I can’t get my Cham out of her enclosure!

[Bdonahue]

I have about a 6-7 month old female veiled and no matter what we try we can’t get her out of her enclosure. I have tried to use branches, my hands and ropes and she always rears away and hisses as well as turning very deep stress colors. We are moving extremely slow when trying to get her but that doesn’t seem to do anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am worried she will never open up to us

 

[bloftis1]

I have about a 6-7 month old female veiled and no matter what we try we can’t get her out of her enclosure. I have tried to use branches, my hands and ropes and she always rears away and hisses as well as turning very deep stress colors. We are moving extremely slow when trying to get her but that doesn’t seem to do anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am worried she will never open up to us

Did you just get her? Either way I would definitely give her some time, I waited almost a whole month to actually hold and handle my chameleon. Chameleons aren't exactly the most "handliest" animals. I'd definitely give her time to herself and not stress her out anymore, too much for her could be bad.

 

[jamest0o0]

Veileds usually* aren't handle friendly. Panthers oftentimes can settle down though. It's almost annoying, anytime I walk in the room 2 of my 4 Panthers fling themselves at me.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

I have about a 6-7 month old female veiled and no matter what we try we can’t get her out of her enclosure. I have tried to use branches, my hands and ropes and she always rears away and hisses as well as turning very deep stress colors. We are moving extremely slow when trying to get her but that doesn’t seem to do anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am worried she will never open up to us

Why are you trying to remove her from her enclosure? Just to handle her?

 

[Bdonahue]

Did you just get her? Either way I would definitely give her some time, I waited almost a whole month to actually hold and handle my chameleon. Chameleons aren't exactly the most "handliest" animals. I'd definitely give her time to herself and not stress her out anymore, too much for her could be bad.

Yes we got her about 3 weeks ago now,

Did you just get her? Either way I would definitely give her some time, I waited almost a whole month to actually hold and handle my chameleon. Chameleons aren't exactly the most "handliest" animals. I'd definitely give her time to herself and not stress her out anymore, too much for her could be bad.

yes we got her about 3 weeks ago now and thank you we’ll definitely try to give her some more time

 

[Bdonahue]

Why are you trying to remove her from her enclosure? Just to handle her?

Trying to handle her and I would like to clean her cage

 

[JacksJill]

Here are some guides to handling your chameleon that might help. Try herding her on to a plant she can hide in if you need to clean the cage and then take the plant somewhere safe. It's going to take lots of time for her to trust you
http://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-80-handling-your-chameleon/
http://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-82-holding-angry-chameleons/

 

[Chameleomom]

You can clean the cage with her in it .Do your thing and let her know you are not going to hurt her. She will probably settled down after she sees your hand brings good things,such as food, but,some never do so be prepared

 

[bloftis1]

Keep on focusing on hand feeding as well, so she can be associated with your hand and she'll be like "Oh this thing gives me food it won't hurt me" Hand feeding is the best thing to help if you really do want to handle her in the future.

 

[Syreptyon]

In addition to what everyone else has already said, my advice would be to listen to the very clear signs she is giving you. She doesn't want you to handle her right now and you should respect that. It is perfectly possible that she will not ever allow you to handle her and you ought to be prepared for that possibility. At this point, you are only stressing her out and making it harder to gain her trust. Chameleons are not reptiles you should get if handling is so important to you. You have not had her nearly long enough to be intruding on her space so much.

What I have found works best is to just leave her cage door wide open (as long as your are nearby to monitor). Curious chams tend to venture out given the option and enough time.

 

[andrearamirezo91]

My chameleon is very skittish too. At the beginning he used to dart to the other side of the cage when I walked in the room and it was very hard to get close to him. He still does get nervous when I'm around and hides behind his favorite branch as soon as I walk in the room, but he's been slowly getting better.

I'm not a very patient person.. I've never been. But if there's one thing chameleons teach you is LOTS of patience! Literally everything with them seems so slow to me lol. After reading lots of advice on this forum I decided to step back a little and let my little boy do his own thing, and despite the fact that progress has been VERY slow, it's still noticeable.

As suggested by our forum friends, here's what I did:

First of all, let him be! This was hard for me as I am a very hands on person... But it's been a very interesting experience to learn to respect my little boy and his personal space. I now understand that as much as he's "mine", he's his own little individual as well. Think about it, your little girl is probably terrified and feels like she's about to be eaten and die every time your hand tries to grab her!

Then, I started making sure that he sees my hand dropping food in his enclosure every time I feed him. That way he starts to associate me with food. Slowly, I started offering worms with tongs. I had to hold the damn thing in front of him sometimes for up to five minutes and he still wouldn't take it. In fact, for a very long time, he wouldn't even touch his food if there were people in sight.. even if they were very far away. Over and over I was left disappointed and with a very sore arm lol. But one day... boom! He took the first worm!

Some days its easier to hand feed him than others. It really depends on his mood. You just have to be very persistent and extremely patient. I'd give her a lot of space for a while since you guys have been trying so much to get her out of the cage. Let her adapt and take it a step at a time. For the first time ever, my boy WILLINGLY climbed on my hand the other day when he was outside enjoying the sunlight, and man I was so excited. It's taken months of hard work, consistency, patience, and a lot of respect. Like someone above mentioned, listen to your little girl and take it a step at a time! She might not end up begging you to pick her up every time you walk by, but little by little she could learn to tolerate human presence and interaction.