trying to Tame

[roger11489]

Hey there fellow cham lovers. I recently acquired a graceful cham and he's very young. only about 4-5 months i think.
Anyway im trying to tame this fellow but he is very scared of me. I read a few books on chameleons and I know they are by nature, loners and do not like to be handled at all (generally speaking)
I know some techniques on how to tame but so far I have had little to no results and I think we might have even lost some ground on the count that he actually hissed at me and ran away

I feel kind of discouraged here and I guess I may have to come to terms with the fact that this little guy might just really not be the friendly type. not a surprise but, I was hoping :'(

any and all help with trying new techniques or a new approach on trying to tame this little guy will be appreciated. Thanks, Roger

his name by the way is Jiraiya

[/URL][/IMG]

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums. Where did you get your graceful? He/she is probably WC and may have a hard time setteling in. Is he eating and drinking? I'd give him some time and then you might try Stan's taming method.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/psychobunny/746-taming-chameleon.html

Caresheet that you should find helpful: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/senegal/

 

[Juliaf3]

Welcome to the forums. Where did you get your graceful? He/she is probably WC and may have a hard time setteling in. Is he eating and drinking? I'd give him some time and then you might try Stan's taming method.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/psychobunny/746-taming-chameleon.html

Caresheet that you should find helpful: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/senegal/

oh my goodness! that blog is incredible! LOVED reading that.

 

[fleetwoodchams]

Hey there fellow cham lovers. I recently acquired a graceful cham and he's very young. only about 4-5 months i think.
Anyway im trying to tame this fellow but he is very scared of me. I read a few books on chameleons and I know they are by nature, loners and do not like to be handled at all (generally speaking)
I know some techniques on how to tame but so far I have had little to no results and I think we might have even lost some ground on the count that he actually hissed at me and ran away

I feel kind of discouraged here and I guess I may have to come to terms with the fact that this little guy might just really not be the friendly type. not a surprise but, I was hoping :'(

any and all help with trying new techniques or a new approach on trying to tame this little guy will be appreciated. Thanks, Roger

his name by the way is Jiraiya

[/URL][/IMG]

Hi
Jannb has a great blog on this
Also if he is a biter. try using green rubber dipped garden gloves at first when you get him out.
This hides your hands and will put you more at ease as to not be bitten.
Less tension on both sides.
I have attached a photo of these gloves if you decide to use them.
Remember patience is the key.

I have one like this my Ki.
He dislikes being held. Bit me once so I am careful now when I hold him. I still put him outside but use these to get him there.
Granted their teeth are small but I don't want to be startled and drop him so I use the gloves. They were not expensive. Rubber coated stretchy fabric, so tight to the hand. I don't worry about him biting and he does not seem so afraid to be held and moved since the color is green like foliage
Maybe this is a solution for you.

 

[roger11489]

Welcome to the forums. Where did you get your graceful? He/she is probably WC and may have a hard time setteling in. Is he eating and drinking? I'd give him some time and then you might try Stan's taming method.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/psychobunny/746-taming-chameleon.html

Caresheet that you should find helpful: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/senegal/

I bought him at repticon Orlando, Fl from a female vendor who seemed to know what she was talking about, but at the moment i was so excited about buying my first chameleon I forgot all the questions I should ha've been asking. I did get a card and no receipt, but for the life of me i dont know what i did with the card. at the time he seemed not too shy. there were alot of people there including my syster who also has a graceful cham, but she has a female we just found out a bout a year older than this little guy. My sister cham is super friendly and i was hoping I could get lucky like she did. but she did buy hers when i was a year old and already used to people according to the vendor who sold it to her.

 

[fleetwoodchams]

I bought him at repticon Orlando, Fl from a female vendor who seemed to know what she was talking about, but at the moment i was so excited about buying my first chameleon I forgot all the questions I should ha've been asking. I did get a card and no receipt, but for the life of me i dont know what i did with the card. at the time he seemed not too shy. there were alot of people there including my syster who also has a graceful cham, but she has a female we just found out a bout a year older than this little guy. My sister cham is super friendly and i was hoping I could get lucky like she did. but she did buy hers when i was a year old and already used to people according to the vendor who sold it to her.

Check out the other thread up now" helping an aggressive cham"
We have been discussing how to help shy or aggressive chameleons get used to being handled.

 

[Olimpia]

Jann is right, a lot of these guys are WC (I think I see little bruises on him from your photo, which is typical for a new import) so with him it's going to be a game of patience while he settles into a lot of changes.

The best way into the hearts of chameleons is the same as it is with men, though their stomachs - so start trying to hand-feed and use that to build up his trust in you. Then when he seems comfortable with that you could move up to moving him if you want to. I've had all sorts of different chameleon personalities and they all end up trusting me (some more and some less), and they stop reacting aggressively to me after some work.

 

[roger11489]

well, I read that guys blog and it seems I made almost every mistake he said not to do from the beginning. except for the having his home ready which it was. I guess I got carried away and kinda shot myself in the foot (so to speak)
anyway I fed him today like i have been everyday now for a week (he does eat from my hand) just a bit later.
seems he was a bit hungrier since i made him wait a few hours while I did some chores and read the forum posts and blog before deciding to handle him and realized I was doing things the wrong way from the start.
this time he ate four crickets from my hand, but afterwards he just kind-of froze there and stared at me, so I stuck around for a minute or two and proceeded to leaving him alone. I can still see him all the way from my computer just frozen, I dont know if its with fear or just processing what just happened in his tiny head??

[/URL][/IMG]

anyways I thought I'd share what happened today.

thanks, I'll keep updating this thread and posting pics every so often.

 

[roger11489]

This was Jiraiya on the way home from the convention.

[/URL][/IMG]

I guess all those colors was him showing he was freaking out. (he's on my sisters hand btw)
when y'all said he was probably WC it kind of made sense. he was probably the healthiest, most robust looking one out of all the ones there and a few seemed malnourished and or sick... thinking back now, i'm pretty sure I was just so caught up in the moment i didnt notice all those things.
i did see a tiny, I mean super tiny male baby jackson's, like the size of a red kidney bean. I considered buying him but I thought it might have been a bad idea since I'm not and experienced keeper. you could see the tiny horns growing already it was soooo cute.

 

[jannb]

He's really cute. Males have spurs on the heels of both back feet.

I would highly recommend a fecal in the next week or two. Most WC chameleons come in with parasites. There is a vet near Orlando that sees chameleons. Dr. Diaz http://www.lakehowellanimalclinic.com/

 

[roger11489]

cool beans! Thanks JannB, will do!

 

[Psychobunny]

Thanks Jann, I actually made some edits to that blog, so it now has more info and detail.
Been meaning to do it for a long time, and the forum has a maximum number of charaters you can post in a single blog, so I had a hard time with the edit and had to delete some stuff to make everything fit!!

I hope new cham owners find it useful