bombadillo2
Member
Funny/weird behavior story! (Or at least it was new for me)
Miles (veiled, ~5-6 months) was on his fancy new free range tree, and I had to leave the room for an hour. Having lost him once after turning around for 30 seconds, I now no longer leave him alone because he's so fast! So, I had to get him off his tree, and he refused to come down (obviously), which meant that unfortunately I had to actually pick him up (I almost never do this, because he makes the choice to climb on me often, when he's in the mood, and I like it to be his free choice).
Well he was NOT happy about being removed from his tree. He had his usual grumpy hissy fit, and BIT my finger for the first time! Sometimes he'll hiss when he sees my hand, but then immediately climbs on it. This time, he bit me and then gripped my whole hand with his body and feet--like he was trying to squish it into oblivion. He squeezed so hard, dug his claws in, and scratched me, kind of like when he feels like he's slipping (only WAY HARDER). Dang I never knew he had such a strong grip! I held him into his cage and he climbed away...
After the hour I came back, and he came running--obviously wanted out of his cage again.
When he saw my hand, the reaction was stronger than usual, which is understandable. He was NOT happy with the hand that had pulled him from his tree. However, as usual he still saw it as the "bridge to freedom" and climbed on it. Only this time, he immediately turned his body around so that he was facing my hand, then gripped my forearm with CRAZY STRENGTH and started to back up it while hissing at my hand. It was so wild to me that he didn't realize they were connected, and really the same thing. He backed all the way up to my elbow before relaxing.
After a minute or so he became his normal self and walked all over my hands (human treadmill). He's acted normal the rest of the day.
Just cracked me up how fiercely strong he was. And the whole wrestling with my hand and arm--it's a defense mechanism (or maybe straight aggression) that I've never seen before.
tl;dr: my teen chameleon has a grip of steel and fiercely wrestled my hand into submission.
Miles (veiled, ~5-6 months) was on his fancy new free range tree, and I had to leave the room for an hour. Having lost him once after turning around for 30 seconds, I now no longer leave him alone because he's so fast! So, I had to get him off his tree, and he refused to come down (obviously), which meant that unfortunately I had to actually pick him up (I almost never do this, because he makes the choice to climb on me often, when he's in the mood, and I like it to be his free choice).
Well he was NOT happy about being removed from his tree. He had his usual grumpy hissy fit, and BIT my finger for the first time! Sometimes he'll hiss when he sees my hand, but then immediately climbs on it. This time, he bit me and then gripped my whole hand with his body and feet--like he was trying to squish it into oblivion. He squeezed so hard, dug his claws in, and scratched me, kind of like when he feels like he's slipping (only WAY HARDER). Dang I never knew he had such a strong grip! I held him into his cage and he climbed away...
After the hour I came back, and he came running--obviously wanted out of his cage again.
When he saw my hand, the reaction was stronger than usual, which is understandable. He was NOT happy with the hand that had pulled him from his tree. However, as usual he still saw it as the "bridge to freedom" and climbed on it. Only this time, he immediately turned his body around so that he was facing my hand, then gripped my forearm with CRAZY STRENGTH and started to back up it while hissing at my hand. It was so wild to me that he didn't realize they were connected, and really the same thing. He backed all the way up to my elbow before relaxing.
After a minute or so he became his normal self and walked all over my hands (human treadmill). He's acted normal the rest of the day.
Just cracked me up how fiercely strong he was. And the whole wrestling with my hand and arm--it's a defense mechanism (or maybe straight aggression) that I've never seen before.
tl;dr: my teen chameleon has a grip of steel and fiercely wrestled my hand into submission.
