Behavior???

[Jordan]

Allright, I have some weird behavior to report with my male. I had him out of his cage. I was hand feeding him. He ate as usual and the went up my arm no big deal. I got him back on my hand and brought him in front of my face. He hissed at me and then we locked eyes. He went from a side ways position (defensive posture) to facing me. I stared at him for a second and he proceeded to strike at me with his tongue. I did not make contact as I was already a little weirded out by seeing his mouth slightly coming open and I had started slowly moving him away from my face. Puzzled I tried to put him back in his cage. He started getting off of my hand and then turned around. He wanted to go back up my arm but that was not going to happen after the tongue thing. On a scale of one to ten on weird stuff I have seen a chameleon do this was a nine. My eyes literally crossed when it came towards my face. I went to the bathroom after this was over with to checked my face. I thought to myself surely there is something on me that made him lock on like that. No, just me in the mirror. He is a weird little dude.

 

[ChameleonsTree]

Well i read some blip about someone who had a veiled who would climb up their arm and hiss and snap their tongue at the owners ear

 

[Lunatic913]

it could be possessed....halloween is around the corner!

 

[sisco]

I had my female veiled out yesterday climbing on my hand and I could tell she was looking at something because she was looking around like she does when she lining up a cricket. Then she shot her tounge out at my hand. I let her walk around for a little bit longer and every time my hand got close she would start to shoot her tounge out.

 

[Jordan]

He always stares at me a lot when I have him out of his cage. Not like a glance but a full two eyed stare. The only other time he looks at any thing like that is with food, his dripper when it starts (he is still trying to figure that out), and when he is on my hand. I think he is waiting tell he gets bigger and is going to eat me.

 

[studiocham]

This is an interesting thread on behavior, as there are at least two different things going on.

Allright, I have some weird behavior to report with my male. I had him out of his cage. I was hand feeding him. He ate as usual and the went up my arm no big deal. I got him back on my hand and brought him in front of my face. He hissed at me and then we locked eyes. He went from a side ways position (defensive posture) to facing me. I stared at him for a second and he proceeded to strike at me with his tongue.

When combined with a defensive posture, the shooting may mean that he's trying to be dominant, to bluff you. Male veiled chams can be cheeky. This behavior has also been seen in unreceptive females of other species. Tongue shooting alone, when no food or food-related stimulus is present, means "Back off!" in cham terms.

Then she shot her tounge out at my hand. I let her walk around for a little bit longer and every time my hand got close she would start to shoot her tounge out.

This is probably tongue shooting from a food-related stimulus. When you feed her, is your hand the part of you she sees the most often? Do you stick your hand in her enclosure to fill her bowl, or throw in prey, or even hand-feed prey? It is not uncommon for chams to learn to associate their keeper's face and hands with food. This can work to your advantage when you are taking photos of chams, just wiggle your fingers to get them to look any direction you want! I have to admit I've had a laugh or two from doing this to my baby chams, all moving their heads (targeted eyes and tongues) in unison to follow my hand.

I had a veiled that would shoot at jewelry, eyes, buttons, and eyeglasses, pretty much anything shiny or moving on people. He was very sweet-natured, but when he'd strike his tongue on guests, it was hard to convince them he meant no harm. He did not show any bluff display, just feeding excitement colors.

 

[Jordan]

I have kind of played the senario over in my head. I think when he got on my shoulder he could see his lady friend. That could be why he hissed at me. I would probably lean more on the side as him reconizing me as a food source in a manner of speaking. He took a side ways posture with his gular region expanded as I was bringing him down. When we made eye contact is when he turned and faced me. I saw his mouth slightly open and that tongue just barely. That is when I got him further away. He has come up and licked my watch before. I assumed he had mistaken it for the reflection of water.

 

[hilohi]

Tongue lashing

My male veiled is normally pretty calm and he loves to come out of his cage at every opportunity. The only problem with that is his feet are strong and his nails are sharp and he cuts into me with every grip. I've had to resort to wearing a glove whenever carrying him, but he absolutely hates the glove. Recently, I reached into his cage with the glove on and he instantly became angry, hissing at the glove, posturing at the glove, trying to bite the glove, and then out of frustration shooting his tongue at the glove from a distance. Everything else I was ready for, but the tongue thing really surprised me. The good thing was that his tongue didn't stick to the glove, so we didn't end up playing tug of war with his tongue in the middle.

 

[sisco]

When my cham did it she wasn't mad. All I can think is I had a small round scab where I cut one of my knuckles and she mut have thought it was food. She also did it to the lens of my sunglasses once before.