advice please

dave101

dave101

New Member
I have a 3 month old veiled and he wont let me touch him or pick him up. Hes fine when i take out and put in his feeding cup but if i put my hand close to him or beneath him trying to get him to crawl on me, his skin turns dark green with black dots everywhere. Now i dont want to even try picking him up because i think he stresses out to much. Any suggestions on what i should do?

EDIT - + when i put my hand close to him, sometimes he will run really fast trying to get away like if im about to eat him.
 
dave101 said:
I have a 3 month old veiled and he wont let me touch him or pick him up. Hes fine when i take out and put in his feeding cup but if i put my hand close to him or beneath him trying to get him to crawl on me, his skin turns dark green with black dots everywhere. Now i dont want to even try picking him up because i think he stresses out to much. Any suggestions on what i should do?

EDIT - + when i put my hand close to him, sometimes he will run really fast trying to get away like if im about to eat him.
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The experts say an angry veiled is a healthy one :p

As far as handling goes some chams especially veileds tend to be picky and less docile.

Although what you can do now is put a super worm or something that cant move fast and put it on your forearm start at the hand and see if he will eat off your hand if he does move the food farther up your arm get to the elbow, this should help him at a young age to become more friendly. :)
 
Ok thanks i will deff try this. Also he hissed at me 1 time out of the 5-6 times i tryed to hold him
 
Fred is like that. He's all bark and no bite. If you want him used to you, you should handle him a little bit every day. For maybe 15 minutes or so.

I know there are precautions to stress, but there will be times you will need to take him out of his cage for medical/cleaning reasons, and the stress would be less at these times if he;s used to being handled at least a little.
 
i thought that was a good idea to, a lot of people tell me not to handle him as a baby. He also gets black dots really really bad when i try handling him, im scared something is gonna happen to him
 
chameleons are more of a show off pet. they are not dogs and are not meant to be handled all the time. if you force them to come out and be handled you are just giving them unnecessary stress.
 
yeah thats what i thought. I hate seeing him being stressed out so i usually just leave him be. When he see's me put him food bowl back in his cage he walks right over to my hand where the food bowl is without any stress or any problems. Just when i try to pick him up is when he has problems
 
Are you wanting to handle him for your "fun" or is it for his benifit? It seems you want to handle him even when the stress colors are signaling you to not handle him. There are many choices on what we do with these amazing animals, hopefully we all do what is best for the Chameleon, not what we want.;)
 
When i see his black dots start coming i just leave him be. People tell me to try and handle him couple times a week, so thats what i do.
 
I forgot to mention that you should probably only handle him when necessary. I had to handle my cham every day for a while in order to administer meds from the vet and hydration during recovery. However, this helped and he has become completely unafraid of me when I take him out for cage cleanings or showers during sheds.

The best way to approach a chameleon is move slowly, with your hand beneath him so he can see. He is less likely to freak out, and if he does hiss, do not retract your hand quickly or show fear, as he willl pick up on that. Get your hand close enough so he can onto it. If he does not, coax with your other hand, or just get underneath him and gently lift him off the branch.
 
I'm no expert, but I think you should work you way up. Get him used to your hand, eating from it consistently. I'm working on this right now. I'm not touching him, just holding the food. He'll take it about 50% of the time. I plan on doing this for another few months Before I start trying to pick him up.
 
use one hand to distract him and gently lift him from the branch. If you wave the other hand close to him (not quick), it usually stops them and they look at it. This should give you enough time to go beneath him and lift him gently with your palm. The key is slow movement. There's actually a great video that demonstrates this. I'll try to find it.
 
I agree that you should try not to handle him much, but there will be times that you will need to (ie. if he's sick or you need to take him for a check up or clean his cage). In that case I would try, as someone else suggested, to get him to eat something from your hand. Be patient, it'll probably take awhile for him to do this, but he should come around eventually.
 
when i first got Mista he used to hiss all the time, still does when i "invade" his territory.
He made me jump so bad once i punched myself in the jaw i withdrew my hand so fast lol.
now if he hisses i just leave my hand there and he looks at me as if to say well what do i do now and he shuts his mouth.
i don't handle him unless he is receptive but i needed to make sure i can for anytime(hopefully won't be needed) vet trips
 
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