Does hand feeling spoil sulcata?

[DonaTello's-Mom]

I have noticed that lately my DonaTello seems to prefer me to hand feed him. I will set him in front of his food dish and he walks away. If I take a piece of romaine and offer it, he'll chomp it down like he's starving! So my question is this: is it better not to hand feed him? Am I spoiling him by doing this? I keep his food dish clean, so it's not like it smells bad. Any thoughts please?

 

[Maggie Cummings]

The bigger problem is when you hand feed a tortoise like I hand fed Bob's treats to him that makes them think you are the food goddess and like two days ago Bob bit off the pad of my index finger. While Bob has a larger then life personality I am thinking he may be dumber then a box of rocks. He bites me a lot and it's not because he's mean, it is more because he expects me to have food on me somehow. I have a problem with him biting me and it is because I hand fed him his nightly treats for years.
In case you don't know Bob is my 80 pound Sulcata, so when he bites you, you know you've been bit. My recommendation is to not hand feed him. Put his food in front of him and walk away. I hope you are feeding him more than romaine there's not much nourishment in romaine...

 

[kimber_lee_314]

Sounds like Dona Tello is training you well!

 

[DonaTello's-Mom]

After reading your reply maggie, I think I'm gonna feed him and walk away like you said. I'm sorry about your finger, take care of it. Lord that must have hurt....As far as his diet, he gets his daily weeds, spring mix. I have some timothy hay now for bedding (he loves to nest in it) and he eats that as well. I give him pellets once a week too, as a treat. When the weathers nice he gets to cruise around the lawn and munch. I've seen your pictures of Bob and he looks like he could pack a punch. Yep, no more hand feeding from me! Think your right too Kimber, I'm the one whose being trained!!! No more !!

 

[Yvonne G]

This is my personal opinion, and I know its not shared by many:

I like to look at my tortoises in a natural setting and watch them interact and react like they would in the wild. So I don't like it when they see me as the food goddess and come to me when I'm outside. I'd rather they thought the food just fell from the sky, that way when I'm out there watching them, I get to see them just walking around, looking for food, interacting with each other...instead of chasing me around for something to eat.

 

[terracolson]

Thats a good Idea Yvonne, So how do you do that? not hand feed them and what?

do they see you put the food out for them?

 

[DonaTello's-Mom]

I agree Yvonne. That's very natural behavior for them, foraging for food. I feed up to 20 horses a day and yes I'm their "food goddess"! As soon as I enter the barn or they hear my car the SCREAMING starts..and doesn't end till all have been fed. So the the thought of a 100lb tortie chasing me down (or biting me) for food is not appealing at all! So do you have their food out already for them before you turn them out?

 

[Yvonne G]

I lock up all my tortoises in their houses at night. Then in the morning, I put out the food then open their doors and I get out of the pen, so they don't associate me with food. This has worked pretty well for all of them except the Asian tortoises. I just can't get away from them fast enough. Every single one of them tries to "eat" me when I'm in their pen. I'm not only the Food Goddess to them, I'm FOOD!

 

[DonaTello's-Mom]

Can you post a picture of one your asian torts? How big are they? It's sounds weird but with horses I don't have that fear of being hurt when feeding. But now I have this pic in my head of my future tort chasing me with mouth open an ready to bite me, or at least my feet!! (think Jaws theme song)..So I'll start setting his food out while I soak him and hopefully he'll think it fell from the sky....Lol

 

[13Fox150]

tort chasing me with mouth open an ready to bite me, or at least my feet!! (think Jaws theme song)

Oh man that's funny.....I wish I had the space and climate for the larger torts

 

[DonaTello's-Mom]

Yeah funny. From what I've read here they like bright colors. So I guess I can kiss pretty toe-nail polished feet goodbye in the summer, or always wear closed toed shoes.....bummer!
Or start working out more!!

 

[Yvonne G]

This is my biggest female at 65lbs. She has just finished eating breakfast and is sitting in the sun with her breakfast all over her face:

And this is my smallest female at 40lbs on the left and the male of the group, around 55lbs on the right...trying to clean up the feeding station:

I just took these right now.

 

[Tom]

I do both. I hand feed them sometimes, and I allow new people to do it too, as they seem to really enjoy it. But most of the time I just drop the food on their trays and walk away. I think the result is a nice balance. When they see me in or near the pen, they do come running over, but after realizing I don't have any food for them, they just go back to going about their daily business. Which mostly consists of finding more food. None of mine have ever tried to bite me.

 

[dmmj]

sounds like some people have been trained well by their torts.

 

[13Fox150]

Yeah funny. From what I've read here they like bright colors. So I guess I can kiss pretty toe-nail polished feet goodbye in the summer, or always wear closed toed shoes.....bummer!
Or start working out more!!

Or what you can do is wear the open toed shoes with the torts and they will make you work out. Not implying that you need to of-course.

 

[Shelly]

I don't feed my torts, except for the occasional treat. They pretty much forage for themselves. But I did have to stop feeding my turtles when they were watching, because they would go berserk whenever they saw me approach... Now, I just dump in some food "secretly" into their pond when they are not watching, and run away.

 

[tortoisenerd]

I don't hand feed much because my tort thinks of my fingers as food now. I can't put my finger in there to scratch his head without him trying to bite me. I will however hand feed if I need to feed some hidden medication in it. My husband has better luck with our tort letting him scratch his head and not thinking his fingers are food. He will hand feed the little guy as a treat, but if he was refusing to eat or whatever we'd stop. I think an occasional hand fed treat is not too spoiling. Depends on the tort, how often, etc. My tort prefers fresh food over food that is sitting there. Typically you will hand feed something fresh, so that could be one reason they go crazy for it. My tort always acts like he is starving though!

 

[chadk]

I have a tort who always tries to bite. I think some torts are just kinda 'dumb' that way and will try to taste anything. Some just are more 'oral' and have to bite things to learn what they are. Bonus if you bite something that happens to taste good! Some torts never try to bite me, even if I put a finger in their faces and see what they think.

For the one that tries to bite, I react as another tort would as best I can and don't back down. He is kind of a bully to other torts, so I think he may be trying to be dominant to me as well. So I leave my hand there and when his head comes out to bite, I move and give him a little tap on the nose to show that I'm not food, and I"m not afraid either. I may even grab his leg or give him a slight nudge. Basically doing what he does to the other torts to show them he's in charge. Who knows if I'm reading more into it that I should, but that works for me - YMMV.

With a bigger tort, I'd never look the other way when feeding or just working by them - even if they have never tried to bite before, there is a first time for everything and I'm not open for that.... But I do hand feed my torts now and then. But mostly they eat on their own. My outdoor torts graze for 95% of their diet, and I work around them a lot in the yard and they don't come running for food. But I do offer a treat from the hand now and then. Mainly to get my newer and kinda shy tort to get used to me.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Bob comes running whenever he sees me in his pen. Then he follows me around like a puppy dog. But he just acts curious about whatever I'm doing... but in the evening when I go into his shed he knows it's time for treats and he walks over to me biting at the air. If I put the treat down to clean poop or something he starts biting at me like he thinks all of me is food. But he only acts that way in the evening, because that's the time I brought treats out to socialize and I fed those treats by hand...that really was a big mistake...

 

[DonaTello's-Mom]

See that's my nightmare! An 80lb tort like yours Maggie biting the air walking towards me! Some day my little Donatello will be
big and yeah, I'd like to keep my toes and fingers. Their kinda useful!



Jill