biting

Reading this thread made me kind of scared! Lol, holding on, sawing teeth, not letting go for minutes!? I guess cause we have always made remy use to being around us and persistent petting, rubbing and loving, he has gotten to the point where he doesn't run or pif anymore. He's super friendly now that he's getting older. The only time he has ever hissed was when he sees the color pink... we leave his cage open with a bridge for him to come out on his own, usually he will go straight to us and have a free ride hahahhaa. :ROFLMAO: #thankfulforremy #learnedtoappreciatehiskindness
 
bridgetnshane said:
Thats where I think he'll bite me if I put my hand by his face he scares me a bit but I don't want him full grow taking advantage knowing I'm scared that's why I wanna know the best way to get him out by hand without him biting
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I'm sorry, I should have taken your concerns more seriously.

First off, he doesn't know you are afraid. He doesn't think that much. He is likely the one in mortal terror. If he is biting, he's afraid and trying to escape. Think of biting as a defensive response.

There's an old bird-training axiom, "Bite me once, shame on you. Bite me twice, shame on me." It applies to handling chameleons as well. It says that if your bird (or chameleon) bites more than one time, you are doing something wrong in how you are handling it. The goal is to never ever put the animal in a situation where their response to you is biting. To have an animal feel so threatened it is resorting to biting is a failure on the handler's part. Keep that in mind.

As far as chameleons actually biting, they rarely do. The way to prevent biting is to never put your chameleon in a situation where he feels threatened. Not allowing enough time to get the animal in or out of the cage is probably one of the main situations where people put their chameleons in positions when they feel threatened. Use perches and encourage your chameleon to step on a perch when you want to move them.
 
I understand that and i feel better knowing they really wont bite.but do I just put my hand under his belly til he comes to me or what?this is where I get freaked out thinking he'll bite me or when he hisses he's on attack mode lol
 
My first cham was a veiled girl who had spent the first seven months of her life in bare minimum care. By the time she came to me, she was not a fan of the human race. She often became visibly unhappy if a person so much as looked at her. There was absolutely no touching. She made that clear to me if I got close enough, in her estimation, that I might begin to think about physical contact. Actual contact was out of the question. An absurd idea. She would go from zero to just-this-side-of-apoplectic in the blink of an eye.

Frankly, at first I regarded the inside of her habitat as being much like Jurassic Park after the computers went out. Until she was comfortable eating from my hand, I didn't handle her at all except to move her to a bigger cage. We started with food in a cup that I would hold, then we lost the cup. Eventually I could even touch Her Majesty's chin without causing thunderclouds to form in her terrifying eyes. This occurred over about three months, and that was as friendly as she and I ever got.

However friendly your little firecracker might come to be, your goal should be to make yourself a thing that he associates with more good than bad. It sounds like he really doesn't want to be picked up right now. Maybe start smaller. Let him get comfortable with the idea that you're not a threat. Food, patience, and the capacity for psychological warfare are your best weapons against a stubborn biter.
 
I was experimenting with food yesterday , tryin to build my relationship with my 11 month out female pantha.
I was feedin wax worms and getting closer and closer would she was firing , to actually feeding directly into her mouth. it for a bit awkward and I couldn't quite get it in the right position ( she was sitting side on, and I didn't want to move her) and whilst trying to take it she nibbled my thumb, made me jump and pull back but didn't hurt just shocked me!! However it wasn't a vicious attack :)
 
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R.H said:
I was experimenting with food yesterday , tryin to build my relationship with my 11 month out female pantha.
I was feedin wax worms and getting closer and closer would she was firing , to actually feeding directly into her mouth. it for a bit awkward and I couldn't quite get it in the right position ( she was sitting side on, and I didn't want to move her) and whilst trying to take it she nibbled my thumb, made me jump and pull back but didn't hurt just shocked me!! However it wasn't a vicious attack :)
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When hand feeding, you really don't want to be so close they have to take the food directly out of your hand. They prefer their prey to be a bit of a distance away--I'm sure the tongue doesn't perform all that well too close. I don't think they can see very well close to their faces--I don't know if it is their eyesight or just their heads block their vision close up.

I know it is hard, but try not to pull back if this ever happens again. Their teeth do not have any roots, so are easy to damage. Also, pulling back is likely to increase your chance of getting cut--their teeth are sharp.

I find your referring to her mistaking your hand for food as not being a "vicious attack" somewhat problematic. Words do matter and it appears you might be subconsciously labeling your chameleon as an aggressive animal (since you felt the need to clarify to us that it wasn't a vicious attack). Preconceived biases matter in how you ultimately relate to everything from animals to immigrants or races of people. I hope you don't take this as a criticism--it isn't meant to be. I've helped a lot of people working with challenging pet parrots, and getting rid of the labels and the owners' preconceived motives they are attributing to the animal first really helps solve the problems.

Here's a very enlightening paper on bias:

http://faculty.uncfsu.edu/tvancantfort/Syllabi/Gresearch/Readings/17Dion.pdf

Developing trust in a chameleon is not the same as developing trust in a domesticated animal. Chameleons will always remain essentially a wild animal. They seem to be pretty limited in their intellectual abilities and do not develop social relationships, which is probably the single characteristic that allows a species to be truly domesticated or tamed. They might be reasonably comfortable around you, but if you do something they find threatening, they respond like the prey animal they are, which are very different responses than you will get from a horse or a dog.
 
I'm sorry, my intention was not to scare you! I was just voicing that having an extremely aggressive cham is entirely possible (to respond to those mentioning that it's a lack of patience and what not - it's not with my guy, thanks, he's just not one to tolerate handling, so he is not made to). It doesn't sound like this is what you are dealing with :)
 
jajeanpierre said:
When hand feeding, you really don't want to be so close they have to take the food directly out of your hand. They prefer their prey to be a bit of a distance away--I'm sure the tongue doesn't perform all that well too close. I don't think they can see very well close to their faces--I don't know if it is their eyesight or just their heads block their vision close up.

I know it is hard, but try not to pull back if this ever happens again. Their teeth do not have any roots, so are easy to damage. Also, pulling back is likely to increase your chance of getting cut--their teeth are sharp.

I find your referring to her mistaking your hand for food as not being a "vicious attack" somewhat problematic. Words do matter and it appears you might be subconsciously labeling your chameleon as an aggressive animal (since you felt the need to clarify to us that it wasn't a vicious attack). Preconceived biases matter in how you ultimately relate to everything from animals to immigrants or races of people. I hope you don't take this as a criticism--it isn't meant to be. I've helped a lot of people working with challenging pet parrots, and getting rid of the labels and the owners' preconceived motives they are attributing to the animal first really helps solve the problems.

Here's a very enlightening paper on bias:

http://faculty.uncfsu.edu/tvancantfort/Syllabi/Gresearch/Readings/17Dion.pdf

Developing trust in a chameleon is not the same as developing trust in a domesticated animal. Chameleons will always remain essentially a wild animal. They seem to be pretty limited in their intellectual abilities and do not develop social relationships, which is probably the single characteristic that allows a species to be truly domesticated or tamed. They might be reasonably comfortable around you, but if you do something they find threatening, they respond like the prey animal they are, which are very different responses than you will get from a horse or a dog.
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hi ya!!
no offence taken by ur comment/oppinion , I don't get offended as I do my upmost for my baby!!
Totally understand where ur coming from, but she not a violent creature to say the least. I don't handle her as she doesn't like it , I only take her out to weigh her and when I deep clean. She tollerates me and knows I'm the one that brings food and treats!!

Now I know not to feed close distance I'll bear that in mind next time, then hopefully I'll never need to pull away from her again :)

just to clarify I don't recall saying my lola is aggressive :-/, shes a beautiful girl.

Thank u for ur feed back
 
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R.H said:
hi ya!!
no offence taken by ur comment/oppinion , I don't get offended as I do my upmost for my baby!!
Totally understand where ur coming from, but she not a violent creature to say the least. I don't handle her as she doesn't like it , I only take her out to weigh her and when I deep clean. She tollerates me and knows I'm the one that brings food and treats!!

Now I know not to feed close distance I'll bear that in mind next time, then hopefully I'll never need to pull away from her again :)

just to clarify I don't recall saying my lola is aggressive :-/, shes a beautiful girl.

Thank u for ur feed back
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No, you never said she was aggressive. You made sure we all knew she wasn't being aggressive. It's subtle, but your fall back is that she is aggressive unless proven otherwise. As I said, it's subtle.

If I get bitten by my chameleons, aggression is never an explanation that enters my mind. Terror, poor handling on my part and defensiveness are my first thoughts. That applies to my chameleons that are not socialized and my collection of parrots that are.
 
ok ill remember next time to think before I type , and used more of an expressive text so I can make myself clear instead of subtly expressing I have an AGGRESSIVE creature !!
I apprciate ur feed back thank u!!
 
jajeanpierre said:
No, you never said she was aggressive. You made sure we all knew she wasn't being aggressive. It's subtle, but your fall back is that she is aggressive unless proven otherwise. As I said, it's subtle.

If I get bitten by my chameleons, aggression is never an explanation that enters my mind. Terror, poor handling on my part and defensiveness are my first thoughts. That applies to my chameleons that are not socialized and my collection of parrots that are.
Click to expand...

Likewise. When I said aggression in my post, i meant the attitude that he displays due to being afraid of me and being defensive. It's not downright malicious, he just doesn't like people.. He hasn't been mishandled, it's just the way he is. He's a look, don't touch animal in my house and I'm confident it's no one's fault. :)

Again, not saying your animal is this way (and it 100% doesn't sound like it :) ). Just wanted to clear up that I'm probably using the wrong words for sake of ease.
 
I'm so grateful for this post bc I too am a new chameleon owner and I'm a bit
scared and honestly embarrassed about it..;)
so my situation is slightly different. I have a 5-6 month old veiled chameleon male, who my daughter named, Pickle.
So Pickle has been with us for about 2 months and from day one he ate from my hand and was tolerant of petting under the chin.
After about a month he would come on my hand to feed out of the other hand. - all great and good stuff.
But now comes the problem -
I made a habit of leaving his enclosure door open when I was near to allow more airflow and give him the sense that he's not always trapped.
He started to get bold and now he refuses to stay in the cage!! All he does the entire time is try to find a way out. - and yes his enclosure is a great size, has everything he needs and more all inclusive with real plants and proper lighting and misting. Nothing in the cage has changed.. he has always loved his cage.. it's ever since he tasted freedom!!
He just simply wants to roam. All fine except as soon as I get him out to take him to his tree he starts to hiss and open his mouth and threatens to bite me. All after he was waving his hands and begging me to come and get him. As soon as he grabs a hold of my hand it's like he knows I'm scared of him !!
I haven't been bitten yet but I feel it's around the corner.
And when he's out and I have to get him to go back in, he hisses and acts out bc he doesn't want to go back in o_O
I need help!!
I want to give him the best and allow him to have freedom but I'm so scared he's going to unleash his terror
 
I have only been bitten by any of my chameleons, rescues included when they accidentally hit my finger or something during handfeeding. I let them take my finger into their mouth then. The only one who has done any sort of damage is my male panther Ryker, and it's only because he tries to shake his head to tear off a piece of my finger, which he thinks is a bug. That just shreds the first couple layers of skin. If you build enough of a sense of trust with your chameleon it's very unlikely they will bite unless on accident or forced into it some way. And I honestly don't believe it's not possible to build a relationship of some sort with any chameleon no matter how aggressive they start out. The more aggressive ones in my opinion are just more fearful and need to take slower steps for longer periods of time.
 
My veiled female would always take a chomp on my finger after I was outside. For some reason she had this obsession of chomping on plants and when she smelled it on my finger, she took a bite. It drew blood one time, but the rest just felt like getting a shot almost. We actually went to the vet because we were worried about why she was biting so much, and she asked if I had handled plants or other chams before touching her. I told her yes but that I always wash my hands before and after, and she said it was actually NORMAL?!?!!:eek::ROFLMAO:
 
Mine bite me 2 times the first was nothing but second times...ouch! It was like when you close the finger in the closet.
 
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