Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been trying to breed my chameleons for a little while now, but have been thwarted by their aggressive behavior towards me. I know it's common for veileds, and other chameleons to be aggressive towards handlers, but when I go to pick them up, they always, without fail, try and bite me. I know it won't hurt, but I mean come on, an animal biting is not my idea of fun. What's a good way to grab them up without hurting them, and without them biting me, as much at least?

And I have tried the get them to go on a stick method, that just makes them even more upset.

there is no good way to grab them, they hate to be handled. mine will hiss and bite me if i try to grab them. but they will willingly walk onto my hand if its held out flat in front of them. or if i tempt them with food such as a waxworm or cricket.

rachel
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4.3 African Clawed Frog
3.3 Calfornia Newt
0.1 Leucistic Texas Ratsnake
1.2 Veiled Chameleon
0.1 Albino Cranwells Horned Frog
0.1 Paddle Tail Newt
0.1 Green Iguana
0.5.0 Indonesian Floating Frog

My 5mo old veiled will usually flare up if I reach my hand at him. Even if I put it flat sometimes he flares up and will try to bite.

But if I lure him with food, he comes everytime. If I have crickets in a cup and I put it in his cage (or even a little outside of his cage) he will actually crawl almost all the way in the cup.

I've heard that reptiles (snakes I know, not sure if this applies to chams) sense they cannot harm you if you have a glove or towel around your hand. Then they will walk onto your hand. They might flare up, but they won't try to bite you.

Is this true with chams?
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1.0 Baby Sunburst Veiled Chameleon -- Dexter

naaaaaa, they bite even with a glove on, i'm just a big wimp.

>>I have been trying to breed my chameleons for a little while now, but have been thwarted by their aggressive behavior towards me.
I know this wasn't originally part of your question, but could you tell us why you're trying to breed your chameleons in the first place? Do you have experience raising baby veiled chameleons? How about raising 20-30 baby veiled chameleons at once? Do you know how much food this many baby veileds will eat in a week? What about housing? Where do you plan to keep this many babies? What about heating and lighting? Do you have enough heat lamps and UVB bulbs to support this many babies? And what do you plan to do with all the babies? Do you have homes for these babies already? Do these homes have experience dealing with baby veiled chameleons?
Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm not meaning to be preachy or confrontational. It's just that responsible breeding is a bit more complicated than simply putting a male and female together and letting them do their stuff. I certainly don't know what your level of expertise is, nor do I know what your situation is.
As for picking them up, I usually allow them to dictate the terms of interaction. If they really don't want to be picked up, I simply don't pick them up. But yes, you can definitely try offering some treats, such as a nice fat roach, or other prey item.
Another trick that might help is to elevate the cage so that they're at eye level with you. Aproach them with your hand from below. Chams tend to feel safer when they're higher up.
Of course, you might just have to 'take the bite'. Offer up your hand with a treat, be gentle with slow movements. Think calm thoughts. And if you still get bit, try hard not to flinch. I've only been bitten twice by my chameleons so far.
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi@yahoo.com

Don't worry about offending me here, I can definately understand the concern dealing with a 20 year old putting some chameleons together for breeding. The reason is a two part answer. One, I love animals. As an animal lover, I want animals, and I'm sure many here can understand the obsession with wanting more and more. But at the same time, I've taken into consideration money, time and space constraints and am confident I can take care of what needs to be taken care of. I also have leopard geckos I breed, and everything has turned out ok on those(at the same time, I understand chameleons is a whole different ball game). The second reason, and I know I will have people jumping down my throat on this one, money. I am friends with a few reputable pet stores in my area, and they will buy veileds from me. I'm not talking about breeding simply for money only. But it never hurts to have money. Especially when you're 20 caring for many animals. And I'm not just junking them out to the pet stores, these places know what they're doing(I bought my first veiled from one of them). As for your tips on picking them up, I already have the cages elevated with the bottoms around waist level, so they definately have the upper hand. I think I might go ahead and let them take a bite at me to show that it doesn't scare me, even though it actually does......but keep in mind, I don't want to be a breeder or anything, but I would like to try and raise some veileds from birth(I purchased both of mine while they were possibly 7-10 months old). Hope I don't sound like and evil money grubber or anything(not that breeders are!).

Haha, I just realized how defensive I sounded in that post!

I'm glad you understood that the nature of my questions were not to come down on you, but to make sure you're going into the whole business of breeding with both eyes open.
But if you're in it for some money, I would HIGHLY HIGHLY reccommend trying something else. Ask the breeders! They will tell you that VERY little, if any, profit is realized once ALL costs are factored in.
A couple of suggestions: Breed feeder insects (roaches, silkworms, mealworms, superworms). Talk about return customer base! Not everyone is in the market for a new pet, but ALL pet owners need to feed their pets!
Go to work for one of those petshops that you speak of. If you respect the knowledge of the petstore owners and think they do a great job with their herps, you might find the whole experience more fun than you could imagine!
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi@yahoo.com

The money aspect isn't important to me, it would just be a nice little thing on the side. Even if I made zero profit, I would be happy if I successfully bred my chameleons, and got the babies through their first few months, even if in the end i just gave them away to people(responsible chameleon loving people of course).