How friendly is YOUR chameleon?

We have 11 and while they all hand feed and are mostly comfortable around us, they are not all "friendly"

All three of our veiled are sweet. Gus - the old man is oblivious and okay with whatever we do. My female Oozle begs to come out of her cage and will ride around on my head or shoulder. We recently took our other male -Logan - to a pet event and showed him off and talked to kids about him. He was super chill with kids coming right up and getting in his face.

Our flapnecks do not like to be handled. Mortimer will come out on his own and will sometimes climb on my hand IF he wants out. If I just pick him up he will bite. Penelope will not come out willingly and will bite if I even try.

The two k.multi come marching right out of their cages and are okay with handling. Though they prefer to wander and explore on their own. I scared the female today. I went to kiss her while I was moving her back to her cage and I think she thought I was going to eat her. I forget my little Mouse is more timid ... and she's so little and cute! Trogdor is more calm with my sillyness.

Our Jackson's female, Toad, is totally sweet and comes right to me, Reggie will gape some when I handle him. He is a couple years old and has not been handled by his previous owner.

Neither of the melleri like to be handled. Jonsey tolerates it, he will climb on my husband to get a ride to another plant but only on his terms not ours. Tuners gapes when we handle her. So we don't.

All of them become so much more friendly when we are holding a nice juicy silk worm or horn worm!!

(Other than our old male veiled they range in age from about 1 - 2 years old. Our flapnecks have been cranky since they were tiny babies. My female veiled Oozle has been a sweetheart since I got her when she was tiny. The others we got as young adults.)
 
My 2 baby Veiled's are definitely different... they are both about 2 months old.

Leia, the girl, is very friendly and outgoing.. loves climbing right on my hand when I come near her cage. I take her out and hold her for a few minutes every few days, let her crawl around on my arm.

Luke, the boy, is a different story. He is very sweet but shy (doesn't bite or hiss, although he does puff up sometimes when I come near him) He likes my hubby, but he doesn't really wanna be bothered with me. For the most part he likes to be left alone.

They are such amazing animals.. so cool to see how different their personalities can be!
 
Panther - He is almost 6 months old and has never shown any aggression towards me. He would rather not be handled but he does tolerate it. He also likes being hand fed and has walked up my arm before for a waxworm. I am hoping as he ages he will be more keen on being handled.

Veiled - About 4.5 months old and he has mood swings. As a baby he was really friendly but not so much any more. He doesnt seem to mind me going in his cage and he will hand feed. Sometimes he gapes and hisses but most of the time if I move my hand slowly he is fine. I can usually move my hand slowly towards his chin and tickle it. Sometimes he will climb on. Once he is out he can be OK but sometimes tries to make a break for it. He has been known to hiss and gape then shoot his tongue for a worm whilst doing it. He is just hit/miss really.

I try not too handle them too often. I would say on average twice a week per Chameleon.
 
I've been lucky both of my chameleons are friendly, they both get handled and love to hang out with me. My male yemen actually sits at the door of his cage and waits to come out though he hates it if you mess with his home, also he could be basking and he'll see me walk over towards his cage he'll come running down and when i open the door he'll climb on to me and run straight up my arm, sweet really. My female yemen Mia has always been a sweet heart right from the day i got her, she's free ranged in my bedroom now and will happily climb on to me if i stand close enough, i don't know what it is to have a grumpy chameleon tbh. :D:D
 
My oldest ambilobe male, Ziggy, will never puff up or gape. I have seen the vet pry his mouth open with a tounge depressor and he didnt even hiss or shake his head. He will readily crawl onto your arm whether you want him to or not. Very cool cham.
His son, Spock is different. He will bite if you get in range but will still crawl onto your hand if he doesnt realize its you hes on. As soon as he figures that out he freaks.
One of Spocks sisters has gotten used to being hand fed and waits for me to stick my hand out every morning. she will feed while on my hand which shows that she is not stressed at all and seems to truely enjoy being held.
 
My 5 month old female veiled has just recently started to not like handling. From the time I got her she was totally content with being held by anyone. But some recent changes to her enclosure ( mistking) she has gotten really aggressive when I try to pick her up. Hissing and gaping have become the norm. She has not bitten and is ok once I have put my hand under a lifted a little. Oh well, hopefully its a phase.
 
I have a baby veiled, and shes eager already to choose my finger for a branch.. vs. continuing on with the branch she was already on. lol Shes so cute <3
 
I choose not to handle / mess with my chameleons much
That said, there is one that is overtly "friendly" several that are merely tolerant of handling, and the rest having varying degress of distrust/hatred for me
 
veeiled (evil) jacksons (friendly)

my first chameleon was evil jaja jk wellit was a veiled and unless he was gioing to eat she would quickly want to come out and want to eat me up... anytime i would go in the cage to get her out she would hiss and strike..as soon as she was out of the cage she was a differnt cham..she would go green and wouldnt mind being handled:D...
...my jacksons is friendlier... i recently free ranged him 24/7 well this has been a week and 3 days marking point since he has been out in his fr area..he really likes the freedom and doesent wonder off.. hes always green /and when i get home to see him he does not mind me grabbing him for a couple of mins:D:D he likes taking pictures and has never hissed at me ..well only onceand it was a minor hiss..cuz i scared him when i was looking for him..he was right in front of my face jajaj lol
 
my cham hates me i sometimes here him at night making a plan and talking to himself of how hes going to kill me:p:p:p
 
Time to go through the list :p

Nosy Be Male 1, Very friendly, had some teenage anger he grew out of.
Nosy Be Male 2, Very friendly, was always good.
Nosy Be Female 1, Pretty friendly overall.
Nosy Be Female 2, Friendly, no problems with her.
Nosy Be Female 3, rather defensive, can be handled but stresses her.
Ambilobe Female, Friendly.
Nosy Mitsio Male, As defensive as they get.
Veiled Male 1, Overall Friendly, has his moments.
Veiled Male 2, Friendly, but punishes you with a crazy grip strength.
Veiled Female 1, Defensive, can't be handled without gloves.
Veiled Female 2, Defensive, not as bad as 1, but will take a bite at you.
Veiled Female 3, had a really tough life before I got her, surprisingly really friendly.

So overall 8/12 are friendly, not bad odds imo
 
My boy gizzy is a veiled n he rarely has some mood swings his a friendly cham he dnt fired upp wen im cleanin or misting sometimes he runs away wen I mist but I try not bothering him I just mist the other side of the cage his a nice cham dnt bite or hiss at me if I try handleing him rarely does he try.
I love my little dude lol :p

Sent from my Dell Streak 7
 
I have also been lucky in that all 3 of mine have been friendly. Never been hissed at or gaped at by any of them. My first, Lily, was at the reptile shop for her first 6 months and was handled often and very used to people from the start. She was a total sweetheart.

After she died, I got Amy about a week later - she was a tiny 3 month old bundle of scaredy-cham, bless her! I hand fed her often and tried to handle her regularly and now she has days when she will scratch at her door as soon as she sees me and won't stop until I get her out. Other days she'll be so keen to come out that she almost falls out as soon as I open the door. Yet, most of the time she is just happy to sit in the same place all day long and wait for food!:rolleyes:

Now, Tommy is the one that Makes me realise that a lot of it is down to personality. He is about 4 years old now - I will have had him for 2 years in November) and I am his fifth owner. He has been moved around and passed back and forth between the last owners, yet he is still the sweetest boy ever. He has never once tried to bite or even hissed and gaped at me. He will have a little huff at me and try to head butt since he's lost the use of his front leg, but I think that is out of frustration more than anything. I love Tommy to bits and he has a happy forever home with me - I could never part with him, he is such a sweet boy. Even when he gets pulled around by the vet he still doesn't try and bite, yet he has plenty of opportunity to do some damage if he so wished! I think someone forgot to tell my two how Veileds are supposed to behave! :D
 
George is too friendly. He grabs my hand and doesn't let go. He's hissed once when I scared him while cleaning his cage, he turned tail and legged it up the side.
 
My male has been very tolerant, but I can't call him friendly. He will come out to me when I'm misting, and doesn't bother to get angry with me at all if I'm in to clean or anything........just an occasional hiss (and a lunge or two as a 'teenager'). My female is much more shy, but also likes a misting, and is a very enthusiastic hand-feeder (not because there's a hand, but because there's food :)). I handle them as little as possible, but have been getting them out for sun as much as possible while we have our so-called summer over here......a good excuse to take pictures and films too.....
 
Rhaegar is my first he’s a Panther and I think he forgets who I am on a daily basis, he’s never bit me but if I go into his home for whatever reason he will freeze and as soon as he thinks I don’t see him will beeline for cover or rotate slowly behind whatever branch he is on. If I move to fast to try and get him onto my hand he will flare and Gape once I get him out if I don’t move for a few or if I keep my hand elevated for a while he calms down but if I start moving around he will try and hide behind my hand, cracks me up. :confused: So short of it he tolerates me being there but wouldn’t miss me if I was gone at least till the food ran out. He did eat a worm from my hand a couple days ago so there is still hope.:rolleyes:
 
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