Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, I just handled my 2 month male panther for the first time. I put one hand in front of him and gently touched his tail to get him to move forward onto my hand. As soon as I had him, he went into overdrive, ran up my arm to my shoulder and then once I had him again he ran up the front of my shirt so I immediately put him back - he just wouldn't stop running. My question is should you just try to hang on to them until they calm down or is it better to leave them alone. I have no intention of handling these animals too much, I just don't want him to end up being nasty like my girlfriend's veiled when he is bigger. Is it just a matter of the individuals tempermate or can they tame down and benefit from some occasional handling?

P.s. On a side note he is already displaying a beautiful bluish-green teal and dark stripes.

You're right in a few ways:
Letting them run around a little bit might help, depending on his personality. He might just be trying to explore, or he is running from you. You can tell what he's doing if he's looking back at you and running in the opposite direction or if he is running around aimlessly.
Handling him more (be careful not to do it too much) will probably calm him down over time, depending on his personality. He might stay the same, get more aggresive at sexual maturity (very probable) or calm down over time. There's only one way to find out: try.
My adult male veiled is very bad tempered and unpredictable. He was a bit skittish as a little one but always ate from my hands, and then got rally mean as an adult. I didn't handle him much at all. He stopped eating from my hand when he reached sexual maturaty and fired up any time my hand was in his cage. He started on/off hand feeding a month or 2 ago, and is now eating steadily from my hands, all the while being much less aggressice when my hands are in his cage.
Keep hand feeding and handling about once a week (sometimes twice) but keep an eye out for stress.
Good luck, cause it comes in handy to have a friendly cham when they need to go to the vet or be taken out for cleaning!!

Thanks for the input. He usually runs away from me, while looking back at me, like you said. Today he was actually running around on me at full speed, and I was afraid he would fall so I put him back. My veiled is only a few months old also, and he is extremely aggressive but he has taken food from my hands.
Should I be trying to handfeed small crickets to a baby chameleon though? I don't think they would see the crickets well enough given the size of my hand compared to the cricket. Does this help establish a bond witht the animal as it does with bearded dragons?

I haven't found so with my male veiled, but I bought two full-grown female veileds a few months ago, and they weren't too keep on being picked up or touched by me. I hand fed them right away and they started loving me. It can't do any bad, so why not try.

.