Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Please Help.

My Chameleon for the past 2 weeks has been really mean, Anyone including myself who reaches for it or tries to pick it up get threatend, Gaping mouth and plenty of hissing. He was fine a bit ago. What could be wrong?

Your chameleon could be going through its maturity stage or there is something wrong with it. Does anything look unusual? How old is he? What type of chameleon is it?
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Ethan

What kind? I hear veileds get snarly for a bit...

I know with almost every herp I have cared for: hrmmm...ever see a sweet kid that turns into a teenager?

My monitors were sweet..then turned 1 1.5 yrs and got mean. I just weathered the sotorm and kept my normal routine and he eventually calmed back down.

-adam

Your cham may be trying to tell you not to pick it up anymore. Most chams do not like to be handled, there are, of course, exceptions, but if I were you I would keep my distance for a while.

Marilyn

yep - just keep feeding the guy as normal. and do what you normally do. I assume you dont handle him unless you have to - right?

Mine is a Jackson - so he does not like me much anyway. He does two things...if he sees me reach in for his food container...he stays where he is and then starts leaf walking toward where his meal is going to be.

If I reach in and dont go for his food container he turns very dark and walks away from me slowly..one eye on me and one on where he is going.

either way the only time I touch him is to examine him for any oddities or to move him to his ficus (near his cage) so I can clean his habitat.

Hey, no i dont really hold him, he is a veiled about 4 months now. I just pick him up when i clean his cage, also i tried picking him up to let him goto a plant to play on but he gets mean any time, so this is a normal thing? if so just wondering how will he react when hes full grown? will he bite me when i get him or when he is bigger will he be about the same and just act all tuff. hehe i love it when it acts tuff, hes all like im the man and poofs up to look bigger.

Your chameleon right now is definitely in the stage of maturity. My chameleon right now is 1 year and a half old Veiled Chameleon that crawls all over me and sleeps on my head. When my chameleon was that age he always used to bite me, but no he doesn't.

how did you get it to like you? mine likes to act all mean too (unless i am feeding her) but ijust want to know if i should be doing anything to make her less mean.

JK