When your baby totally trusts you! 🥰

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

Gave her some water and her eye drops and you can tell she is thankful. She usually allows me to spend some time with her after taking care of her needs. She has been tong fed since i got her, so she knows who gives her the food. It's a fun little symbiotic relationship, and I just love how relaxed she gets!

 

[LukeTheLizard]

Aww so adorable! I wish my chameleon did that, mine is just like, give me food, clean my cage, and go away.

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

Aww so adorable! I wish my chameleon did that, mine is just like, give me food, clean my cage, and go away.

All of my chameleons have been relatively tame, even my veiled by standards of most veiled chameleons - doesn't hiss at me too often, sometimes she does but she does tend to tolerate me.

To produce this behavior in my chameleons, I approach them with large, juicy, dusted bugs at their standard feeding schedules, via tongs. I usually approach them calmly and sometimes I talk to them in a higher pitched voice, I'm told that chameleons may not pick up on it but I do it anyway. Usually I'll wave the insect around outside the cage (while in the tongs) to get their attention, then I calmly move one hand towards the latch, they tend to understand that I need to open the door for them to get to their meal at that point.

They are like dogs, they get so excited when they see me coming with their feeder, especially my little panther chameleon here. When I see them hunting, I usually know that's about time to feed them a bug (except for my veiled, she will feign hunting for a meal because she's fat, so watch out for the abusers), they scramble across branches and will start to stick out their tongue, and wave their tails around.

They really enjoy their feeding sessions because I tend to let them wander around and hunt for a bit, then I'll come in with the tongs, sometimes I'll put the insect while in the tongs between some leaves or something to make sure they are being challenged enough to aim from a distance, kind of like creating a target. It's my understanding chameleons do benefit from hunting a bit, so I tend to make them work at least a little for it.

Doing my feedings this way, while also making sure they have decent enclosures, tends to reproduce this desirable behavior in a chameleon, in my personal experience.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

That’s amazing glad they have that personality…. I would highly recommend against tong feeding tho there are a lot of horror stories of tongues getting amputated bc of tongs so great alternatives is hand feeding, or cup feeding( holding the bowl/cup in your hand)

 

[redhorse]

So glad you have that form of relationship- it is a good feeling when animals appreciate (if they can) our wants.

Mountain Dragon is being nice, others might not share the kind words..
Especially since someone not to long ago had to have their Panthers tongue removed because of tong feeding..

As I have mentioned before-- Place in a tree outside and bring your feeding skills to task. Will she come down for food or water?. I have noticed that a chameleon feels at easy when they are not looking at me but have wondering eyes.

Please don't place on tree--- Might be a new learning lesson, I would not want you to learn.

She is a beauty!

 

[Highway61]

Aww so adorable! I wish my chameleon did that, mine is just like, give me food, clean my cage, and go away.

You not only described my cham but my cat, too!

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

So glad you have that form of relationship- it is a good feeling when animals appreciate (if they can) our wants.

Mountain Dragon is being nice, others might not share the kind words..
Especially since someone not to long ago had to have their Panthers tongue removed because of tong feeding..

As I have mentioned before-- Place in a tree outside and bring your feeding skills to task. Will she come down for food or water?. I have noticed that a chameleon feels at easy when they are not looking at me but have wondering eyes.

Please don't place on tree--- Might be a new learning lesson, I would not want you to learn.

She is a beauty!

I can't imagine how someone would manage to crush their chams tongue with them. I'm super careful not to make that mistake. I hold my bugs by the rear of their carapace and pinch the tongs tightly, leaving the head facing my cham, I assist them a bit in their aim to help them line up the shot with the head - as is their nature to do anyway.

I never grab feeder insects center mass, and I do sometimes just dumb like 10 crickets in their cages (dusted) and just let them do their thing.

I'd call that tong incident a freak accident combined will ill-preparedness in understanding how a chameleon targets prey, and also not considering the physics of pinching a bug center mass and then allowing a chameleon to pull it out center mass, it's asking for a tongue to get pinched.

If you're properly using your tongs, that's not going to happen.

It is too cold here in oregon, fortunately, for me to put her on a tree. I will never do this because I KNOW my chameleons are sneaky little buggers, and they will climb up that tree when I'm not looking, and then I'm going to have to call the fire department, explain that I'm a dumbass and my CHAMELEON (not cat) is stuck in a tree. Hahahahahaha!

Love your comment, thank you.

 

[redhorse]

I think the tong issue was because the own accidently pulled back once the chameleon grabbed the food (like startled).

LOL Dumb#$% comment.. It has happened.. lol

 

[Mountain Dragon]

I can't imagine how someone would manage to crush their chams tongue with them. I'm super careful not to make that mistake. I hold my bugs by the rear of their carapace and pinch the tongs tightly, leaving the head facing my cham, I assist them a bit in their aim to help them line up the shot with the head - as is their nature to do anyway.

I never grab feeder insects center mass, and I do sometimes just dumb like 10 crickets in their cages (dusted) and just let them do their thing.

I'd call that tong incident a freak accident combined will ill-preparedness in understanding how a chameleon targets prey, and also not considering the physics of pinching a bug center mass and then allowing a chameleon to pull it out center mass, it's asking for a tongue to get pinched.

If you're properly using your tongs, that's not going to happen.

It is too cold here in oregon, fortunately, for me to put her on a tree. I will never do this because I KNOW my chameleons are sneaky little buggers, and they will climb up that tree when I'm not looking, and then I'm going to have to call the fire department, explain that I'm a dumbass and my CHAMELEON (not cat) is stuck in a tree. Hahahahahaha!

Love your comment, thank you.

I don’t really want to agure you can look it up there’s no freak accident that’s a rare incident a chameleon getti mg tongue amputated from tongs is very common It’s not bc they crushed their tongue in it’s how the hit the tong just please please believe me I mean red horse is saying the same thing and they’ve been an animal keeper for a long time I’ll even quote Beman who is very knowledgeable about chameleons and what she said to me when I showed I tong feed (I stopped bc I didn’t know)

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

I think the tong issue was because the own accidently pulled back once the chameleon grabbed the food (like startled).

LOL Dumb#$% comment.. It has happened.. lol

I never said it hasn't happened, I said that it's unlikely given how I hold the insects in the tongs, they don't have an opportunity to even hit the tongs, the insect faces the chameleon from out of the tongs, so there's no space for them to miss and hit the metal of the tongs.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

“tong feeding is dangerous... All it takes is one bad hit. they pull the tongs in while your still holding on. For others this has led to the cham having to have its tongue amputated. All it takes is one time.” Beman


“Though, tongs can be very dangerous. Holding the bugs in your hand or using a feeding cup or something is much safer” ERKleRose

“Avoid tong feeding as this is dangerous, they can miss the feeder and hit the tong.

You can try building a feeder run. This will mimic the free range feeding while still having them contained but make it more like hunting for them.” Beman

you do you but I wouldn’t… thankyou for your time

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

Are you saying that the chameleons tongue sticks to the bug and the chameleon bites its own tongue off? Makes sense, I'll stop using tongs and set the bugs down on the screen.

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

And yeah it's not an issue for me to hold bugs in my fingers either. It makes more sense because you have no feeling in the metal, your brain might not react faster than the chameleon can decide whether or not its tongue is back in its mouth, and I suppose in that small window of opportunity, it's plausible that they'd chomp down and crunch their tongue off. No bueno.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

Are you saying that the chameleons tongue sticks to the bug and the chameleon bites its own tongue off? Makes sense, I'll stop using tongs and set the bugs down on the screen.

No I don’t really understand how it happens but I’ve heard the same stories and very knowledgeable members say not to (hey my chameleons tongue got amputated) cf member (why what happened) ( I was tong feeding and idk what happened)

I’m pretty sure it’s how they hit the tongs even with many precautions it can still happen

 

[Mountain Dragon]

And yeah it's not an issue for me to hold bugs in my fingers either. It makes more sense because you have no feeling in the metal, your brain might not react faster than the chameleon can decide whether or not its tongue is back in its mouth, and I suppose in that small window of opportunity, it's plausible that they'd chomp down and crunch their tongue off. No bueno.

Yea I totally would of never thought that it could cause damage

thankyou for understanding and taking this advice the last person I told this just had a big agreement and blamed it on me (it does take two to fight tho)

Thankyou!

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

No I don’t really understand how it happens but I’ve heard the same stories and very knowledgeable members say not to (hey my chameleons tongue got amputated) cf member (why what happened) ( I was tong feeding and idk what happened)

I’m pretty sure it’s how they hit the tongs even with many precautions it can still happen

Yeah I can think of a few things that could go wrong, and I suppose the opportunity for risk isn't really worth it. I can still be involved in the feeding process without placing my chams in harms way unnecessarily.

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

Yea I totally would of never thought that it could cause damage

thankyou for understanding and taking this advice the last person I told this just had a big agreement and blamed it on me (it does take two to fight tho)

Thankyou!

I'm not mad about it. Like I get it, tongs aren't horrible per se, but it's not the best practice for feeding. The tongs are helpful for dusting my bugs, but I can move the bugs from the tongs to my fingers and hold it myself. The health of my chameleons isn't really worth a small factor of convenience like feeding from tongs directly.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

Yeah I can think of a few things that could go wrong, and I suppose the opportunity for risk isn't really worth it. I can still be involved in the feeding process without placing my chams in harms way unnecessarily.

Yup totally not worth the bills and the specIl care and just hurting the Cham in general. Thankyou again for listening to the advice. Have a great day

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

I honestly appreciate someone speaking up and saying something. I'm sure my little upbringing technique will still work just fine with fingers!

 

[Mountain Dragon]

I'm not mad about it. Like I get it, tongs aren't horrible per se, but it's not the best practice for feeding. The tongs are helpful for dusting my bugs, but I can move the bugs from the tongs to my fingers and hold it myself. The health of my chameleons isn't really worth a small factor of convenience like feeding from tongs directly.

Oh yea tongs are super helpful that’s what I use to dust too bc the only bugs I can handle lol are hornworms