Advice Please (Baby lunged at me)

[Help2022]

I have a 4/5 month old Hermann tortoise named Norman, who is the cutest tortoise on the planet. He had a small piece of wood shaving sticking out of his mouth, so I tried to remove it. I think he was getting a bit frightened, and suddenly, he lunged towards my fingers. I wonder if he was trying to protect himself. Do baby tortoises do this.

 

[Avuwyy]

Tortoises will headbutt as a way to defend themselves. This, and biting, appears to be some of their only ways to fight off intruders, and they will also do this to establish dominance to tortoises (Or just… General objects sometimes) within their territory (You will see videos floating about with tortoises ramming each other, or ramming other animals, or ramming people’s feet as the tortoise perceives these as intruders).

It is completely normal behaviour

 

[Tom]

I have a 4/5 month old Hermann tortoise named Norman, who is the cutest tortoise on the planet. He had a small piece of wood shaving sticking out of his mouth, so I tried to remove it. I think he was getting a bit frightened, and suddenly, he lunged towards my fingers. I wonder if he was trying to protect himself. Do baby tortoises do this.

That is pretty normal tortoise behavior.

The tortoise should not have access to wood shavings. Is that your substrate? If yes, it is time for a switch. More info here:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org