4 month old Veiled won't give up Shadowing me

[Ragerbro]

Hey guys,

I've had Loki for a couple months now. He seems very healthy, looks great, eats well, is very active. The only problem is any time I approach his cage, he shadows me (see attached picture). I have been trying to break him of this since I got him. Any time I near his cage, I am very slow about it, whether I'm going to feed him, or simply leaving the room.

Any ideas on how to stop the shadowing behavior? Is this something that will go away as he gets older/bigger?

 

[JGuinan007]

He's just terrified by you this is normal here is a link to another thread that will help Handling help! | Chameleon Forums

 

[MissMaisie]

I don't know how your cage setup looks like, but you could try put in some more plants/foliage up top so he will feel more secure.

 

[Clint526]

I seem to be the one who goes against what most people recommend on here, and with great success I might add. But I will never say my methods will work for everyone. But I handle my Chams daily, even if only for 5 mins or just moving out of cage to let free roam plants and climb curtains in my living room. My male at first was not a fan, but after a week of hand feeding and handling daily he was very used to it and wouldn't get the least bit worked up. Now, he sees me and comes do the door and waits. When I open it I hold my hand out, after he inspects the surroundings he slowly climbs on then a scratch his chin a little, maybe give him a super work or dubia then let him climb on to a pothos and chill. Sometimes he prefers to stay on me and he will just sit on my stomach or shoulder when I'm relaxing or watching tv. Female is about the same but she always chooses my wife over me. Like I said, worked great for me but not everyone's Chams have the same personality. Mine are also captive bread though.

 

[alphakenc]

Persistence beats resistance as long is handling with short amount of time and proper care,every chams always have their own different personality only the time will tell if they can become more friendly with ur way of raising them in the proper way,like my panther cham here,when he was younger,he will never let me to hold him,now he is big and sexy,I think he knows now,no one will ever feed him like I do along with taking my time to make him know that I am not here to eat him or hurting him,I say good morning to him everyday,goodnight everynight and he aint got no one to talk to him like I do,so he became so frendly to me when im there with him,he rather see me than talk to a cage for sure

 

[alphakenc]

Here is another persistence beat resistance meet my other 6 dwarf veiled babies,Dopey;Grumpy;Happy;Doc;Sneezy and Sleepy,currently Im trying to train them face certain way in the order that I want them to,so far so good but it did takes almost 30mins or more and dubia roaches to have them line up like a club entrance n club exit

 

[Tommy Bonnet]

Here is another persistence beat resistance meet my other 6 dwarf veiled babies,Dopey;Grumpy;Happy;Doc;Sneezy and Sleepy,currently Im trying to train them face certain way in the order that I want them to,so far so good but it did takes almost 30mins or more and dubia roaches to have them line up like a club entrance n club exit

Those pics are awesome

 

[alphakenc]

Those pics are awesome

You really like them??me too,thank you very much for your beautiful. encouragement

 

[Tommy Bonnet]

I do! I think those are really cool pics!

 

[alphakenc]

I do! I think those are really cool pics!

Ahhh,Thank you sooo much!!!!how about this one?I have this cham to stand on the edge of a bowl n waiting for me to pick him up,he hasnt move for 15or more minutes,he is very tame and acrobatic

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

I seem to be the one who goes against what most people recommend on here, and with great success I might add. But I will never say my methods will work for everyone. But I handle my Chams daily, even if only for 5 mins or just moving out of cage to let free roam plants and climb curtains in my living room. My male at first was not a fan, but after a week of hand feeding and handling daily he was very used to it and wouldn't get the least bit worked up. Now, he sees me and comes do the door and waits. When I open it I hold my hand out, after he inspects the surroundings he slowly climbs on then a scratch his chin a little, maybe give him a super work or dubia then let him climb on to a pothos and chill. Sometimes he prefers to stay on me and he will just sit on my stomach or shoulder when I'm relaxing or watching tv. Female is about the same but she always chooses my wife over me. Like I said, worked great for me but not everyone's Chams have the same personality. Mine are also captive bread though.

I fully agree with Clint526 everyone in my family are ecpected to do their best to handle our chameleons every day! I start with the new (and often more aggressive ones) and then when they calm down hand them off to the rest of the family. It soon feels normal to them and all fear and aggression soon is something of the past!

 

[Orcawhale]

I seem to be the one who goes against what most people recommend on here, and with great success I might add. But I will never say my methods will work for everyone. But I handle my Chams daily, even if only for 5 mins or just moving out of cage to let free roam plants and climb curtains in my living room. My male at first was not a fan, but after a week of hand feeding and handling daily he was very used to it and wouldn't get the least bit worked up. Now, he sees me and comes do the door and waits. When I open it I hold my hand out, after he inspects the surroundings he slowly climbs on then a scratch his chin a little, maybe give him a super work or dubia then let him climb on to a pothos and chill. Sometimes he prefers to stay on me and he will just sit on my stomach or shoulder when I'm relaxing or watching tv. Female is about the same but she always chooses my wife over me. Like I said, worked great for me but not everyone's Chams have the same personality. Mine are also captive bread though.

I've had my 3 month old veiled for about 3 weeks. I let him get used to his habitat for a week, and for the past week I've been holding him every day even if only 5 minutes like you said. He is not a fan. It takes me at least 5 minutes to track him down and corner him. Once I finally get him on my hand I have to maneuver him out of the habitat because he does everything in his power to grab anything on the way out. Should I keep doing what I've been doing? How long did it take for your Cham to warm up to being handled?

 

[Clint526]

I've had my 3 month old veiled for about 3 weeks. I let him get used to his habitat for a week, and for the past week I've been holding him every day even if only 5 minutes like you said. He is not a fan. It takes me at least 5 minutes to track him down and corner him. Once I finally get him on my hand I have to maneuver him out of the habitat because he does everything in his power to grab anything on the way out. Should I keep doing what I've been doing? How long did it take for your Cham to warm up to being handled?

A couple weeks before he seemed to actually be completely ok with me handling him, another week or so after that to where he seemed to want it. Panthers are also known to be a bit tamer then veileds though and mine was captive bread also. Remember the age difference also, young ones would be lack the intimidation technics of an adult and are rather defenseless so choose to hide rather then fight. If aggression is shown you can't let it startle you, I've had Chams open there mouths and hiss and I'll just pet there neck gently with my finger and they seem to chill quickly. Avoid sudden quick movements, no Cham likes that no matter how tame.

 

[Clint526]

Mine even tolerates my 4 year old son holding him. And he is bad about the slow and sudden movement. Lol

 

[Orcawhale]

A couple weeks before he seemed to actually be completely ok with me handling him, another week or so after that to where he seemed to want it. Panthers are also known to be a bit tamer then veileds though and mine was captive bread also. Remember the age difference also, young ones would be lack the intimidation technics of an adult and are rather defenseless so choose to hide rather then fight. If aggression is shown you can't let it startle you, I've had Chams open there mouths and hiss and I'll just pet there neck gently with my finger and they seem to chill quickly. Avoid sudden quick movements, no Cham likes that no matter how tame.

So do you think I should continue handling him against his will?

 

[Orcawhale]

Mine even tolerates my 4 year old son holding him. And he is bad about the slow and sudden movement. Lol
View attachment 150230

Haha thats so cute!

 

[Clint526]

At that age I personally would handle about half as much as my adults till at least to the sub adult age. I think they are more susceptible to disease under 5-6 months so I wouldn't want to put a huge amount of stress on it if it's really uncomfortable with you. I would just slowly increase the amount of handling. But I would let it out and on a plant near you just to hang out in the open and watch you as much as possible. When I get up in the morning or home from work, I take mine out and place them on plants, a curtain, tall cabinet, etc just so they are out. And I will do my thing without aknoledging them as far as they know, obviously I will constantly look to make sure they aren't getting into trouble. Lol

 

[Orcawhale]

At that age I personally would handle about half as much as my adults till at least to the sub adult age. I think they are more susceptible to disease under 5-6 months so I wouldn't want to put a huge amount of stress on it if it's really uncomfortable with you. I would just slowly increase the amount of handling. But I would let it out and on a plant near you just to hang out in the open and watch you as much as possible. When I get up in the morning or home from work, I take mine out and place them on plants, a curtain, tall cabinet, etc just so they are out. And I will do my thing without aknoledging them as far as they know, obviously I will constantly look to make sure they aren't getting into trouble. Lol

Awesome. I will do just that. Thank you so much for helping!

 

[Tommy Bonnet]

Ahhh,Thank you sooo much!!!!how about this one?I have this cham to stand on the edge of a bowl n waiting for me to pick him up,he hasnt move for 15or more minutes,he is very tame and acrobaticView attachment 150218

Beautiful cham!

 

[Ragerbro]

Thanks for all of the replies. There is actually some foliage at the top (and lots throughout) but I pushed it out of the way to take the picture. Mostly what I got from this is to try and hold him every day (I probably currently hold him about 4 days a week for 20 minutes or so). One question I'm not sure I saw answered is is this something that mostly goes away with age as he gets bigger? It would make sense that when he's not so small he'll be less scared of me, the giant monster.