bum rub

[Alice J-B]

my female sulcata tortoise just rubbed her bum on the sofa which she has never done before. she walked along the edge and when she got to the corner, turned and rubbed against it. im not sure if its aggression, fun, mating or a rub/scratch. if any of you know why they do this i would love to know!

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome to the forum. If you go into your user profile and put in a general location, we won't have to ask every time.

Sounds like she was scratching her back, but your tortoise should not be wandering loose in the house. That is a recipe for disaster and it frequently ends in tragedy.

Is that your tortoise in your avatar? Looks too small to know the sex yet. They all look female as juveniles.

Here is the standard sulcata care info:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

 

[Gillian M]

Hello @Alice J-B , and welcome to the forum.

Please do not allow your tort to "sit" on the sofa or roam around a flat for that matter. It could be very dangerous, believe me. She could seriously hurt himself, GOD forbid.

Any pics of your tort and her enclosure? By the way, if your tort is the one in the avatar, I can tell there some pyramiding. Please give her daily soaks in water and make sure that there's enough humidity in her enclosure.

 

[Alice J-B]

@Gillian Moore @Tom thank you for replies but i am aware of your concerns. there is no need to worry! i do not let my tortoise walk around the house by himself, i sit with him and follow him where ever he goes. i ensure everything is cleared out the way and there is nothing he can eat that would harm him. as i live in england the weather isnt the best for a desert tortoise so the only time i let him walk around the house is if it is too cold to put him outside for a walk. he is 4 years old now and is showing no signs of indentation under his shell to signify that he is a male. i read back my question and realised how that sounded! what i meant was that he walked along the edge of the sofa on the floor rather than on the sofa. i would never dream of letting him walk on it!

i rescued him 2 years ago from his previous owners that were not looking after him properly. he was fed a diet of mainly lettuce and the occasional tomato and was rarely taken out of his enclosure for walks. this resulted in his pyramiding. as there is no way of telling their gender when they are babies, his previous owner decided he was a male and named him Desmond when i took him i decided to keep his name and identity but quickly discovered he was a she! before taking him on i spent weeks researching their care, diet and needs so i knew exactly what he needed and if i was able to look after him. i am studying zoology and animal conservation so i take his care very seriously. i also have a contact with someone who works in the reptile house at London zoo so i ask him for information. since i have taken him on there has been no further growth in his pyramiding as i changed his diet and ensured he was getting all the goodness he needed.

thank you again for your help

 

[Maro2Bear]

So, back to the original question, our Sully loves to have her backside rubbed like you noted. In fact, when we we are out in her pen, she will often walk right over and wedge herself as close to our feet as possible, just waiting to be rubbed. Then will scooch all about just loving the attention, rubs, scratching, etc. i posted a YouTube video of this last year I think. Definitely not aggression, at least from our Sully. It's all about the attention!

Here's the link -

 

[Tom]

@Gillian Moore @Tom thank you for replies but i am aware of your concerns. there is no need to worry! i do not let my tortoise walk around the house by himself, i sit with him and follow him where ever he goes. i ensure everything is cleared out the way and there is nothing he can eat that would harm him. as i live in england the weather isnt the best for a desert tortoise so the only time i let him walk around the house is if it is too cold to put him outside for a walk. he is 4 years old now and is showing no signs of indentation under his shell to signify that he is a male. i read back my question and realised how that sounded! what i meant was that he walked along the edge of the sofa on the floor rather than on the sofa. i would never dream of letting him walk on it!

i rescued him 2 years ago from his previous owners that were not looking after him properly. he was fed a diet of mainly lettuce and the occasional tomato and was rarely taken out of his enclosure for walks. this resulted in his pyramiding. as there is no way of telling their gender when they are babies, his previous owner decided he was a male and named him Desmond when i took him i decided to keep his name and identity but quickly discovered he was a she! before taking him on i spent weeks researching their care, diet and needs so i knew exactly what he needed and if i was able to look after him. i am studying zoology and animal conservation so i take his care very seriously. i also have a contact with someone who works in the reptile house at London zoo so i ask him for information. since i have taken him on there has been no further growth in his pyramiding as i changed his diet and ensured he was getting all the goodness he needed.

thank you again for your help

The goal here is to help you out, so I hope you don't take all this the wrong way. You've picked up some common misconceptions along the way, and I'd love to help you fix that.

• Everyone who lets there tortoise walk around on the floor thinks its safe, supervises and thinks nothing will happen. They all think nothing will happen right up until the day something happens. Its not a good practice and I hear about disasters frequently. Your tortoise needs to be contained in its safe enclosure inside or out, and the enclosure needs to be large enough to meet the tortoises exercise needs.
• You usually can't sex them until they are 14-16", and some take longer than that. Plastron concavity is often one of the last things to develop. Tail size and anal scute shape usually develop sooner. We do a fun guessing game thing here on the forum if you want to post pics of the anal scutes and tail, but your tortoise probably needs to get a little bigger to be certain.
• Pyramiding isn't caused by poor diet or lack of taking them out for walks. Pyramiding is caused by growth in conditions that are too dry. These are not desert animals. They spend the dry months underground and they thrive in the hot wet rainy monsoon season. Most breeders, vets, and zoos, still don't know this and are using the old outdated, incorrect info.

 

[Alice J-B]

thank you!

 

[Alice J-B]

The goal here is to help you out, so I hope you don't take all this the wrong way. You've picked up some common misconceptions along the way, and I'd love to help you fix that.

• Everyone who lets there tortoise walk around on the floor thinks its safe, supervises and thinks nothing will happen. They all think nothing will happen right up until the day something happens. Its not a good practice and I hear about disasters frequently. Your tortoise needs to be contained in its safe enclosure inside or out, and the enclosure needs to be large enough to meet the tortoises exercise needs.
• You usually can't sex them until they are 14-16", and some take longer than that. Plastron concavity is often one of the last things to develop. Tail size and anal scute shape usually develop sooner. We do a fun guessing game thing here on the forum if you want to post pics of the anal scutes and tail, but your tortoise probably needs to get a little bigger to be certain.
• Pyramiding isn't caused by poor diet or lack of taking them out for walks. Pyramiding is caused by growth in conditions that are too dry. These are not desert animals. They spend the dry months underground and they thrive in the hot wet rainy monsoon season. Most breeders, vets, and zoos, still don't know this and are using the old outdated, incorrect info.

I really do appreciate your help!