Aggressive male veiled

Echo

New Member
I just got him this past monday 3/24 and im giving him as much space as possible, he has lunged/headbutt me and tried biting me, I gave him some worms today, left him alone and he ate every single one of them, I'm not trying to handle him a all until he is settled in, my biggest problem i think is the coverage in his tank, i have one vine going across the cage but i honestly have no idea how to put more in without damaging my cage, i have a 4ft tall cage (I think its 24"x24"x36") I have no idea how old he is or anything, when i got him he was great he wasnt aggressive or anything towards me, but after he got into his cage thats where everything had changed, in all honesty would it have been better to get a baby chameleon rather than a sub-adult chameleon?
 
All chams have VERY different personalities, so his aggression might have nothing to do with you. My female veiled had serious cage aggression, but was very pleasant once free ranging outside. Whereas my male ambilobe is always very sweet and social. Just give him space and time. Use food as a way to condition his behavior. Make him associate your hand with food, not handling.

For his enclosure: Put a schefflera plant and a pothos plant in his cage. There are lots of ways to mount walkways without damaging the enclosure...... magnets, pins, and string are very common ways to mount vines and sticks for walkways. The search function on this forum is like knowledge gold. You can find anything you need.

Most importantly.....be patient :)

Oh ya....we like pics here!!!! Please post pics of the enclosure and said cham
 
No he should get used to you. Likely not used to you or his new space yet either. They know when you move them to a different cage. The older ones are harder to deal with if they haven't been handled or worse mis-treated.
If he continues to lunge and try to bite even after you do all the common sense things like offering food by hand etc. Please try my "glove method"
Here is the link
https://www.chameleonforums.com/showthread.php?t=127384&referrerid=27450
I just bought an aggressive male knowing he was aggressive and he is now 8mo old so not a baby. I know he wasn't handled much but came from a good and caring breeder. When all the regular methods failed and he kept trying to bite me I tried something different, so I would not fear a bite and he would not fear a bare hand.
Worked like a charm and in under a week.
I now hold him briefly without the glove and he no longer tries to bite me at all. Getting better everyday. Hope this is a help.
 
No he should get used to you. Likely not used to you or his new space yet either. They know when you move them to a different cage. The older ones are harder to deal with if they haven't been handled or worse mis-treated.
If he continues to lunge and try to bite even after you do all the common sense things like offering food by hand etc. Please try my "glove method"
Here is the link
https://www.chameleonforums.com/showthread.php?t=127384&referrerid=27450
I just bought an aggressive male knowing he was aggressive and he is now 8mo old so not a baby. I know he wasn't handled much but came from a good and caring breeder. When all the regular methods failed and he kept trying to bite me I tried something different, so I would not fear a bite and he would not fear a bare hand.
Worked like a charm and in under a week.
I now hold him briefly without the glove and he no longer tries to bite me at all. Getting better everyday. Hope this is a help.

So i would use a glove to get him to come onto my hand?
 
All chams have VERY different personalities, so his aggression might have nothing to do with you. My female veiled had serious cage aggression, but was very pleasant once free ranging outside. Whereas my male ambilobe is always very sweet and social. Just give him space and time. Use food as a way to condition his behavior. Make him associate your hand with food, not handling.

For his enclosure: Put a schefflera plant and a pothos plant in his cage. There are lots of ways to mount walkways without damaging the enclosure...... magnets, pins, and string are very common ways to mount vines and sticks for walkways. The search function on this forum is like knowledge gold. You can find anything you need.

Most importantly.....be patient :)

Oh ya....we like pics here!!!! Please post pics of the enclosure and said cham

https://www.chameleonforums.com/new-chameleon-127386/ this is my other thread with pics of him (yes it says female but everyone says male so i went with it) ill upload one of his cage
 
All chams have VERY different personalities, so his aggression might have nothing to do with you. My female veiled had serious cage aggression, but was very pleasant once free ranging outside. Whereas my male ambilobe is always very sweet and social. Just give him space and time. Use food as a way to condition his behavior. Make him associate your hand with food, not handling.

For his enclosure: Put a schefflera plant and a pothos plant in his cage. There are lots of ways to mount walkways without damaging the enclosure...... magnets, pins, and string are very common ways to mount vines and sticks for walkways. The search function on this forum is like knowledge gold. You can find anything you need.

Most importantly.....be patient :)

Oh ya....we like pics here!!!! Please post pics of the enclosure and said cham

The cage i have set up
 

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So i would use a glove to get him to come onto my hand?
Yes
If you saw the glove it was a green gardening glove. It is thin enough so I can feel how tight I am griping but not so a bite could go through.
I gently picked him up at first he kinda tried to wiggle free but calmed down once he saw that he wasn't in danger. I released him and did this several times a day always very gently. i also would just touch/stroke his back with the same glove hand and then back off and close the cage door.
Within a few days he no longer objected to being touched. And within a week he let me pick him up with the gloved hand without trying to bite me. Now like I said he allows touch and being picked up with a bare hand. I no longer worry about a bite and he is getting used to the idea that I am not here to harm him.
 
You need to get some vines, branches etc for walkways. He needs to be able to get closer to the basking light. Ideally you should have one branch that runs horizontal under the basking light about 8 inches down. You can attach them from side to side with push pins. The pins go on the outside of the cage. They work well. Then you can attach vines to the branches. Also, cage up off the floor. Chameleons like to be high up.
 
Yes
If you saw the glove it was a green gardening glove. It is thin enough so I can feel how tight I am griping but not so a bite could go through.
I gently picked him up at first he kinda tried to wiggle free but calmed down once he saw that he wasn't in danger. I released him and did this several times a day always very gently. i also would just touch/stroke his back with the same glove hand and then back off and close the cage door.
Within a few days he no longer objected to being touched. And within a week he let me pick him up with the gloved hand without trying to bite me. Now like I said he allows touch and being picked up with a bare hand. I no longer worry about a bite and he is getting used to the idea that I am not here to harm him.

would you happen to know where to find those gloves at?
 
You need to get some vines, branches etc for walkways. He needs to be able to get closer to the basking light. Ideally you should have one branch that runs horizontal under the basking light about 8 inches down. You can attach them from side to side with push pins. The pins go on the outside of the cage. They work well. Then you can attach vines to the branches. Also, cage up off the floor. Chameleons like to be high up.

That was before i got him lol i set the cage up at 130am lol
 
No he should get used to you. Likely not used to you or his new space yet either. They know when you move them to a different cage. The older ones are harder to deal with if they haven't been handled or worse mis-treated.
If he continues to lunge and try to bite even after you do all the common sense things like offering food by hand etc. Please try my "glove method"
Here is the link
https://www.chameleonforums.com/showthread.php?t=127384&referrerid=27450
I just bought an aggressive male knowing he was aggressive and he is now 8mo old so not a baby. I know he wasn't handled much but came from a good and caring breeder. When all the regular methods failed and he kept trying to bite me I tried something different, so I would not fear a bite and he would not fear a bare hand.
Worked like a charm and in under a week.
I now hold him briefly without the glove and he no longer tries to bite me at all. Getting better everyday. Hope this is a help.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mens-Mechan...301?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cdd73912d Would these gloves work?
 
If he doesn't like the color red forget it!!! Some chameleons do not like certain colors. I used gloves before and used green ones. I figured the chameleon might think it was a big green leaf! lol

I'm just picky lol, i try to find everything perfect for him :pso green would be a better color then?
 
No
First they are RED An aggression color ! Would probably scare him more than anything else
I got my gloves at ACE hardware. I am sure there must be one near you. But probably Lowes or Home Depot would have them too.

They are a stretchy cotton glove that has been dipped at the palm and finger area in some kind of rubber so they are water-proof. They are gardening gloves not red mechanics gloves
The color I picked was as close to green cham or plant color as I could find so it would not frighten. Also the gloves stretch when you put them on so they are close to the hand. I got then smallest i could wear so there would not be excess glove.
Hope this helps. If you need to I can look up the ACE stock number for you. If you have that kind of store near you.
 
No light at night. They see all light, even if reptile store says certain ones are ok, they're not. If your temps get below a certain temp(check the caresheets), you can use a heat emitter or a room/space heater.
They need no light so they can sleep well and a drop in temp.
Kath.
 
No light at night. They see all light, even if reptile store says certain ones are ok, they're not. If your temps get below a certain temp(check the caresheets), you can use a heat emitter or a room/space heater.
They need no light so they can sleep well and a drop in temp.
Kath.

My room gets to about 55° with a space heater is thata sufficiant temp for him?
 
He let me watch him today but when i tried to remove the food bowl he puffed up so i left him alone, is that a good sign?
 
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