I have a veiled chameleon about 4-5 months old and i have had him for 2 months. Hes really friendly about 90% of the time but he still gets a little scared when i pick him up out of his cage. I know this is normal but I've seen videos where chameleons have been so warmed up to their owners where they would just start reaching for the owners hand when it was in the cage. I think that would be awesome so I've been trying to associate my hand with food every once and a while when I take him out to roam around my room. A couple days ago after free roaming he climbed onto my hand and just fell asleep. Does this mean hes getting used to me?? Any other ways to tame him??
Taming advice
- Thread starter Colin237
- Start date
Murrdox
New Member
At 4-5 months old, your Veiled is pretty much in the "sweet spot" in terms of how much he'll tolerate handling. Training him now is definitely what you want to do.
I have not had experience with this personally, but I've read other blogs (sorry don't remember where or I'd post it) that one of the best ways to get a chameleon used to voluntarily climbing onto your hand is to entice it to food. So, instead of simply hand-feeding the chameleon, entice the chameleon to voluntarily climb onto your hand from his cage, in order to catch a prey item.
Once Veileds get to be 8-10 months old though... watch out. It's hit or miss, like any chameleon, but Veileds just get especially territorial as they mature. You may find that he "unlearns" his training. But if you keep at it, you might be able to acclimate him.
I have not had experience with this personally, but I've read other blogs (sorry don't remember where or I'd post it) that one of the best ways to get a chameleon used to voluntarily climbing onto your hand is to entice it to food. So, instead of simply hand-feeding the chameleon, entice the chameleon to voluntarily climb onto your hand from his cage, in order to catch a prey item.
Once Veileds get to be 8-10 months old though... watch out. It's hit or miss, like any chameleon, but Veileds just get especially territorial as they mature. You may find that he "unlearns" his training. But if you keep at it, you might be able to acclimate him.
Goldenarcher1328
New Member
the biggest thing you must keep in mind while "training" any animal, is that they have a learning curve in the beginning of the life cycle.
Patience, Repetition,and Consistency are key.
If you are not Patient, you will scare the animal and further drive a wedge in-between the relationship that you desire.
If the action is not frequent enough, and repetitive, there is nothing being learned. its very easy to do something twice, and forget about it, but a daily occurrence is much harder to forget.
If the actions of the person or persons training an animal or individual are not consistent, then not only is there conflicting information, leading to difficultly in learning, but it leaves the one learning, unsure of the desired effect or action.
For example:
1+1 is always 2, this is something that never changes. Because of that, this is something that is very simple to understand.
In the chameleon world, lets say, your are cup feeding.
If food is always in location A at time B. then this develops a routine. one that is easily learned because it is always the same.
The same concept as 1+1=2.
Hopefully this works, its how i've always trained animals and its also how i teach in my day to day classes.
Best of luck!
Patience, Repetition,and Consistency are key.
If you are not Patient, you will scare the animal and further drive a wedge in-between the relationship that you desire.
If the action is not frequent enough, and repetitive, there is nothing being learned. its very easy to do something twice, and forget about it, but a daily occurrence is much harder to forget.
If the actions of the person or persons training an animal or individual are not consistent, then not only is there conflicting information, leading to difficultly in learning, but it leaves the one learning, unsure of the desired effect or action.
For example:
1+1 is always 2, this is something that never changes. Because of that, this is something that is very simple to understand.
In the chameleon world, lets say, your are cup feeding.
If food is always in location A at time B. then this develops a routine. one that is easily learned because it is always the same.
The same concept as 1+1=2.
Hopefully this works, its how i've always trained animals and its also how i teach in my day to day classes.
Best of luck!
blackhawk007
New Member
This worked for me. As long as I didn't move he was ok with it. Then each day I would move farther and farther. Now I can walk around like that and he will still just shoot the cup for food while he stands on my hand as if he doesn't care.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IV7lhcmQ7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IV7lhcmQ7g
