Can they feel their shell.

[JennBell0725]

I was just curious if tortoise can feel it when you pet them on their shell.

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[thatrebecca]

I'm curious about this too! Sometimes I pour warm water over my torts' shells to clean them while they're soaking and they stretch out into this little Superman pose that suggest they feel it and like it, but I dunno.

 

[yagyujubei]

Yes they can.

 

[abclements]

I think it's one of those great unknowns about torts. I tend to believe the thought process that says they can feel in their shells but only similarly to us being able to feel through our fingernails. And they have slightly more feeling than that in the growth lines. So pressure in the schutes and pressure and heat on the growth lines.

But there are some torts that really wiggle when you scratch their shell, suggesting more feeling...

 

[Terrapin]

I was just curious if tortoise can feel it when you pet them on their shell.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using TortForum mobile app

This is interesting, I wonder that too. I noticed that when Tusya was having his soak the other day he seemed to stretch out and relax more when I started gently wiping his shell with a warm wet paper towel.

 

[GBtortoises]

Yes they can.