Anyone else experience this behavior...

[tadeusz]

So, I have 3 oustalet boys and two of them are very easy going and never gap, hiss, etc and my other one is just skittish and if I go near him he will actively move away quickly from my hand, no big deal...

Today, I was taking them out and cleaning up their cages and with my biggest guy, he was just resting in my hand while I cleaned up his cage and I have never done this before, but I felt the urge to rub his casque a little; in a normal petting motion and I noticed my male started to close his eyes and then rest his head on my hand/arm and fell asleep. He was completely asleep as I was rubbing his casque. It reminded me of a trance or something like that. Didn't think much of it, but I did it to my other calm male and the same thing... So, I tried it with my skittish guy and no joke, he did the same thing and was completely calm and fell asleep on my hand and rested his head.

Has anyone else experienced this? I don't bother my chams too much except for cleaning and this is the first time I've done that, but it was very interesting. I would periodically stop and about 45 seconds after stopping, it was like it never happened and they were all up and active like nothing happened. Their colors weren't changing and i don't think they were scared or stressed, but it was very interesting... Curious on others thoughts on this...

I was going to give it a shot in the morning again when I feed and see if it happens again. If it does, I'll take a video of it and post it on here.

 

[eriksorg]

Thats why I love Oustalets...but their dad wasn't that gentle!!!

 

[tadeusz]

Yeah, it is kind of crazy. The one with the stub tail is the skittish one and I rarely mess with him cause he is so skittish and after rubbing his casque he was literally calm and ok with me touching him. I would say it was like the type of stimuli a cat/dog gets when you rub their belly!! Crazy, but yeah, I love these guys... The more days that pass, the more I really want to get a female and give breeding a shot!! I think I'm sold for life on these guys!!

 

[tadeusz]

I actually, did the same thing this morning with different results... Thought I was on to something! But, my 2 males are normally calm and didn't mind me rubbing the casque my little stub tail guy was a little weirded out, but he was tolerate of it.

 

[Sticktongue]

I wonder if its like sharks. When you put them upside down .(I'm having a brain cramp. cant remember exactly how its done or what its called) Anyway.. when its done right they go into a trance type thing. I wonder if its the same thing and maybe you did it wrong this time. Just something that popped into my head..

 

[tadeusz]

I wonder if its like sharks. When you put them upside down .(I'm having a brain cramp. cant remember exactly how its done or what its called) Anyway.. when its done right they go into a trance type thing. I wonder if its the same thing and maybe you did it wrong this time. Just something that popped into my head..

That was honestly what I was thinking. They literally rested their heads on my arm and were out within 10-20 seconds of rubbing the casque!

 

[Trace]

Perhaps it's a prey response? As in, that big thing that is touching me won't eat me if I play dead. The active, normal behaviours afterwards are them escaping the perceived predator after the fact.

 

[JonRich]

I wonder if its like sharks. When you put them upside down .(I'm having a brain cramp. cant remember exactly how its done or what its called) Anyway.. when its done right they go into a trance type thing. I wonder if its the same thing and maybe you did it wrong this time. Just something that popped into my head..

With Sharks it's if you put them on their backs.It puts them into a catatonic state. This may just be a cumfort thing for Chams (even though they would neverrr experience this in nature). It might just be as Trace stated that it might be as a defence tatic, stay still/play dead and not get eaten.

 

[Sticktongue]

With Sharks it's if you put them on the backs.It puts them into a catatonic state. This may just be a cumfort thing for them (even though they would neverrr experience this in nature). It might just be as Trace stated that it might be as a defence tatic, stay still/play dead and not get eaten.

Thank you for taking my brain cramp away!

 

[tadeusz]

Perhaps it's a prey response? As in, that big thing that is touching me won't eat me if I play dead. The active, normal behaviours afterwards are them escaping the perceived predator after the fact.

I would say that makes sense, but my 2 guys are the calmest chams! They are super easy going and don't scare, they literally just chill all day long. Even when I take them out of their cage, they are just very easy going... My 2 males have never hissed, gapped, or anything ever! My other male is just skittish! He is the runt of the group and normally moves away from my hand when I move near him. His reaction, I would say makes sense since he is so skittish, but my other guys... It's like soothing to them.

 

[tadeusz]

With Sharks it's if you put them on their backs.It puts them into a catatonic state. This may just be a cumfort thing for Chams (even though they would neverrr experience this in nature). It might just be as Trace stated that it might be as a defence tatic, stay still/play dead and not get eaten.

The other thing, I didn't mention is that this was pretty close to their normal bedtime too, which may have contributed to the reaction. I tried it this morning and I didn't get the same reaction. My 2 males were ok with it and let me continue like "no big deal," but my skittish guy was like "what are you doing?"