So I had a moment of opportunity and decided to teach my wife how to feed Spike....

[Steve A]

Now I've had her watch me feed him numerous times. She loves checking him out. She's no stranger to him and she's even hand fed him. But I wanted to go over the actual process of how I determine how many of which bugs per day, and how I actually set the bugs up for him.

So I show her how to do a couple BSFL and a silkworm. Put the cup in his enclosure. Went to do the crickets and my heart dropped lol....

Spike starts climbing fast towards us like he wants out of his enclosure. Now, he's done this in the past in a way but he always stops at the edge. Sometimes it seems like he wants to take food from us and sometimes he does that to poop. This time..... he immediately went to climb on the opened enclosure door where the cricket window is. It was a very very very long, possibly unrealistic stretch for him so I put my hand underneath him to support him (it happened so fast I didn't think there was anything else I could do). Sure enough, I ended up intervening and offered my hand as true support. He immediately took it, but instead of chilling on my hand (this is the FIRST time I have ever held Spike since THE DAY we got him lol), he started run climbing up my body. So I immediately lowered my whole body so I could just recover him and put him back in the enclosure ASAP. He ended up trying to climb up on the place where we keep his bugs so I had to just gently grab him.

He was totally freaken out so I immediately just places him right back at the top of his enclosure. It was a semi exciting moment but nerve-racking for me because I could tell Spike was just freaking out when he was climbing on me lol He gladly accepted his ride back to his enclosure though.

Rebecca immediately said "OK so I won't be feeding him" but in all seriousness it was a good learning experience. Way more than I thought it would be for her, but now she has an idea what to do if something like that were to happen while she were home alone. Just thought I'd share this experience.

 

[Steve A]

So I think I just figured out why this happened. I noticed Rebecca is wearing a tie-dye shirt and most of the coloring is a slight pinkish color (VERY similar to what female panthers look like when gravid. We just matched the color up online) She also recently died her hair gingerish. So I am thinking Spike some some of these colors and got excited because again he's NEVER done this. And he was "running" straight towards her. Aggressive dude!

 

[Beman]

He just wanted to come say hi to her properly, gosh.

 

[Steve A]

He just wanted to come say hi to her properly, gosh.

oh truly! I think he wanted a lil more than a "hi"

 

[Beman]

oh truly! I think he wanted a lil more than a "hi"

They are hard to understand and all have their reactions. Beman does not have a reaction to bright colored shirts. Most that do typically become aggressive meaning mean. Beman only reacts to nail polish, so I do not wear it.
Now Beman does come straight to the front if he sees me getting anywhere near his food bins. Spike may just be learning where the food comes from. Also he is just hitting his 1 year mark right? So this is his first summer as a mature male. They do become more interested in getting out of their space they will start pacing a cage more as well trying to find a female.

I would keep working with Spike and him getting to know your wife. If you have to go out of town for any reason they need to have trust and she needs to feel confident handling him should he come out of the cage on her. Trust me I have no one in my house to do this which means even if something happens that means travel I do not do it. Just because I do not have someone capable of taking care of Beman.

 

[Steve A]

They are hard to understand and all have their reactions. Beman does not have a reaction to bright colored shirts. Most that do typically become aggressive meaning mean. Beman only reacts to nail polish, so I do not wear it.
Now Beman does come straight to the front if he sees me getting anywhere near his food bins. Spike may just be learning where the food comes from. Also he is just hitting his 1 year mark right? So this is his first summer as a mature male. They do become more interested in getting out of their space they will start pacing a cage more as well trying to find a female.

I would keep working with Spike and him getting to know your wife. If you have to go out of town for any reason they need to have trust and she needs to feel confident handling him should he come out of the cage on her. Trust me I have no one in my house to do this which means even if something happens that means travel I do not do it. Just because I do not have someone capable of taking care of Beman.

Yep and that was my point today. She can feed him in a pinch but I wanted to make sure she understood the whole process I have with each bug in particular. And how to know how much/many to feed etc. But today we got a lesson on what to do when your chameleon goes crazy We will continue to work on this though. And yeah he's just a little over 1 year!

 

[Beman]

Yep and that was my point today. She can feed him in a pinch but I wanted to make sure she understood the whole process I have with each bug in particular. And how to know how much/many to feed etc. But today we got a lesson on what to do when your chameleon goes crazy We will continue to work on this though. And yeah he's just a little over 1 year!

Yeah his behavior may have more to do with mating season and wanting out to find a chameleon. You will be able to tell if he continues to display this type of eagerness to be out or if it was just due to the colors she was actually wearing.