Chameleon handling tips

[Willagrace]

Have a veiled chameleon, her name is Cameron, and I want to be able to hold her. She already comes to the edge of the tank when I come near it, expecting food and she does eat out of my fingers. But she does get that weird coloring whenever I try to touch her, and sometimes she hisses at me. What time I accidentally shut her tail in the lid, I felt really bad about doing it, I didn't know how to make it up to her, but I don't know she forgot or if she just doesn't like being handled but I want to be able to touch her and hold her like a real pet.
If anyone has any tips of how I can hold her again let me know

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums. This is a great place to learn about chameleons. I am attaching a link about taming by Stan, one of our senior members and also a link about general care and a few links about the female veiled. The female will need a laying bin in her enclosure at all time after reaching the age of 5 months. They can and often do lay eggs without a male even being around. Also tanks arenott good homes for chameleons.

Taming blog: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/psychobunny/746-taming-chameleon.html

General carre: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html
Female care by Lynda Horgan : http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html
Egg laying and the laying bin: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html#comment2073
Video by another senior member Dez about setting up a laying bin: https://www.chameleonforums.com/laying-bin-set-up-educational-video-77225/

 

[joshuaseidman94]

First thing to understand is that it requires SO much patience (which sucks because i know how painful it can be to want to hold your cham). I had a similar problem and today was actually the FIRST TIME i held my cham (pretty amazing day). I will tell you what I did and you can try it. Having said that you must understand that it may take months and that when it does happen it will well be worth it!

So as usual, whenever I see he is right near the door of the cage would open it and place my hand a few inches from him until he saw my hand and would stay calm. If he puffs his neck I will stay in that position until he relaxes and then I slowly would work my way closer and closer. For weeks I would just touch him so he would understand that my hand was not trying to harm him. Then I used a feeder that moves slow so that I could place it on my hand without it jumping off, this way I could hold my hand open as if I was going to pick him up but he would focus on the food and not my hand. So today after he ate a few worms I slowly put another one next to him and when it caught his attention i slowly pulled it to the edge of the cage so he would follow. He then climbed on the top of the door to his cage and i used my second hand to slowly slip it under his front feet (do not ever try to lift them from behind, it makes them feel threatened). Then I slowly lifted my hand, giving him no choice but to climb on with his back feet. That is how I got him to let me hold him for the first time. I do not expect it to be the solution to everyones handling problems, but everyone else's advice helped me so maybe hearing what I tried can help you find your solution =)

GOODLUCK!!