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offspring
06-25-03, 01:54 PM
I was wondering if someone could tell me how to tame a male veild chameleon. Its 2 1/2 years old and 21 inches long. I've only really taken him out before when i clean his enclosure. I want to be able to handle him without him getting angry or stressed. Can any body help??
-Dan

beth wallbank
06-25-03, 02:06 PM
there is no special trick to 'taming' any reptile........reptiles train us. Chams are solitary animals, and very few 'like' to be touched at all, never mind looked at.

Charm_Paradise
06-25-03, 02:07 PM
Dan-

Good luck! LOL Male veiled chameleons when adults are know for having a temper/attitude. I have found the trick with my panthers is to give them there space and try hand feeding there favorite food. Get them to think when you come around it means food time. After every time you hold him give him a treat, now as you may know chameleons are more of a display animal, and some will take to being held better then others. I have a WC Ambilobe pardalis that seems to love being held, I put my hand in the cage and he comes right to me and crawls on my hand with no hesitation. We have a routine and I keep my part of the deal by feeding him after every time I hold him, which is mostly moving him from inside cage to outside side cage. But this is all done at an early age, so it may be close to impossible to do at this age. Hope this helps!

offspring
06-25-03, 02:09 PM
ya thanks alot hes spoiled though i have a huge tank for him and hes still a gerk to me. yesterday i brought him outside to clean his tank and the second he seemed to like to be handeld i put him on the ground and he went up a tree in 3 seconds me and my frend(reptilez) were searching for an hour but we found him. but thanks for the info

Charm_Paradise
06-25-03, 02:20 PM
Dan-

Tanks are bad for housing chameleons in! I hope you mean all screen cage!

offspring
06-25-03, 02:30 PM
ya i know,
I meant i have a reptarium(mesh cage).

reptilez
06-25-03, 02:32 PM
Ya,
that was a funny day
-Reptilez

Trace
06-28-03, 09:00 PM
i put him on the ground and he went up a tree in 3 seconds me and my frend(reptilez) were searching for an hour but we found him.

I'm sorry, I'm coming into this thread a little late here... but did you leave your chameleon outside unattended while you cleaned his cage? Or did you just put him on the grass and he sped off while you were watching him?

You are VERY lucky that he did not get eaten by any neighbourhood wildlife (cats, dogs, raccoons whatever) or injure himself in any way. I guess that's a lesson learned not to bring him outside anymore without him being in a cage.

Trace

offspring
06-29-03, 11:24 AM
no when i brought him outside my friend (Reptilz) was watchen him whil i cleaned out my tank next to him but he put him on the ground i dont no why. But dont worry im not doin that again.

Trace
06-29-03, 08:34 PM
Phew! I'm happy he didn't get lost or anything terrible like that! :D

Do you put your chameleon outside for the summer? They really like it and there is nothing better than real sunlight for healthy growth. If you do, just make sure to put him and his reptarium in a shady spot so he doesn't get sunburned!

Cheers!

Trace

offspring
06-30-03, 03:23 PM
ya i did that when i brought him out

dank7oo
06-30-03, 06:34 PM
i had the same problem as you .. my vieled is only 16 inches long, but looking at him you would think he was mearly 2 feet ... i NEVER touched my cham after 6 months of owning him, and not until 2 years later did i have the urge to do so ... we made the rare attempt, but that pissy old fruit wouldnt budge ...
about 2 months ago, i got reinterested with my chams, and decided to devote a lot of time and effort in fixing my veileds cage up properly, and decided to purchase 2 dwarf panthers ... this was the beginning of my handeling my vieled
i hooked up with **************/.ca (needless to say they arent nice like snakes members) and asked if there were any rep owners in ottawa because i was interested in meeting them ... steve, a member here and on ************* answered my call, and told me about his smakes ... when i told him i had chameleones, he told me that trace, who also lives in ottawa, had tons of chams, and frequented ssnakess.com and i could try and contact her there ...
we got talking, and this was about a week after one of my dwarfs laid her eggs, and the day after i met trace, she came over and helped me to incubate (the eggs werent fertile after all) ... she saw my viled and wanted to see if he was healthy, reached in a pulled him out ... i was shocked that anyone would go near him, and just pull him out, but she did it with only a his outta my monster ...
for the next week or so, i made attempts to take out my viled, by luring him into a feeding container and pullingin it out, or by waitingtill he was near the zipper of my reptarium, and then tried to let him climb onto my hand ...
after a week of being unsuccessful, a just did what trace did, put my hands in and pulled him out ... he didnt even hiss - i guess my grumpy cham wasnt so bad afterall ... i think my male vieled has a beeter temper than most, so thats why i thin i have an easy time handeling him now
best of luck, and dont worry too much about getting bitten .. i heard that its not TOO painful - LOL

(sorry about all the spelling and grammat mistakes ... i tend not to proofread anything i do)

offspring
06-30-03, 07:53 PM
im afraid of taken him out becouse chams can easaly get stressed and go off there food but some dont. but i dont use a feeding dish i lay the crickets on the mesh and he runs around and catches them so i cant try doin that thing with the feeder dish but ill keep tryen. Thanks for the info

geckoguy157
07-01-03, 02:33 AM
where gloves when you are handling him lol i have a litle male growing up olny about 12 or 13 inches and he will bit me any chance he gets i dont think there is a way to realy calm them down its more them being stressed out than agressive

Charm_Paradise
07-01-03, 02:02 PM
Hi-

Gloves are not a good choice, they will only cause more stress to the chameleon.

Reptayls
07-01-03, 02:54 PM
Hi Offspring,

Here's a little trick I learned a couple of years back...
If you have a cham that hisses and strikes at your hand - wear a long sleeved shirt - and pull the shirt down over your hand, offering him a stump. Then with the other hand, herd him onto the covered arm..... He will be paying the most attention to the visible fingers, and most likely walk onto your covered hand. Once he is out of the cage, you can transfer him to a branch or something to sit on.

Be sure to always reach under a cham - not reach down like an eagle's claw coming to grab him.

Once they get out a few times and get used to you, it is easier to offer treats on your cupped hand. With some of our aggressive males, I put a silkworm on the back of my hand (fingers curled under). They will take the worm without much hesitation. Other take the treats from my finger tips - they all have different personalities!

Good luck,
Morgana - Reptayls, Ltd.

offspring
07-01-03, 03:13 PM
ya iv tryed that befor but he runs away from my hand and the cricket
-offspring

Collide
07-01-03, 04:32 PM
My one year onld male veiled can be coaxed out with food but once that food is gone you have your hand in the cage because he will litteraly jump off of me. I got him out one day and was feeding him meal worms when i went to get anothe worm he jumped off my hand luckely he landed on the bed but it would have been a long fall to the floor. They all have different personalitys. Sometimes they change. My femal veiled is such a pig she sees my hands as food bearing and now she will hit my hand when i open the cage even when their is nothing in it lol. She ususlly gets my finger and once its in her mouth she lets go. she is scary she tinks she can eat the cats too. lol the rest of the chams freek out when they see a cat she just trys to aim.lol Crazy girl.

geckoguy157
07-02-03, 02:50 AM
charm paradise how would gloves strees the chameleon out :confused:

holding a chameleon strees's them out even if you are wearing gloves or not all the gloves are for is so you can get your chameleon to move while cleaning his or her cage without getting actualy bitten on your bare skin

Trace
07-02-03, 08:13 AM
without getting actualy bitten on your bare skin

:confused: Don't tell me your are scared of a chameleon? They have very sharp acrodont teeth and a powerful bite, but you won't loose your finger, you won't need stitches, and you won't die from massive blood loss. The worst they can do is break the skin.

I agree with John... no gloves! They don't know what it is and their instinct is to protect themselves from it... thus biting. I have never used gloves and never will, even with my highly aggressive males here.

Trace

geckoguy157
07-02-03, 12:43 PM
trace why would you want to grab a chameleon who is very agressive has a big mouth heavy jaw and sharp teeth if all as you are doing is moving it for cleaning :confused: by the time i actualy get him he's bitten me 10 or 15 times or the stick im trying to get him onto and i dont wear gloves it i just put my sleve over my hand wearing gloves was just a sugestion for moving him while you are cleaning the cage

Trace
07-02-03, 10:41 PM
Meh... I just clean the cage while he is in there. He can bite and hiss all he wants. I guess I'm just used to working with larger reptiles that could potentially rip my arm off or swallow me whole, so when these little guys give me attitude, I just laugh at them! You've got mostly geckos that are generally good natured and probably wouldn't bite to save their lives, so I guess your male Veiled can be quite intimidating at times.

Good luck with him!

Trace

geckoguy157
07-02-03, 11:12 PM
not intimadateing just anoying il be cleanign his cage and he'll decide to start biteing my arm lol but this morning he managed to go through the top of his cage and get in with one of the females and i think he bred with her cause she has some black scratches on her she is olny 4 and a half months old maybe 5 so i hope they didnt breed

Trace
07-02-03, 11:40 PM
EEP! That's not good!

Don't worry about the scratches you see, they will go away in a few days. You don't have to put anything like Polysporin or Betadine on them.

As for the potential breeding... it's too late now if they did. You can only hope that she managed to escape from him as she is a bit young for mating and laying eggs. Just keep your eye on her for any developing eggs and gravid signs. It's the best you can do.

Good luck!

Trace

geckoguy157
07-03-03, 02:32 AM
yup i know the scratches go away i used to have two older female veilds one died because i did not breed it so i took the other one 2 a breeder i know to try and breed it and she got realy scratched up and had 3 broken ribs which wasnt good at all she's all healed up now. o and my female that the male got in with all day today she has been a yellowy green ive never seen any of my other ones do it do you know why she might be doing this

Trace
07-03-03, 07:40 PM
Hey Geckoguy... sorry I haven't replied sooner!

Is she still pale coloured? Or back to her normal self? Do you think she may have sustained any other injuries from her adventure with the male? Any bruises?

How hot is it where you are? I'm suffering through an awful heat wave here and all of my chams are a little lighter in colour today so they don't absorb as much of the heat.

I wouldn't be too worried about her colour myself, as long as she's acting normal and eating and drinking well.

Maybe she just wanted to wear a different coloured outfit today! LOL!

Good luck!

Trace

CDN-Cresties
07-14-03, 09:13 PM
I think that it might be a bit to late for this Cham to become use to handling. Your best bet it the favorite treat method. A younger cham would give you a better chance to handle him/her.
Good Luck:)