My tortoise has been a little aggressive towards me

[ligaya2012]

Hello I'm a new member! This is my first tortoise and I've had her for a year now. Lately she has been a little aggressive, she try's to bite new every time I put in my hand to rub her shell. What can I do?

 

[lkwagner]

What kind? How old? What's the enclosure like?

 

[ascott]

Do you ever hand feed your tort?

 

[Tom]

Move your finger out of the way.

 

[Puckles🐢]

Hello I'm a new member! This is my first tortoise and I've had her for a year now. Lately she has been a little aggressive, she try's to bite new every time I put in my hand to rub her shell. What can I do?

Yes, please more details! This questions hard to answer with no identification what so ever...

 

[ligaya2012]

She is one year old Greek tortoise the enclosure is homemade 4 ft by 2 ft

 

[mike taylor]

Re: RE: My tortoise has been a little aggressive towards me

Move your finger out of the way.

I'm with you Tom is like not getting hit by a train just step to the side.

Sent from my C771 using TortForum mobile app

 

[ascott]

Do you hand feed the tortoise ever?

 

[ligaya2012]

No not lately

 

[ascott]

Do you hand feed the tortoise ever?

So, your reply of;

No not lately

would be a yes, so---the reason I ask is that your tort likely has decided that the thing that pops in and out of his world (your hand) is always there where the food is....hence, he likely feels it necessary to ward off that creature.....along with he may be bored and find it fun to assert himself....

I have a redfoot here that will meet, challenge, ram and shove the thing that pops in when there is food (my hand)....every time it is food time, he comes rushing (yes, rushing) over and drops his head and rams my hand and plants his back feet in and pushes hard against my hand....from time to time he actually wards off his mystery challenger....lol

I would not be upset, offended or worried about his escapades ....he is not one of the giant species so you will always be able to thwart his advances....as previously mentioned, just move

 

[ligaya2012]

Thank u

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

Biting people is pretty rare among tortoises, but it can happen. One possibility is that, as mentioned above, it could have to do with associating your hand with food. Even if it's been a while since you've hand-fed her, she could still see you put food into her dish, and anticipate it. You can get her to stop associating your hand with food by taking her out of the enclosure before putting food into her dish. Or you could do it the other way around, and feed her outside of her enclosure. Another possibility with food is that your tortoise is trying to guard her food. Maybe sometimes you remove it before she's done eating? If so, this might make her feel defensive about her food dish.

Another possible reason is that she doesn't like being rubbed. Tortoises don't groom each other the way birds and mammals do, so they don't have an innate sense of what it means to be petted. Some may enjoy the feeling, others don't. I would avoid rubbing her shell for a while and see if the behavior goes away.

Finally, this could come from sexual aggression. Sometimes sexually mature animals that haven't mated in a while become frustrated, and start looking for unsuitable mating partners. In the case of tortoises, that could be inanimate objects like shoes, but they might also try to attack or court with people's feet, or even other household pets. You usually see that in males, though, not females. If your tortoise is female, then this last possible explanation for the biting would be unlikely.

 

[ligaya2012]

Thank you

 

[Hybrid]

Biting people is pretty rare among tortoises, but it can happen. One possibility is that, as mentioned above, it could have to do with associating your hand with food. Even if it's been a while since you've hand-fed her, she could still see you put food into her dish, and anticipate it. You can get her to stop associating your hand with food by taking her out of the enclosure before putting food into her dish. Or you could do it the other way around, and feed her outside of her enclosure. Another possibility with food is that your tortoise is trying to guard her food. Maybe sometimes you remove it before she's done eating? If so, this might make her feel defensive about her food dish.

Another possible reason is that she doesn't like being rubbed. Tortoises don't groom each other the way birds and mammals do, so they don't have an innate sense of what it means to be petted. Some may enjoy the feeling, others don't. I would avoid rubbing her shell for a while and see if the behavior goes away.

Finally, this could come from sexual aggression. Sometimes sexually mature animals that haven't mated in a while become frustrated, and start looking for unsuitable mating partners. In the case of tortoises, that could be inanimate objects like shoes, but they might also try to attack or court with people's feet, or even other household pets. You usually see that in males, though, not females. If your tortoise is female, then this last possible explanation for the biting would be unlikely.

This is really brilliant explanation. Thank you very much for the infos!

 

[JoesMum]

The one occasion I got bitten was directly after preparing some strawberries. I was putting the hulls out for Joe to eat when he came over to investigate. I rubbed him under the chin, which he likes, and got bitten... presumably for smelling like yummy fruit

 

[Hybrid]

The one occasion I got bitten was directly after preparing some strawberries. I was putting the hulls out for Joe to eat when he came over to investigate. I rubbed him under the chin, which he likes, and got bitten... presumably for smelling like yummy fruit

Ouch! How was the bite? It is painful? ^^"

---

The one occasion I got bitten was directly after preparing some strawberries. I was putting the hulls out for Joe to eat when he came over to investigate. I rubbed him under the chin, which he likes, and got bitten... presumably for smelling like yummy fruit

 

[farber2028]

My female Greek went on a 5 or 6 day streak where she wanted to eat our fingers and toes. But I think it was all apart of her getting acclimated because it was when we first got her. I actually let her bite me and my 4 year old son. I was curious to see what it felt like. I put a little piece of strawberry on my finger and let her take it off. It surprised me more than anything. Didn't really hurt, but I can definitely see if she was bigger it would. As far as my son goes, I wanted to have her bite him when I was around so I could control his reaction to where if we weren't around and she bit him, we wouldn't have to worry about my son hurting her or anything. This one happened during her "I want to eat toes" days.

Back on topic, I think her little spurt was she didn't realize it was our hands feeding her at first. So she'd see these fingers dropping in and putting food down. So naturally she'd see them outside of food and make the association. Now we don't have a problem with it because she's, for one, bit fingers and see they don't taste well or fill the belly, and we handle her a lot so she's used to it. I have noticed, though, that whenever it happens that we don't feed her around her normal time, she likes to come at our fingers if we have no food. I look at like her saying "feed me or I'll eat you." She's got a very particular personality and I feel does things to express herself, this being one of them. My guess is it's either something like this or as mentioned in a previous post could be a defensive thing.

I gotta share this because what I said up there made me think of it. There was one night that I woke her up out of being burrowed because my dad hadn't seen her before. She got super mad at me and the way I knew it was, I had set her down on the floor to let her wander around a bit. I was sitting on the floor. She came over to me and as I reached out to pet her shell she immediately turned away and then preceded to stare me down as she was walking away. Pretty funny

 

[WillTort2]

Don't put your hand in to rub her shell. Tortoises don't require that their shell be rubbed to be healthy. Some tortoises will enjoy or tolerate head rubbing or shell rubbing but not all.

As your tortoise grows more comfortable with your involvement they may feel comfortable allowing you more contact. Always approach from the front and move slowly as to avoid startling your tort.

Good luck.

 

[ligaya2012]

Thanks for all of your advice! I let Ligaya have her space for a day and the next day she didn't even give my finger a second glance.