Jumping

[etclement]

Hi! I'm a little new to handling my cham, and I've encountered something odd. I usually take my veiled out maybe every three days or so for sun in the morning. During these outings, he likes to try and jump off my arm. I don't think it is the feeling of being unsafe for a few reasons. One, he gets in these moods sometimes, in his cage, when he wants to be on the ground. During these times, he gets some exaggerated yellows and darker blues (his stress colors are different, he's normally blue green with light yellow). Secondly, I always keep a fake plant on me at all times when I'm holding him, that provides a good amount of cover if he wants to escape. Thirdly, he will readily climb back on to my arm after jumping onto the ground. How it works is after about 3 minutes of being outside, he gets the "ground colors" I described earlier. Then he starts going on the lower parts of my arm. Eventually, I either let him jump and pick him back up after, or hand walk him to keep him from jumping. Has anyone else experienced this? He never shows signs of stress, his colors are really light, and he doesn't seem to favor the plant to my hand. He is a 4 month old male Veiled btw. Thanks!

 

[Jax_Cham_MAN]

he might see you as a predator then realize your not

 

[kinyonga]

I would be careful about his jumping...he might hurt himself.

 

[Carlton]

Hi! I'm a little new to handling my cham, and I've encountered something odd. I usually take my veiled out maybe every three days or so for sun in the morning. During these outings, he likes to try and jump off my arm. I don't think it is the feeling of being unsafe for a few reasons. One, he gets in these moods sometimes, in his cage, when he wants to be on the ground. During these times, he gets some exaggerated yellows and darker blues (his stress colors are different, he's normally blue green with light yellow). Secondly, I always keep a fake plant on me at all times when I'm holding him, that provides a good amount of cover if he wants to escape. Thirdly, he will readily climb back on to my arm after jumping onto the ground. How it works is after about 3 minutes of being outside, he gets the "ground colors" I described earlier. Then he starts going on the lower parts of my arm. Eventually, I either let him jump and pick him back up after, or hand walk him to keep him from jumping. Has anyone else experienced this? He never shows signs of stress, his colors are really light, and he doesn't seem to favor the plant to my hand. He is a 4 month old male Veiled btw. Thanks!

What you are seeing in his coloration is still a sign of stress....its stimulation, excitement, sort of a medium level stress response. Not all stress is horrible. Hunting and patrolling territory also creates stress as it is physical activity that triggers the hormonal response. I suspect he's hoping to get to the bigger trees he sees when you are outdoors. You are only a poor second-best type of tree and he wants the better ones. Many chams jump when they want to get someplace else quickly. He's still a kid at 4 months old and possibly the big open outdoor world is pretty overwhelming.

 

[etclement]

What you are seeing in his coloration is still a sign of stress....its stimulation, excitement, sort of a medium level stress response. Not all stress is horrible. Hunting and patrolling territory also creates stress as it is physical activity that triggers the hormonal response. I suspect he's hoping to get to the bigger trees he sees when you are outdoors. You are only a poor second-best type of tree and he wants the better ones. Many chams jump when they want to get someplace else quickly. He's still a kid at 4 months old and possibly the big open outdoor world is pretty overwhelming.

That's kind of what I thought. He will always head for the fence or garden. I took him out for a while today, and I had zero jumping!

 

[etclement]

I would be careful about his jumping...he might hurt himself.

It's never from more than two and a half feet into grass... I try to get him lower once he's showing the colors. As a baby veiled, he's fallen quite a bit!

 

[kinyonga]

All it takes is one miscalculation...it was just a word of caution.

 

[etclement]

All it takes is one miscalculation...it was just a word of caution.

I know. I watch him carefully. If he jumped off my hand and got hurt I don't know what I would do . He only jumps after a minute or so of the indicative colors and being restless, luckily! I will try hard to make sure there are no miscalculations!

 

[Beelinn]

I had never heard of a cham jumping until I went to a reptile show and actually saw a juvenile Veiled jump off of a kids arm! It was the strangest thing! It fell only 9 inches or so to the table in front of the kid, but it still startled me. I've never seen that behavior!

 

[etclement]

I had never heard of a cham jumping until I went to a reptile show and actually saw a juvenile Veiled jump off of a kids arm! It was the strangest thing! It fell only 9 inches or so to the table in front of the kid, but it still startled me. I've never seen that behavior!

Maybe it's something with juvenile veileds and being new to handling. I knew chams would jump before but not like that. I'm trying to get him out more, and he's doing it less and less, but still very odd!

 

[jamest0o0]

My cham jumped from his free range onto my face one time. I've also seen him dive off a plant while outside.

@Carlton it's funny you mention not all stress being bad. I was just thinking about this, with humans a certain level of stress is beneficial and encouraged. They are finding that how we perceive certain types of stress makes it bad or good on our bodies. I know Chams are far from humans, but I was wondering if it worked in a similar way for them.

Sorry didn't mean to hijack!

 

[etclement]

My cham jumped from his free range onto my face one time. I've also seen him dive off a plant while outside.

@Carlton it's funny you mention not all stress being bad. I was just thinking about this, with humans a certain level of stress is beneficial and encouraged. They are finding that how we perceive certain types of stress makes it bad or good on our bodies. I know Chams are far from humans, but I was wondering if it worked in a similar way for them.

Sorry didn't mean to hijack!

You're not hijacking, this was what I wanted the thread to be about

 

[Carlton]

Maybe it's something with juvenile veileds and being new to handling. I knew chams would jump before but not like that. I'm trying to get him out more, and he's doing it less and less, but still very odd!

I've had lots of wc chams who jumped even as adults. One deremensis had the bad habit of throwing himself off a hand at the vet's office, scaring the *&%#$ out of the vet and me when he hit that hard floor with a splat. I'm sure he did it just to make us feel bad.