Why is my veild such a pansy?

[djansen]

I just got a male veild of craigslist and he eats fine and is pretty healthy (a little thin IMO) but one thing I noticed is that everytime I come home he retreats from the branches to the bottom of the cage behind a potted plant and hides.
He has plenty of cover in the branches so its not like hes out in the open.
are all veilds this shy?

[mainbutter]

How old is he? Our panther cham would exhibit hiding behaviors for the first month or so that we had him, and he was fairly young.

[djansen]

How old is he? Our panther cham would exhibit hiding behaviors for the first month or so that we had him, and he was fairly young.

not that young, I would say about 5 or 6 inches long

[BPelizabeth]

hmmmm....mine is not at all....actually he is a big bully. lol He likes to huff and puff and squeak. I don't think he has figured out the squeak is not manly.... Plus watch out facing him. Mine has gotten me with his gross sticky tongue a few times.

He is probably just nervous. Try to handle him for about 5 minutes a day and find his rub spot. I have found mine LOVES to have his Rhino head (as my son calls it) rubbed along with his jaw line. And he paticularly likes it when you do it with him almost completely upside down. ??? freak!

[DC Reptiles]

when I had veilds mine where more aggresive and would bite all the time. I would of liked to have a shy one : ) Its probably just him being scared and getting use to you, you dont know what he went through where he was before.

[Alexandra V]

Sounds like he just needs some time to settle in and get used to everything. Give him some time. Congrats, by the way

[djansen]

This is starting to get old, he still just hides at the bottom all day. I really have no urge to hold him as I know it stresses them out but all I want is for him to be out so we can look at him.

[jsmorphs2]

Few questions, does he stay there all the time? What is your set up like and how is your temp gradient set up? Also, did he go from a small enclosure to a really large one? Finally, is his enclosure in a busy room of the house?


Our veiled was kind of shy too as a baby so we hand fed him and he started to associate us with food. We took the "hands off" approach raising him and didn't take him out unless it was cleaning time but because we hand fed him occasionally he didn't get stressed when we handled him and usually would come out of hiding when we were in the room. Kind of reverse psychology, lol.

[PrettyInInk87]

It could be that he is still acclimating as others stated or he could be sick. Again, what are his temps, basking, ambient, misting schedule, lighting schedule, feeders, gutloading, lighting? Is there anything else you notice besides him hiding all the time? Chameleons are very delicate creatures and can go down hill fast. Sorry, just trying to get an idea of why he is behaving that way. Pictures?

[djansen]

Few questions, does he stay there all the time? What is your set up like and how is your temp gradient set up? Also, did he go from a small enclosure to a really large one? Finally, is his enclosure in a busy room of the house?


Our veiled was kind of shy too as a baby so we hand fed him and he started to associate us with food. We took the "hands off" approach raising him and didn't take him out unless it was cleaning time but because we hand fed him occasionally he didn't get stressed when we handled him and usually would come out of hiding when we were in the room. Kind of reverse psychology, lol.

He is in our main living area (appartment) and every time we are there he retreats to the bottom. The temp is about 70-75 and he has a small basking spot. And its the cage he grew up in, got him on craigslist.