Cham personalities

[WelshOneEmma]

I have been reading on here lately all the stories that people have, and I am starting to wonder if I am not a 'cham person', or if I just have a miserable cham!

I read all about Tiff with Lily, and now Amy, and how she has these chams who handle well, and she can take great pictures. And then there is joy with the story about the Meller's getting on an arm and staying there. There seems to be countless stories about people and their 'relationships' with their chams, handfeeding etc. So my question is - "what am I doing wrong?"

I understand that they are animals, and that we cannot attach emotions as such. I don't think they have the 'relationship' capacities as an animal such as a cat or dog might, yet I still find myself frustrated.

I don't try to force Hugo into anything. He doesnt like being handled, so I don't try. I fill his cage with the best plants (admittedly we haven't built him his new cage yet, but the bf's redundancy has put that on hold for the moment), his food has it's own cage etc (going with the free range egg analogy!), we buy him wax worms which he won't take from me - he just hates me. My animals are spoilt. If we don't have much money, we have value food and they have the best. Is there something that he is missing from his 'life' or am I just someone who 'chams' don't feel an affinity with?

 

[bridgofaith]

Mine despise me too. They don't generally like being touched or held. Sometimes you get lucky and get a gentle one that doesn't mind it (I have one of those too), but more often they just don't like it. They are not a come out and cuddle type of animal.

 

[hallenhe]

As they say, each one is different. I don't think it's you; Hugo probably wouldn't be any friendlier to anyone else.

 

[WelshOneEmma]

Mine despise me too. They don't generally like being touched or held. Sometimes you get lucky and get a gentle one that doesn't mind it (I have one of those too), but more often they just don't like it. They are not a come out and cuddle type of animal.

I understand that, which is why I don't try to handle him. He just sits at the back of his cage under his UV light a lot, wanders about occasionally (and is then a browny colour), and if he ever sees me walking past he walks away with a foul 'look', yet he is fine with my BF. He proper hates me! I don't really handle him as he is very 'jumpy' on me, yet fine with Joe.

 

[graydon]

Its not you. It depends on the cham and how the cham was raised. Ive had a cham that would hide whenever I got near the cage and now I have a cham that sits on the top of my hand and eats butterworms off my arm. Your best bet for getting a cham that is social is to get one from a reliable source and to get it when its young.

 

[WelshOneEmma]

Its not you. It depends on the cham and how the cham was raised. Ive had a cham that would hide whenever I got near the cage and now I have a cham that sits on the top of my hand and eats butterworms off my arm. Your best bet for getting a cham that is social is to get one from a reliable source and to get it when its young.

Would you believe that he came from the same breeder that Tiff got Lily from, and he was about 8 weeks old when we got him! Admittedly, when we got him home, he jumped straight off me and landed on the floor, which is why I think I am jumpy with him.......

 

[Miss Lily]

With me it was circumstance with Lily rather than anything I did or didn't do. She was reserved and the shop was raising her so she was handled on a regular basis and was used to people walking past all day and looking at her. Lily was happy to walk all over anyone and everything! she never once hissed or gaped at me.

Amy is a bit different - she is fine with me, but she won't go to my hubby as hard as he tries! She will do a u-turn on my arm rather than go to him, and he does get frustrated, so I can understand how you feel. She will, however, go to my Mum and she has reached out to try and grab my daughter before too!

I think having Lily already 'tame' (or should I say, people tolerant) has given me the confidence with Amy that I might not have had. I feel that somehow there's a 'connection' there, I dunno - it's kind of hard to pinpoint quite what it is. Or maybe I just got lucky, who knows?!

 

[ballin]

I was lucky enough to get a relationship going with my panther, becasue of hand feeding, then shower day came and now he hates me. lol
He hates water and by me giving him a shower he relates me to water.
me + water = angry cham.
Back to the hand feedings I guess...

 

[Miss Lily]

Would you believe that he came from the same breeder that Tiff got Lily from, and he was about 8 weeks old when we got him! Admittedly, when we got him home, he jumped straight off me and landed on the floor, which is why I think I am jumpy with him.......

Maybe he can sense that you are uneasy with him. Having said that Amy did the leap of faith too just after I got her, but she is still fine with me, even though I was scared to death to handle for a while after for fear of a repeat performance. It's not nice seeing your baby cham go splat on the floor. They are much easier to deal with when they are bigger and have more weight to them. I am far more confident with handling Amy now she's bigger.

Do you know anyone else with a cham that is 'people tolerant' so that you could get some confidence with handling first before you try again with Hugo? It might just help a little if you are able to handle one without the fear of being hissed or gaped at!

 

[WelshOneEmma]

Maybe I could come to the IOW and try with Amy?! I am afraid the only people I 'know' with chams are the people on this forum.

 

[Miss Lily]

It was just a thought- maybe if you had the chance to handle a different cham you would be more at ease with Hugo. When I was in the shop buying Amy's food a couple of weeks ago, the owner was saying that their male had been out, which I had missed. She then unlocked his viv and I held my hand out and he climbed straight on me. Earlier in the day another customer had been in and the male would have nothing to do with him, so maybe it's me, I dunno! Maybe I send out good vibrations to them - either that or I smell like a cham, lol! If you are ever on the Island it would be great to meet you - you'd be more than welcome! I would love to share Amy with someone who also suffers with chameleonitis!

 

[gary1621]

Might sound silly... but do you have a chair you can place next to his cage and get comfy in?
When Peanut first came home to us i would sit with her mid evening and just read or play on my DS or whatever and i think she got used to seeing me. Then i sat with the cage open.

I have a foot stool that i sit on while im misting her and feeding so she can see the top of my head so she doesnt think im some headless giant or something.

The stool has come in handly when trying to handle her... Tiff will be able to tell you all my worries from the earlier days... but i found sitting down gave me confidence. She isnt too far from the ground or my lap if she decided to go for the leap or faith malarky! It gave me something to rest my arms on if they got achy so i wouldnt start shaking (leading to giving up the attempt or upsetting her).

Dont give up, just adjust the things you have tried

Call me crazy but eye contact and talking to her i think helped too, she needed to see that my eyes and mouth moved and it wasnt something to fear.

 

[gary1621]

Oooo i forgot to say... before trying to handle Peanut directly i would allow her to walk on to a plant (not one for her cage) and sit with that on my lap for a while. I'd allow her to walk from the plant back into her cage.

The next step from that was, i would allow her to walk out on to the plant but i'd have her walk onto my hand to put her back in her cage

it sort of progressed from there

 

[WelshOneEmma]

The cage is in the corner of the living room, so he does see us often. I do get reluctant having him out, as we have 3 cats (and before anyone says it, the landlord decided that our house doesn't really need any doors downstairs). I talk to him, I try not to wear red around him, I am the one who always feeds him and mists him, yet he hates me, and constantly goes for me. Yet the OH doesn't have a problem with him. Maybe he just has the right 'vibe'?

 

[HairyScaryMark]

Based on what I've read here, I would say my cham is probably friendlier than average but as i'm new to chameleons I probably don't really know that well. I've had him hand feed from a few differnet people and he doesn't seem much happier to sit on me than anyone else. He sometimes moves towards me when i'm in the room but I never really know if he deliberately is moving towards me or if it's just a coincidence that he wants to be at that side of his cage at the time (which seems far more likely). The other day I picked him up and he went a bit mental, ran to my head and reached for anything that he could get to and according to other family members he looked prepared to jump or fall. Guess he was having an off day or my handling technique was bad that day.

I gather it is a bit of a natural lottery. If I ever breed chameleons I will make sure to iform potential owners that the one they get could hate them or turn out to be a monster and other ones will be 'teddy bears'. You have to be prepared for this if you want this kind of pet. But then again think of how many people have vicious or unfriendly cats or dogs?

 

[WelshOneEmma]

Can I just reiterate the fact that I am not 'upset' I have an unfriendly cham. I knew what sort of animal I was getting when I bought Hugo. I just notice some people seem to have good 'relationships' with their animals, and was wondering if it was something, even the smallest thing, that they do that results in their cham tolerating them. It's just the same people seem to have the same personality type. As Tiff says, maybe it's the right vibe, and I should stick to having the right vibe with the cats, and leave Hugo to Joe!

 

[jagfan]

I think Chams are a lot like Amazon Parrots in their personalities, either they like you or they don't and when they don't they really don't. I've raised and spoon fed Amazons from the egg and had them hate me but love my husband who never really had a thing to do with them. So far I've been very lucky I can handle all my chams with no trouble even my wc Nosey Bee male. My female Nosey allows it and my new little pink boy demands it. I'm having a hard time coming up with a name for him hopefully one will come soon. Be patient hopefully Hugo will warm up in time
Tammy