What it boiles down to, your cham with time will learn to be what u want it for. If you want it to be like a moving picture it will live fine as one. If you want it to be ur buddy it wont mind that either but you cant expect it to be both the more u work with it the more useto you it will become. Dont take nagative responses. I feel the people that tell you not to touch ur cham are either scared of their cham, dont have time to train their cham or heard the made up story that if u try touching ur cham it will fall over and die. A chameleon gose through alot more stress in wild than you cold ever put it through birds pecking at it other reptiles challenging it. So take it how you want. Brock breaks it down alot better than I can.
((BROCK)) I disagree with most people's point of view on this, and I highly recommend handling as much as you can/want so long as you aren't interfering with their thermorugulation. Handling for long periods of time when they need to go bask might cause digestive issues, and they need access to heat to support their metabolism and immune system.
In my opinion, a chameleon that is handled will have LESS stress in its life than a chameleon that isn't handled. When you have a chameleon that isn't freaked out by the sight of you, you have a chameleon that is at peace and on a daily basis will have less stress. When you have a chameleon that is freaked out by the sight of you, you're inflicting stress on it every day and it will constantly be in 'watch out' or 'on guard' mode.
Here are some instructions I sent to another member which she had success with. Keep in mind that every animal has its own identity and some are just mean, same as any other living creature.
Anyways as for handling, go slow. It should take a couple of months before she is really comfortable being handled, but it's important to be diligent at working on it every day or every two days. If you go a while without handling, she will return to being hissy and stressed.
Think of it as conditioning, kinda like working out, you start slow with light weights and work your way up, but if you don't go to the gym every week, you lose that progress and have to start over.
The best thing to do is get her to associate you with food, that makes everything a heck of a lot easier. Most reptiles will associate you with food after years of putting food in their vivarium, but hand feeding speeds up the process of trust.
I'd suggest hand feeding her every day for two weeks. On week three, start luring her out of her cage by sticking one arm in, and trailing the waxworm up your arm so she has to climb your arm to get to it. Keep your arm still for as long as you can, the key here is to go SLOW. A sudden movement is seen as an aggressive movement in the eyes of most animals.
Do that for one or two weeks, or until she appears to be calm walking on your arm, and she accepts being moved around. After she does that regularly without a problem, you should be able to start handling her. When you are handling her for the first few months, it's a great idea to have some worms handy...something they like to eat usually takes all their stress away...comfort food lol.
Never use jerky movements, never move fast, never put your hand over her head (this is like a bird coming down to grab her off a branch), and don't force it on her. They can't be trained like a dog, but they can develop trust and comfort with humans.
Here is a good regimen if you are unlucky enough to have an aggressive chameleon:
week 1-2 hand feed as many worms as you can every day.
week 3-4 coax her up your arm with a worm, keep worms handy so you can feed her while she's on you.
Alternatively for week 3-4 you can lure her out of her cage and let her walk around the floor a bit, or climb things, but you need to be there and just remain still, no quick movements that would stress her out. I'd do this if she still doesn't like being handled by this point.
week 5-7 handle her gently, near her cage (their cage is their comfort zone, ever notice how they usually sleep in the same spot), you can put up her on your shoulder and feed her worms from there, and walk around with her on your shoulder. If she is afraid of being close to your face (instinct is to feel threatened when around a face, or when eyes are looking at them), then keep her on your arms.
She shouldn't mind being handled by this point. If she's still aggressive, start over. It can be a slow process, but as long as you aren't REALLY stressing her out, it's worth it.
You can modify all that depending on how she responds to it, but make sure not to wear bright colors, and no sudden jerky movements, and no music on with a loud base.
Let me know the results! Once she's tame, post your results and exactly what you did so other people can learn as well.
-Brock
I handfed her again today and she went after it immediately.........very encouraging!
