What's the youngest age you can handle your cham?

[fubekka]

Hi,

I have a new baby veiled which I've had for 5 days now from FLChams. He's about 2 months old, and i was wondering if he's too young to be handled here in a week or two after he's had some time to settle in. He seems to be getting more and more comfortable with me, but still runs from my hand.
Thanks!

 

[Cdunlap92]

I bought mine from flchams on wednesday and he's the same age. I handled mine for the first time two days ago. He kind of had a fit when i took him out, but after he just crawled around my arms. Maybe it's because I've been hand feeding him since I got him. But yea, he tolerates me holding him for a few minutes.

 

[Olimpia]

You can handle them right out of the egg Take it slowly with handling, try to read how comfortable he is with it and go from there.

 

[fubekka]

After reading your posts, I just took out little Puff for about 3 minutes. He gaped at first, but then settled down when he was crawling around my arms and shoulders! So cute!! What's your strategy in handfeeding him, he just keeps running from my hands. @Olimpia, how often can you handle them and still stay within acceptable stress levels? On average of course, I know it's different for every cham.

 

[Cdunlap92]

Hand feeding is sometimes difficult. I usually take a cricket that's pretty lively. Then I slowly bring it up within about 5 inches of him. and if he starts to run, ill back off and let him settle down and try again. Key is not to make any fast movements. It's a delicate process but once you start to get him to do it, he'll recognize that you are going to feed him, and not harm him. Glad to hear you got him out and he calmed down. It's just a slow process.

 

[Olimpia]

It's not so much that the amount is different as much as each chameleon's tolerance of it is different. As an example, I have one who freaks out immediately just by having my hand near him. So just two seconds of handling is enough to get him very stressed (moving him with a stick helps a lot in his case). And on the other hand, I have one who can spend hours and hours crawling around on me without getting stressed. And I have others that fall somewhere inbetween those two extremes, where they tolerate it ok for short whiles.

He'll let you know if he's stressed by his dark coloration, so just read his body language to guage your guy. He might do just fine for 2 minutes, 10 minutes, or an hour, but only he can let you know And if you can tell he hates it, give him his space.

 

[AMGChams]

My little girl seems to love to be held. I have been wondering the same thing. So if she isn't showing dark stress coloration its ok?

 

[Miss Machine]

I bought my Pete when he was 2 months old. And he was my first. Over here it's recommended to buy them when they're at least 3 months old. Now he's almost 5 months old and doin' very well. Pete was very scared the first few weeks. I just approach him real slow. I also just let him bit me whenever he was agressive. Now he's real tame ;-). He displays the most beautiful colors when he's around me.