge. 80-95 never over 95.
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
  • See above

  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
  • Many different types. Baby tears. Cacti. Bamboo. Orchids.

  • Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
  • On the floor. No vents or windows near it. The top is 8 foot from floor .

  • Location - Where are you geographically located? Iowa

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
None. Just was curious how friendly they can be.
 
On a serious note, btw... to those of you that enjoy handling your cham however often, or have a cham that walks onto you(my 1 panther does this frequently as well), I'm not bashing you. There's a correct way to allow your cham out of cage time and there's nothing wrong IMO with letting a cham crawl on you to explore.

What I have a problem with is the misinformation and the obvious problems with this particular situation. We all make mistakes too and need some guidance. I have no issue with that and have made plenty of mistakes myself, but when you have stuff wrong and then attack people trying to help set things straight, you're going to get laughed at. I'd love to help, but this person clearly isn't going to listen.
 

To quickly define handling, any time you are physically holding or letting the chameleon hold onto you, crawl on your shoulders, ect.

Brief note on one major thing you need to fix... multi-vitamins shouldn't be done daily. You should be doing a calcium supplement w/o D3 daily. Vitamins and Calcium D3 need to be less frequent as over supplementation can cause problems.
 
If I can ask, how old are you?? Chameleons should not cuddle, they change colors according to mood, bright colors are a show of stress, most of the time.... with all the info on this site readily available, husbandry should be no less than perfect, or at least an understanding of it.....I will recommend trading your chameleon for a cat or dog, they like to be cuddled!!:)
 
I also have a chameleon who constantly wants to come out when he sees people around, unless its later in the day or he's not feeling good. Mine will actually close his eyes and sometimes fall asleep when i rub his casque. If its getting close to dark he will also pick a spot on my arm and go to sleep (I do get him in the cage once i notice he's sleepy). I have potted hibiscus plants outside that i put him in pretty much every day for natural Florida sun. Even though he loves basking in the sun, many times he just rather sit on my arm than go in the sunny plant. If i try to get him back to the cage he makes it obvious he's not interested in going and will crawl farther up my arm. By the way, Toruk is very aggressive and extremely territorial.. but i think because of all the time i spent with him while he was growing up, he became very comfortable with me.

At first i was concerned that my cage was not adequate as that seems to be the considered the main reason for this odd behavior. I did need more plants and such in my cage. I recently added some new plants and also some bamboo blinds just to give him even more privacy (got this idea from a bill strand video). Since then he actually seems more energetic and is always ready to come out in the morning. I found that chameleons are very routine oriented. So I attribute his behavior to my constant handling of him as he grew up. Perhaps i still have issues with my cage but i spent alot of time researching and correcting mistakes i've made so i think my cage provides a reasonably good environment for Toruk. Feel free to critique me and my cage setup below, i'm no expert but I do have a few years of experience and i know there are a lot more improvements i need to do. Toruk is extremely picky with food so feeding has been a challenge and nearly costed him his life from a Vitamin A deficiency. I'm still not sure if it was his diet or he got a hold of something outside that got him sick. Also his spikes got burnt because he grew so fast that i didn't think to move his basking branch down as he got bigger.

My experience so far is that he was very easy to feed and he was quite resilient to my husbandry mistakes as he grew up. But now that he's large adult, i find him much more sensitive to a proper environment setup. For the person who started this post, if you're doing something wrong, you may not find out until your pet is 1-2 years old and fully grown. That was my experience anyway.
 

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To quickly define handling, any time you are physically holding or letting the chameleon hold onto you, crawl on your shoulders, ect.

Brief note on one major thing you need to fix... multi-vitamins shouldn't be done daily. You should be doing a calcium supplement w/o D3 daily. Vitamins and Calcium D3 need to be less frequent as over supplementation can cause problems.


Ok. Thanks
 
Chameleon Info:

  • Your Chameleon -
  • The species VEILED
  • sex, FEMALE
  • age of your chameleon. ?
  • How long has it been in your care? 8 weeks


  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? DEFINE HANDLING


  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
  • MEALWORMS. HORNWORNS CRICKETS. FRESH GREENS. COLLARD GREENS. LIVE PLANTS
  • TWICE A DAY FOOD CHANGES


  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
  • EXOTERRA MULTI DAILY


  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
  • FLUKERS DRIP 2 of them. Auto Misters set 2 hours for 4 seconds


  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
  • White, brown solid consistency
  • No parasites


  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
  • None

Cage Info:

  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
  • 8 foot tall wood based china cabinet refinished to a full screen enclosure with wood frame


  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
  • Various


  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
  • Three thermometers plus humidity gauge. 80-95 never over 95.
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
  • See above


  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
  • Many different types. Baby tears. Cacti. Bamboo. Orchids.


  • Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
  • On the floor. No vents or windows near it. The top is 8 foot from floor .


  • Location - Where are you geographically located? Iowa

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
None. Just was curious how friendly they can be.

1.) You should never feed a chameleon mealworms. They are unhealthy and can cause impaction.

2.) You only mist for 4 seconds?! That is approximately 30x too short. 2 minutes minimum

3.) What, specifically, are you lights? For heat? For UVB? We aren't asking these questions for no reason. It matters very much and we are asking because your husbandry has issues that need to be corrected for your chameleon to live a healthy life.

4.) Bamboo is toxic to chameleons and you have a plant-eating chameleon.

5.) Your basking spot should never exceed 85 degrees F. Your chameleon is going to cook at 95.

See, people, this is why we ask for the form....
 
These people on here are only trying to help you, as they are very knowledgeable on the specifics of keeping a chameleon... I myself had husbandry errors that I had to fix as there was no sudden effects on him but will be in the future, and when they corrected me they showed and gave proof of their recommendations being the breeders and vets that are on this forum. I by no means am here to call anyone out but you said there were no fake plants in the enclosure as well as mentioned that it was fully screened but the photos show glass? The best thing to do is regain your composure and except what these people are trying to tell you, it’s simple... They know exactly what they’re talking about and some. From my understanding only admins can delete a forum as all you can do is edit your response (correct me if I’m wrong).. Count how many people are trying to help you just right here, you shouldn’t disrespect when asking for advice.
 
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