Mauled by my veiled.

[Orin]

I've been bitten a number of times by females and young over the years and it never hurt much but today my nice male got me when I wasn't looking. He lacerated the front and sides of my finger and bit right through the fingernail. Anyone else get a good bite and have secondary infection issues?

 

[Chuck G]

I personally have never had an infection from a bite but go to the doctor if it starts to look worse.Veileds can be pretty nasty,another reason I stopped breeding them. They are however,beautiful chameleons. Any pics of the bite?

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

I've been bitten a number of times by females and young over the years and it never hurt much but today my nice male got me when I wasn't looking. He lacerated the front and sides of my finger and bit right through the fingernail. Anyone else get a good bite and have secondary infection issues?

The other week I was wearing a new pair of garden gloves while handling our male veiled. He generally likes to be handled, and comes to us often. This time he climbed onto my hand as usual, and then up my arm. But then he turned around and began rubbing his jaw on the garden glove. It was yellow and green. I watched, not knowing what he was doing. He put the edge of my hand in his mouth, between his jaws, twisted his head from side to side, and then chomped down hard enough to break skin, through the glove. At this point I realized (duh) that he thought the yellow/Green glove (which was unfamiliar to him) was an aggressor. I never even realized he had a tooth in his mouth that could cut that far. If the garden glove had been a chameleon, Guido would have killed it.

Anyway, I washed the area of my hand with anti-bacterial soap and applied anti-bacterial lotion to it regularly for 2 days, and nothing ever developed. Of course it may be hard for you to clean beneath the fingernail (if he bit through the fingernail and into the flesh beneath it). So, yes, keep a close eye on that particular puncture wound.

 

[Phatturk]

Wow sorry to hear about your finger bro, sounds like it hurts!! I always wear garden gloves now to handle my Cham ever since I had a chunk taken out of my hand by my iguana. But the funny thing was that the first garden gloves i used had a pokadot (dont know how to spell this) design to it and it drove my little guy crazy. I think he might have thought it was another Cham with this alert color pattern, or maybe a female even. Anyway i changed to an all brown color and he dosen't even seem to notice it coming and sits in my hand without being totally pissed off.

 

[bucky]

God thats crazy lol,the little boogers I was at the vet and my father cham wit Louie,Louie dove for my fathers ear and cut right through it lol and latched on. He was alright tho after it...the vet stood there and laughed at him...instead of helping lol

 

[Jeweledchameleons]

see it from their point of view.

Word of warning
Do not get gloves with bright colors (yellows and reds) or stripped patterns on them.
They're all programmed to see these and react as if an aggressor is coming at them
you're best off going with grey or brown leather IF you have an adult male thats feeling nippy.

Even my extremely friendly sambava panther (Logan) reacts by "switching on fire"
when he sees my red headed neighbor
He doesn't aggress against "me" just the neighbor,
turning just about as bright as he's ever been
within 30 seconds of spotting "the red headed beast next door intent upon attacking us".
good thing about logan, is that he's good about distinguishing between myself and "others".

 

[davider]

i was bitten last week but it didnt go through i got luckkyy lol

 

[pohchunyee]

All I can say is..... if you had never been bitten you might not be a chameleon owner..... my chameleon are ferocious especially my veiled.... everytime i try to pick him up... i will ended up bleeding!

 

[Smitty]

Although mine has tried to get me he hasn't yet. I know there will eventually be a first time.

Now, I was bit by my Bearded Dragon once. I was feeding him and he got my finger instead. Those full grown guys sure to pack a punch. I miss him, he lived to be 9.5 years old!

 

[davemailcall]

You know, my veiled hasn't bitten me yet, but he has given me some angry hissing. I figured it was just him throwing his weight around and trying to give me attitude...you know, bark worse than his bite type of deal. After reading this I'll be a little more respectful!!!

 

[Treetop Chameleons]

my male veiled wont even let me get my hand near him without hissing and biting at me. this didn't start till about 2 month's ago when i got him a new cage. he is about 8 months old but my female has no problem with coming out of her cage she likes to be held.

 

[aquariumart]

My veiled (adult male) must be a wierdo, he only eats from my hands. The spoiled brat. And my nosy is always climbing on me. Open the cage and he runs up my arm. Loves my hair.

I have never been bitten but someday it has to happen. Debbie

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

My veiled (adult male) must be a wierdo, he only eats from my hands. The spoiled brat. And my nosy is always climbing on me. Open the cage and he runs up my arm. Loves my hair.

I have never been bitten but someday it has to happen. Debbie

My experience is that they prefer females, though don't ask me how they can tell the difference!

 

[Orin]

Any pics of the bite?

It's hard to get a good photo, it doesn't look as deep as it is but you can see he went through the fingernail. The second pic is after a week of healing. Just about back to normal now.

 

[Vibrant Chameleons]

Wow... I didn't realize they could do that much damage lol. I've yet to be nipped by any of my Panthers but I'm sure my luck will come to an end soon. I have a few that lunge and hiss everytime a hand is near lol.

 

[lele]

Gee Orin, he sure did get you good! The only time Cyrus (nosy be) has come close is when I put drops in his eyes and I let him use my finger as a "branch" to rub. He really gets into it and begins to rub the whole side of his head, sort of like a cat, when he gets to his mouth he will open his mouth and begin to nip! Not quite sure why and I do not think it is in a mean-spirited way, so now I just take my hand away in time. He has gotten me accidentally when hand feeding a couple times and they do have strong jaws, no doubt!

Glad to see you are healing OK!

lele

 

[HiroProtagonist]

Next time you get bitten (and you KNOW there's gonna be a next time) try diluting some betadine in warm(almost hot) water until it looks like tea. Then soak your hand in it for 20minutes. Do that once a day for a few days lessening the duration of the soak each day and you'll be fine. The warm water draws the germs/puss/etc out of the wound and the betadine kills everything (betadine = povidone iodine). Works wonders if you ever get mauled by a cat aswell....they have VERY dirty mouths apparently.

 

[Tillie]

WOW. I know even a tiny snake can cut right through a fingernail, but the is the first I've read about a chameleon breaking the skin!

 

[chrisandpugs]

I advocate early handling on a daily basis.

Wow, so sorry you got bitten...My husband also got severly bitten by our first male Veil who was 5 months old at that time. It took a while for his finger to heal!

I know that I'm going to get a lot of flap from those owners in the school of thought that daily handling a Chameleon will cause severe stress.
I'm totally for handling at an early age so that the Chameleon is conditioned to realize that your finger or hand is not looked upon as a negative object. That is why I have conditioned my most recent Veil and my Panther who passed away to accept my finger or hand and they learn to tolerate me going to their cage and bringing them out without any stress. Of course, initially there was a lot of hissing when they were very young when I first touched them but after a month of daily touching, they got completely comfortable with me!

Christine

 

[im faster]

hmm my girl bit me.. it didnt even almost hurt...