Have I ruined his trust?

[rango87]

i have a 4 month old panther chameleon.although hes 4 months old hes only just under 4 inches long.

well ive had him for 11 days.for the first few days he was eating between 5-7 crickets a day from a pair of tongs as he doesnt get cup feeding at all.i just left him alone.on the 6th day i held him for 5 mins and have done once a day for the last 5 days.now hes not aggressive.he doesnt hiss or puff but he does show black barring stress marks on his body whne im holding him.now since i started handling him his not eating as much.im not sure if this is the reason.hes eating only 2 crickets a day atm.today i offered him a locust and he just looked away.i just keep getting told to do different things.

im not sure what to do. have i caused this.im being told to stop handling him,give him time and get him eating.
then im being told to just handle him 2-3 times a week other wise all the progress ive made will be lost and if i dont he wont learn to trust me.

ive also been told he maybe due a shed.

im not sure what to do.im so stressed about it.the last thing i want is to stress him out.please help?? have i ruined his trust in me?

i just want him to be comfortable thats all that matters

my idea was to not handle him at all.just offer him food from my hand once a day in the morning.if hes not interested then try again the next day and so on.after ive offered him food,pop in a feeding cup and walk away and leave him.take the pot out about 2pm.then just go to his cage and mist him.thats it. what do you think i should do?

 

[FabrizioHC]

Yeah, to me it sounds like he's about to shed.

Try contacting the previous owner to ask him when was the last time he shed. Chameleons normally shed once a month when they're in the baby/juvenile stage, and about once every two months when they're completely grown.

Leave him alone for a couple days, you should be able to notice him shed in a day or two if he is in fact about to shed. If you don't notice anything and he continues to go without eating, then you might want to go to the vet.

 

[carol5208]

why not just let the food loose and let him hunt. That way you are not bothering him in anyway other than to put the food in.

 

[rango87]

hes in the xl reptibreeze so will not be able to find them.

 

[Lathelia]

I wouldn't handle him for now, it sounds like it's stressing him to the point he doesn't want to eat much.

 

[rango87]

sure i will leave him

 

[AnvilsHammer]

I wouldnt worry about losing his trust. I think the tolerance of handling comes down to the individual chameleon.

I just had to force fed my chameleon medication for a URI for the past 4 weeks. Its been a week since i stopped giving him the medicine and he's already starting to hand feed again.

 

[rango87]

thanks.i will just leave him and feed him via the cup but offer him food from my hand again in 3 days or so.im just going to leave him be.