FredBenettonGuardian
New Member
Agreed. Cuteness everywhere. (Even the cute aggressive ones.)
It’s hard not to want to give other animals human emotions and I believe our relationships to our chams like others have replied is most likely built on trust, and I believe they have to have some capacity for memory.
I’d like to think that respect is part of it as well, like when working with someone with Alzheimer’s, you have to enter their world, not expect them to be able to enter yours.
In my career with wild animals, I can imagine having one thing in common. Aggressive behavior could stem from a previous ‘abusive home.’ I cannot imagine how ‘wild caught’ chameleons also play a role in this. Every creature is unique in the way they react to their environment. Maybe some have the awareness to not like being in captivity. LOL.
I am still amazed everything I’ve read says chams only tolerate being handled.
That has not been my experience with Fred, (my 1st) male panther who is about one year old, I got as a hatchling. Don’t know if not handling him (for fear of stressing him out) in the first couple months helped or not. It must have taken less than a week to build his trust as soon as I did. Maybe I look like a good climbing tree.
Fred is the friendliest reptile I have ever known of! He will let anyone handle him. It took me longer to trust other people, to hold him then he did. I take him on short walks on sunny days (no stupid lease and mist him along the way) and he has never shown signs of stress or aggression to curious people either. His personality blows my mind and he makes me laugh for a difference reason everyday. We are so lucky!
Building trust must have an element of an instinctive growing process. I still think it’s funny that Fred and I could not stop staring at each other for… actually we still stare at each other with fascination everyday.
If we keep loving our chams, be patient, mindful, and respectful that not all will have Jim Carey’s onscreen personality, it will save us all extra stress.
P.S. I’ve seen many videos on YouTube about how to handle aggressive chams and there is plenty of hope.
Hope this thread continues to hear other theories.
It’s hard not to want to give other animals human emotions and I believe our relationships to our chams like others have replied is most likely built on trust, and I believe they have to have some capacity for memory.
I’d like to think that respect is part of it as well, like when working with someone with Alzheimer’s, you have to enter their world, not expect them to be able to enter yours.
In my career with wild animals, I can imagine having one thing in common. Aggressive behavior could stem from a previous ‘abusive home.’ I cannot imagine how ‘wild caught’ chameleons also play a role in this. Every creature is unique in the way they react to their environment. Maybe some have the awareness to not like being in captivity. LOL.
I am still amazed everything I’ve read says chams only tolerate being handled.
That has not been my experience with Fred, (my 1st) male panther who is about one year old, I got as a hatchling. Don’t know if not handling him (for fear of stressing him out) in the first couple months helped or not. It must have taken less than a week to build his trust as soon as I did. Maybe I look like a good climbing tree.
Fred is the friendliest reptile I have ever known of! He will let anyone handle him. It took me longer to trust other people, to hold him then he did. I take him on short walks on sunny days (no stupid lease and mist him along the way) and he has never shown signs of stress or aggression to curious people either. His personality blows my mind and he makes me laugh for a difference reason everyday. We are so lucky!
Building trust must have an element of an instinctive growing process. I still think it’s funny that Fred and I could not stop staring at each other for… actually we still stare at each other with fascination everyday.
If we keep loving our chams, be patient, mindful, and respectful that not all will have Jim Carey’s onscreen personality, it will save us all extra stress.
P.S. I’ve seen many videos on YouTube about how to handle aggressive chams and there is plenty of hope.
Hope this thread continues to hear other theories.
too cute
