Handling

[scs]

I know that a lot of people ask about handling chameleons, and I've been reading up on a lot of different situations and when/how it's best to handle chameleons, but none exactly fit my chameleon.

Sebastian is about 1 3/4 years old and I've had him for 11 months. He's always been shy, and it took ages to get him to eat from my hand directly (and not tweezers). He's only come out of his (extremely large) cage about 5 times, and each time he didn't go very far at all and it took him hours. The only times he's been handled would be at the vet's office, where he started out hissing but then relaxed after 5-10 minutes...

So basically if I have a healthy, shy-ish chameleon that is used to my company at a distance, has no interest in going outside of his cage, and has only been handled at the vet's office, how do I 'tame' him?

I'd love for him to sit on my hand, or be okay with me picking him up. Considering our relationship, do you guys think it would be okay to super super slowly (watching his body language) scoop him up and treat him to some sunlight?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[chameleonloverlluci]

people say its best to handle your chameleon as least as possible . But once mine comes i wanna be able to do what you said, sit with him, let him climb. But since your chameleon is shy I don't think you will do a bunch of handling. Just hand feed to gain trust and hopefully he will eventually open out of his shell and let you pick him up more. hope this helped sorry if it didn't I'm kinda new at this

 

[Andee]

Have you been hand feeding? Hand feeding is the best way to earn a chameleon's trust. I find what works best is find their most favorite snack and then only offer that by hand. Eventually they come around. Just be ready to wait them out. Sometimes it can take holding a worm or something for 5 minutes in the same spot. Sometimes you need to use tongs and work up to just using your hand. Only when he hand feeds consistently would I even consider handling him. Then I would immediately start associating handling as outside time.

 

[MissLissa]

Then I would immediately start associating handling as outside time.

While I agree that pairing food with the handler is a great idea, I don't know if immediately moving a shy cham outside is a great idea. The biggest reward in this cham's life right now is likely (and sadly) the absence of the owner. Having a chameleon that is not used to human handling on your hand, then walking through the house with it, and then out-of-doors, seems like a recipe for disaster, ie, a cham leaping from your hand in a panic, and then you have to scramble after it and convince it to get back up and on to your hand to get it back to it's enclosure. If he will eventually voluntarily climb onto your hand, I would let him sit there for a few second, then allow him to go back to his safe and comfortable territory, thus assuring him that nothing scary or unexpected happens when he climbs on this strange fleshy human-tree. While outside time can be a great reward for many chams, a very shy cham may find the trip to get outdoors vastly overwhelming at first, and possibly terrifying. Once he is comfortably getting on and off your hand to and from his enclosure, you can start working on walking him from hand to hand, moving him around a little at a time, etc.

Also, you may just have a hands-off cham. Not every cham is handleable, even with the best efforts and attentions. Each has their own personality. I would focus right now on handfeeding, and see if that is possible.

Why not just get him on your hand and let him calm down, like what happened at the vets' office? Well, this is something we in the behaviour world call "flooding", where a scary thing is offered at it's highest level and the animal is unable to respond in any way that decreases the intensity of the scary thing. For example, in this case, you are the scary thing, and actually touching you is basically going to be DEFCON 1 for you cham, at least at the moment. If an animal is "flooded" in such a way that escape and defense behaviours are not able to get them away from the scary thing (if you tie a dog down in a scary place, for example, or if your chameleon is on you at the vet's office), for a long enough period of time, they basically learn that no behaviour is effective, and they just stop behaving all together. This is not learning to trust, this is learning that they have no control or choice in their lives. This might not seem like a big deal, but this kind of choice-less learning when used long-term has been linked to several physical and psychological issues in a myriad of species ranging from cockroaches to octopuses to humans. Chameleons, being the high-stress animals they are, would not likely be exempt from flooding's harmful effects. This isn't to say "don't take your cham to the vet": in urgent cases, forcing interaction is inevitable. However, in instances that are not strictly necessary- like handling your cham at home- it is much better to allow the learner to control their behaviours and outcomes, and so inoculate themselves against those possible (probable) stress-related side effects of more force-based training.

Whew! TL;DR: just keep on with the handfeeding. It takes time, and your cham is your special individual cham. We love them just the same, even if they don't love us

 

[Titan65240]

If he's comfortable eating out if the palm of your hand then you should start placing the treat further down your hand. The way that's been working for me is showing him the worm and placing the worm high up on my forearm by my elbow and letting him walk up my hand to reach it.
It stated with him just leaning on my fingers first but now he runs up my arm to eat the worm.
I always handle him for short periods and let him walk back onto his branch so he sees that it's a safe thing to do.
Do this with patience and consistency and he will trust being handled.