Taming question

[broderp]

Those of you who have a very tame Cham who is not afraid to be held or doesn't run from you I have a question:

When he(or she) was young, did their enclosure have a lot of hiding places? My terrarium is very "plush" with many plants and leaves. I lose him in it daily because he is so small.

My hypothesis is that this ability to hide is slowing the progress of taming because it reinforces the natural instinct to hide and be safe.

If he had less places to hide and be more visible he would get use to his surroundings and of such things like hands in his enclosure.

Now I'm not talking about stripping it down to just sticks, but less foliage to literately get lost in and not be seen at all.
Here's the enclosure. My Sherman is about the size of my index finger and weighs about 6 grams, just to put it into perspective.

See, this is what I mean...he hides from me!!

 

[ChamLB]

Every day I play hide and seek with the chameleons. I'm always it. Lol
I think you need to give him more time and hand fed special treats. Pick his favorite feeder and only hand feed it.

 

[ChamLB]

I think you are north of us but when your weather gets warmer start taking him outdoors. Very important! put him in an outdoor cage. If you take your eyes off them for a minute you will lose them. We move ours back and forth every nice day they have gotten very use to handling.

 

[EarlMT]

I think you are north of us but when your weather gets warmer start taking him outdoors. Very important! put him in an outdoor cage. If you take your eyes off them for a minute you will lose them. We move ours back and forth every nice day they have gotten very use to handling.

What do you use for outdoor enclosures? I'm wanting to make or get one soon since it's finally starting to warm up.

 

[JimmySpinks]

This hypothesis is difficult to test, but it may hold some water.
I know that people who have free ranges tend to report 'tamer' chameleons. There could be other factors, such as the fact that its mainly more experienced keepers who will free-range.
Personally I would think that the safer he feels the more likely he is to be confident later. The more experienced keepers also tend to have the leafier cages for youngsters.
Your guy is still very young and I think his terrarium is great. I have a 4 year old Veiled who still sometimes hides from me, even though he is really very confident and happily hand feeds and sits out in the open 90% of the time.


The best way to make him comfortable with you is to try to hand feed as much as possible for now. Even if you do decide to make him a free range or a slightly less bushy enclosure it would be better to wait until he is a bit older.

 

[Remkon]

In my opinion you don't get a chameleon with a goal to tame it.
You also shouldn't decorate the enclosure so you can see the chameleon best but so it feels at home and giving lots of hiding spots so he can move unseen will do that.

I think your enclosure looks great how it is and your chameleon will likely feel very safe and very much at home in there, changing that to force him to feel more vulnerable hoping he will get used to you quicker that way would be selfish and may actually backfire on you.

My panther was a real chicken at first, very timid and when I handled him he would always be defensive.
Recently he has made a very big change in his behavior due to me feeding him by hand whenever I can.
He loves the silkworms and waxworms I offer him and comes to me to get them. When I handle him now he's calm and just walks around or sits on my shoulder.

I let everything happen on his terms I won't force anything since that could damage any trust he has build up in our 'relationship'. I have never expected him to become so used to me, the only real tips I can give you are:

1. find food he likes and handfeed that to him
2. in everything you do you must make it obvious that you are not a threat.
When you clean the cage, ignore him completely just do your thing
3. Don't grab him forcefully, instead guide him on your hand by placing one in front of him and gently pushing his back.
Only handle him when you think is needed, I gave myself the rule to handle em once every week to check em over. If they are in a position where I can't get em out 'stress free' I wait until the next opportunity.

This all being said, my Jax does not interact with me at all anymore, he will not take food from my hand and he will also not come out... On the other hand he is completely fine with me working in or around his enclosure.

 

[Cham_boomerang]

I have that problem too my chem always hides from me i don't know how to make her get used to me I've had her for almost a month

 

[Remkon]

I have that problem too my chem always hides from me i don't know how to make her get used to me I've had her for almost a month

For your chameleon you are a big animal that's possibly a predator ...
You need to take it slow, make it very clear you're not a threat.
It's baby steps with most chameleons.

 

[broderp]

Every day I play hide and seek with the chameleons. I'm always it. Lol
I think you need to give him more time and hand fed special treats. Pick his favorite feeder and only hand feed it.

Well that's the rub, he would rather hide than have my hand near him. I will admit, It's a bit difficult to hold a small cricket for any length of time anywhere near him.

 

[Remkon]

Well that's the rub, he would rather hide than have my hand near him. I will admit, It's a bit difficult to hold a small cricket for any length of time anywhere near him.

Don't use crickets, use stuff they like more than their regular food.
Waxworms, superworms or silkworms are yummy treats for most chameleons.

 

[broderp]

I have that problem too my chem always hides from me i don't know how to make her get used to me I've had her for almost a month

We are in the same boat my sister. I don't want to stress him out, but I will eventually have to get him out of his enclosure for cleaning and other stuff. I want to weigh him to see how he's growing and I need to do some cage maintenance with his plants that requires me to tear down 90% of his terrarium to get to and fix. (I have a dying plant growing on his back wall I need to replace with another plant)

Should have seen him stress out when I installed his mist king. He was so pissed. He stood there with his little mouth open for several minutes with the stink eye going loud and clear. How dare I take his terrarium top off and turn off all his lights for about 40 minutes,,,

 

[broderp]

Don't use crickets, use stuff they like more than their regular food.
Waxworms, superworms or silkworms are yummy treats for most chameleons.

I'm looking for a source of smaller superworms locally, The normal supplier I get them from seems to only have the larger ones that are way too big for my little guy. The weather being bad also doesn't help with ordering on line.

 

[Graves923]

Patience. Find a treat he likes and start offering it from your hands. If he doesnt accept it, try again the next day. Took almost a month before my veiled would accept food from my hand.

 

[broderp]

Patience. Find a treat he likes and start offering it from your hands. If he doesnt accept it, try again the next day. Took almost a month before my veiled would accept food from my hand.

Yes, I do have patients. I raised 4 kids....the human kind . I drive all over the place and sit for hours to support my kids. I have the patients thing down.

I'm just more afraid that I may have a Cham that will never want to be held. I want to give it the best shot possible that wont be the case. I know, on his terms, and slow. but it doesn't help to try to ensure a positive transition.

 

[CharlieCharmingo]

You can also try openIng the cage, backing away, and then doing you're own thing. For example when my chameleon was small and had settled into his enclosure and such, I used to open his cage then go sit on my bed and read a book. After a while of doing this he would slowly start to come to the front of the cage. But if I moved or looked at him he would go back and I would go back to reading etc. After some time of that he became more confident and would just sit at farthest branch that would stick of of the cage when open so then I would slowly go near him and maybe touch him or snap his picture. If he went back inside his cage I would close it or again go back to reading. Eventually when I would open the cage he would start to climb to the top of it and sit there. When he started doing that I changed my routine to cleaning up my room or changing my clothes etc. so he could see me actively in my room without any harm coming to him. At first he would make himself skinny but after he would see I'm not coming near him or if I am not necessarily TO him he'd relax. After some time of that then he'd start to actually climb down his cage and explore my room or sit on top of my curtains. Whenever he went back in or came out I always gave him a treat to show him good things happen when he comes out etc. Once he got used to being with me I would chameleon proof the living room and set his plants in a particular spot that got a lot of sunshine during the day. It was adjacent to the kitchen so he could see me and I could see him while I would cook or clean the kitchen etc. or while I sat and just watched tv or did work and again I would just ignore him till eventually he would get curious enough to leave his plants and check out the living room.
Geez, in short what I'm trying to say is it takes a Buddhist patience to deal with these guys like @Remkon said. You have to do everything on their terms or at least, if you are going to do it on your terms, know your chameleon well enough to be able to pick up when something is stressful to him etc. and even still sometimes you just get an antisocial chameleon. I'm lucky enough not to have gotten there yet. Good luck!


Also I think it helped that when I first got him his cage sat up on my dresser and therefore was higher than me when I sat down and such so it was like he had the ability to "tower over me"...idk about this theory though lol.

 

[broderp]

You can also try openIng the cage, backing away, and then doing you're own thing. For example when my chameleon was small and had settled into his enclosure and such, I used to open his cage then go sit on my bed and read a book. After a while of doing this he would slowly start to come to the front of the cage. But if I moved or looked at him he would go back and I would go back to reading etc. After some time of that he became more confident and would just sit at farthest branch that would stick of of the cage when open so then I would slowly go near him and maybe touch him or snap his picture. If he went back inside his cage I would close it or again go back to reading. Eventually when I would open the cage he would start to climb to the top of it and sit there. When he started doing that I changed my routine to cleaning up my room or changing my clothes etc. so he could see me actively in my room without any harm coming to him. At first he would make himself skinny but after he would see I'm not coming near him or if I am not necessarily TO him he'd relax. After some time of that then he'd start to actually climb down his cage and explore my room or sit on top of my curtains. Whenever he went back in or came out I always gave him a treat to show him good things happen when he comes out etc. Once he got used to being with me I would chameleon proof the living room and set his plants in a particular spot that got a lot of sunshine during the day. It was adjacent to the kitchen so he could see me and I could see him while I would cook or clean the kitchen etc. or while I sat and just watched tv or did work and again I would just ignore him till eventually he would get curious enough to leave his plants and check out the living room.
Geez, in short what I'm trying to say is it takes a Buddhist patience to deal with these guys like @Remkon said. You have to do everything on their terms or at least, if you are going to do it on your terms, know your chameleon well enough to be able to pick up when something is stressful to him etc. and even still sometimes you just get an antisocial chameleon. I'm lucky enough not to have gotten there yet. Good luck!


Also I think it helped that when I first got him his cage sat up on my dresser and therefore was higher than me when I sat down and such so it was like he had the ability to "tower over me"...idk about this theory though lol.

I think I will try this...

 

[broderp]

Well, just an update. March 18, 2017 at 7:00 appears to be the magic date. My little Sherman stopped being afraid of me and took food from my hand for the first time.

I was giddy as a school girl. I tried a second cricket and took the below video. He didn't run from me but almost instantly went for the cricket, even with the camera in his face. (If you follow my threads, he's had a camera in front of him since day one)

Now catching crickets is the hard part...

Baby Steps....

 

[jamest0o0]

I've only had one cham so i may just be lucky, but with my guy he took to handfeeding in the first 2 weeks i had him, i tried to make sure my body was lower than him even if i had to crouch down. He seemed to react more confidently when looking down on me and the food. I also opened his cage up and let him get used to that. In the last month (i've only had him 2 months) i started putting a branch for him to climb from his cage to a free range i threw together. He loved the free range and would stay on it as long as i let him. Then i took away the branch for him to climb over and gently lifted him up and set him over on the free range. Now he immediately runs up my arm when i set my hand out. He gets really excited to get out of the cage.

I'm a new chameleon owner so there's a good chance that i was just lucky with him. but the free range has changed him drastically. If you can i'd suggest giving it a try.

 

[Angelwolf]

See? I told you that he would be eating out of your hand in no time! Good wiggly bugs work every time!

 

[JimmySpinks]

Congrats, I knew it was only a matter of time