Baby RF biting me when hand feeding

[nightoff]

I have a question. I have noticed a few times that my baby RF will reach over the food I'm holding and purposely bite my finger. Obviously she's not intending to harm me as in attacking me but rather is trying to eat me as food. (complete with trying to rip a piece of my finger off : ). Any ideas on whether she would recognize me as a protein source, smells something she likes on my fingers, or just associates my fingers with food and doesn't differentiate between flesh color and other colors that could be food?

For example, just now I was holding a piece of nopale cactus for her to eat, she smelled the cactus for a few seconds and then reached over the cactus and bit my thumb.

 

[leigti]

You taste better than the cactus I think baby tortoises are like any other baby critter, everything goes in their mouth. Plus read foots do eat meat so he is just biting off more than he can chew.

 

[mike taylor]

Thats what they do . Reptiles are wild animals . Believe it or not most don't like you . You are the food god . Some seem to act like they love you but don't be fooled . I'll bet if someone tied you down in a herd of red foots they would try and eat you . Haha Sounds crazy but I bet its true . My reds will nip at me so I don't hand feed . Some times I can hand feed my sulcatas other times they will try and ram me . So I don't do it .

 

[dmmj]

LOL, yes your red associates your hand/fingers with food. It happens often when people hand feed. I have no doubt if you were to die ( from natural causes of course) your tortoise or mine, or anyone's would make a meal out of your carcass, let's just hope you don't take naps in there.

 

[nightoff]

Thanks everybody. I am quite sure that if I were to die, she would be more than happy to feast on me. Right now I think it is cute but my 3yo RF hurts when she gets a hold of me. I have to be careful. I'm sure someday, she will get me and break the skin. Of course, it will be my fault if it happens. But I just love hand feeding them.

 

[Douglas Yardley]

Some of them have poor co-ordination.

 

[johnsonnboswell]

If you ever want to travel and have someone else feed them while you're away, it's important that they feed themselves, too.

My mother-outlaw's partner had a dog that only ate on command. Poor dog nearly starved to death while her person was in the hospital.

Once I started to feed worms to my goldfish they took an unhealthy interest in my fingers.

 

[leigti]

If you ever want to travel and have someone else feed them while you're away, it's important that they feed themselves, too.

My mother-outlaw's partner had a dog that only ate on command. Poor dog nearly starved to death while her person was in the hospital.

Once I started to feed worms to my goldfish they took an unhealthy interest in my fingers.

"Mother outlaw" cracked me up. I like hand feeding my Russian tortoise, my box turtle will not eat out of my hand at all. my Russian has bitten me a couple times and drew blood, it hurts like crazy. but my fingers were just too close to the food.

 

[Tom]

I have a question. I have noticed a few times that my baby RF will reach over the food I'm holding and purposely bite my finger. Obviously she's not intending to harm me as in attacking me but rather is trying to eat me as food. (complete with trying to rip a piece of my finger off : ). Any ideas on whether she would recognize me as a protein source, smells something she likes on my fingers, or just associates my fingers with food and doesn't differentiate between flesh color and other colors that could be food?

For example, just now I was holding a piece of nopale cactus for her to eat, she smelled the cactus for a few seconds and then reached over the cactus and bit my thumb.

DUDE! Just use longer pieces of food and maneuver your hand out of the way. Its not like they strike faster than a rattlesnake and you can't see it coming.

This reminds me of when I was a dumb teenager working at the fish store. We all decided to have a contest to see who could feed the 3' Wobbegong shark the smallest goldfish by hand. I won. Only cost me a little bit of my blood, but the pride of victory was worth it. We all opted to not try it with the 5' green hooded moray...

 

[leigti]

DUDE! Just use longer pieces of food and maneuver your hand out of the way. Its not like they strike faster than a rattlesnake and you can't see it coming.

This reminds me of when I was a dumb teenager working at the fish store. We all decided to have a contest to see who could feed the 3' Wobbegong shark the smallest goldfish by hand. I won. Only cost me a little bit of my blood, but the pride of victory was worth it. We all opted to not try it with the 5' green hooded moray...

I can't see it coming. and I thought you were smarter than to try to feed a shark a fish. my image of you is now shattered

 

[Tom]

my image of you is now shattered

Awww, c'mon... I said it was when I was a dumb teenager.

 

[leigti]

Awww, c'mon... I said it was when I was a dumb teenager.

Well okay, I guess we all get a free pass once in a while when we are dumb teenagers.

 

[kdub]

I got my baby rf about a month ago. One day I slowly put my hand down on the ground of his enclosure and he crawled over onto my pinky, sniffed me a little and walked away. It was cute. So I tried it again about a week ago and he test nibbled each of my fingers. Again, very cute. So I thought I'd try offering some food from my open palm. He tried my finger instead of the greens. This time the point of his beak was going into my flesh and not my fingernail. Still cute but yowzers that hurt!

 

[johnsonnboswell]

I feed my box turtles slugs on a spoon. That's as close to any beak as I wish to get.

 

[leigti]

I feed my box turtles slugs on a spoon. That's as close to any beak as I wish to get.

Where do you get the slugs?

 

[johnsonnboswell]

Where do you get the slugs?

In my garden. I have a path of paving stones that I turn over to find them, and rock borders around the flower beds. There's a downed tree at the end of my block where I often find big ones.

 

[dmmj]

Just remember you may be willing to accept the occasional nip, and skin break, but what about family members, neighbors? you know other people.