What are they thinking?

skeleptica

New Member
Here's an interesting question, how smart are chameleons? can you teach them things or perhaps teach them their names? I find myself talking to mine alot... does she think Im crazy?
 
i think i read somewhere that they can only hear low frequency, mine moves round a bit more when i have music playing. I turn the bass down so it doesnt stress her
 
I would not say they think rather remember. Remembering stuff like what taste bad or made them sick is about all I will give chameleons credit for in the brain deparment. The rest I would label as instinct from birth and through hormonal changes when they come of age. I think that sometimes people see behaviors in reptiles that are similar to our own and assume that they are thinking about it. Crocodilles (and other members of their family) nurturing their young. Really a "Family" of any kind that does not make it 200-300 million years without some smart behaviors. How something like this came about in such stark contrast in comparison to the rest of the reptiles we know of is unknown. I would say that with repative schedules with your chameleons that they can realize that you are not a threat depending on their personalities. If you want to talk to them then go for it. I talk to mine too. A moving mouth regardless of what they hear or not will be a repedative behavior that they can remember and judge on how to react. With my turtle I frequently look in the aquarium, get close, and see what he is doing through out the day. It is not until I tap on the glass and start talking to him that he starts splashing the water, getting excited (he knows he is getting food then).
 
the chams can not hear in the same way as humans, the low frequency can be felt by us but not heard even if we put our ear really close to the cham, the super low frequency can be just felt when transmitted thru the skin by touch, every cham keeper had this experience. the interesting thing is that most of this super low vibrations are felt by other chams from 3 to 6 m around and transmitted thru the branches of the bush or tree and absorbed by the feet of the cham, its similar to the elephants they to absorb low vibrations with their feet.
My experience regarding cham memory is by feeding a CB B. Tavetanum from hand since the 3rd month of age, now at 1,5 years of age , whenever he sees my hands close to him starts focusing to shoot the tongue.
 
I have had some chameleons (veiled, fischer's multi, c. chamaeleon) figure out how to open the door to the cage. Its not something that happened once by accident either....because I have watched it being done and they have repeated it for several days in a row.
 
I have had some chameleons (veiled, fischer's multi, c. chamaeleon) figure out how to open the door to the cage. Its not something that happened once by accident either....because I have watched it being done and they have repeated it for several days in a row.

Yeah...I had one that kept escaping and I could never figure out how. It always took the same path through my old townhouse and ended up in the same place...a sunny spot on my coatrack. Sometimes it would go missing and we'd check the coatrack and not find him, but we knew he was making the journey to it, so later we'd find him there.

Also, I don't know if ya'll have ever trained one to use a feed cup, but they "learn" to use it, and also learn that they have to get up on top of it if the cup is see through. I think they're pretty smart for their degree of evolution...

Steve
 
Thanks for all the useful information, I really enjoy this forum, everytime I have a question, it is always answered promptly, and I am learning about my chameleon very quickly.

Cheers.
 
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