Serious question;Can Turtles have prefs to people?

[jeff kushner]

Another horrible picture taken at some unGodly hour of the day. Matilda is "Up & Atom" in her fitting on the right but today she's not ready to cruise yet today.

I have to tell you guys something and it's not in my head and I've never seen it before.

I've never seen a turtle show a preference to one person over another? Have you guys?

100% dead serious on this.......

Have you ever seen a Turtle or Tortoise obviously prefer to be with one person over another without food or color being a factor??



Thanks,

jeff

 

[Maggie3fan]

OK first I hate to correct you in public...but...the phrase is "up and at 'em meaning up and at them" i isn't it?
anyhow...I only have 6 box turtles left, most are long term pets, and I can go in and pick up a box turtle, and they are bright eyed and curious...if I walk in the room each tries to see me and begs food. If I am giving the "tour" and pick one up it will pee if they see a stranger...I do believe handling is good for pets it makes them more social and less stressed if they have to be messed with...The common thought here with our experts is that picking up tortoises or handling tortoises is bad for them and I do not believe that is so.

 

[jeff kushner]

Don't feel bad at all Mags, you're right! As soon as I read your post....dang, Brain fart, besides, most woman I've known have had to correct me at some point.....just comes with the territory of knowing me LOL

In order to give frame of reference to the question;

I ask the question because while by most standards, I'm an overly tactile person but I'm not a turtle "handler". I talk incessantly(you see how I write, can you imagine?) to Matilda but I don't handle her often and I make a lot of eye contact when I can find her when I talk....well, cause I think she's pretty cool!

Then my girlfriend Kerry who sees her second most and really likes Matilda like I do. She was with me when we found her upside down as a baby.....Kerry sees her every other weekend at best as I typically drive to her home to save her the 120 mile commute unless we're doing a pjt at my house.

In comes Kerry and you would have thought this was The Turtle God's version of Venus............pure rapture. Matilda will come out of her fitting to Kerrys voice when she arrives! What?? It is amazing to watch....Matilda will sit there and **** her head back and forth, watching every moving of Kerry's, taking food if it's offered, even summiting to being picked up without even moving her legs...... fricking Dr. Doolittle! That pic I took of her eating meat while sitting on her hand....she's never displayed that with me. She really would have sat there for as long as it took, she was sitting on shell, her legs were retracted.....that = pretty chill, right?

I really need to see how she is around my daughter. Could it be a girl thing?

 

[Yvonne G]

I was going to say maybe it's the food god thing, but your second post about Kerry negates that idea.

 

[jsheffield]

One of my torts, Chili, absolutely hates me, and only dislikes other people... I imagine that I look like a former owner who was mean to him.

Jamie

 

[zolasmum]

One of my torts, Chili, absolutely hates me, and only dislikes other people... I imagine that I look like a former owner who was mean to him.

Jamie

I knew a woman called Joy, who ran a tortoise sanctuary until some years ago - she hatched a sulcata egg, and I witnessed her smiling down at the little thing and welcoming it to the world. This little chap was the most beautiful tortoise I had ever seen, and didn't mind attention from humans - except from Joy !! If Joy wanted the tortoise picked up for some reason,she would get someone else to do it, as it would immediately pee all over her, if she tried to do it herself. And it would give Joy a very nasty look as it did it. It seemed grossly unfair, as Joy was the food god and general caregiver.
I can only imagine that it blamed Joy for all the evils of the world to which she had welcomed it !
Angie

 

[jeff kushner]

This is what I was looking for, thanks guys.


For a treat;

I took Matilda out last night for a nice 83F toothbrush bath & soak....gave her a girls-night thingy...

Once she calmed down I took Kerry's toothbrush(didn't think I'd use mine did you?) and gave her a nice soft scrubbing, her top and bottom shell, under her legs, all those under-spaces, dead skin removal service.......she loved having her under-neck brushed! She looks great and was fairly relaxed throughout. This morning, bout a half hour ago, she was out and about when I got up and she actually came halfway out of her fitting to me looking for something......I gave her worms....but it was more effort than she normally displays. She ate, then crawled op top to dig in for a nap.....she sleeps, eats, naps, I shower and go to work.......which one of us is evolved again?

 

[Maggie3fan]

OK!!! My pet peeve! I've never said anything to our friends across the pond about this...because they are... well British..but in the good ole USofA we SOAK our tortoises not bathe. I'd watch it if I were you buster....I'm just likely to text Kerry and drop a dime on you....us women stick together ya know! And she sounds like a keeper. You have said other stuff about her that says you better grab her

 

[Tom]

The common thought here with our experts is that picking up tortoises or handling tortoises is bad for them and I do not believe that is so.

I have not seen that. I agree with you that some handling is good for them. I handle my babies daily, and older ones or adults as needed or when I want to.

The counter argument would be that too much handling, or too much handling to soon, before they have a chance to get used to it, can be bad, and I agree with that too, but I love to see people tame them down, and desensitize them to human contact and handling. I think that in the long run it is much better for them to be used to human interactio, even if it does cause some short term stress for them while they get used to it.

 

[Tom]

Have you ever seen a Turtle or Tortoise obviously prefer to be with one person over another without food or color being a factor??

I don't know how you could eliminate food as a factor, but yes, most of my torts react differently to me than they do to other people. Some come over when they see me going toward the food trays, and want to know what I'm doing over there. They don't do this when other people come around. My SA leopard males go into full attack mode when ever they see me coming, trying to drive the repeat interloper form their territory. They don't do this with other people. They will often come charging, but then realize it is someone else and slow their roll. The best analogy is a dog who is friendly and curious with strangers coming to the house, but HATES the mail man who invades the territory every day. The dog greets guests with curiosity and wonder, but goes crazy with fury any time it sees or hears the mailman.

 

[TheLastGreen]

I have not seen that. I agree with you that some handling is good for them. I handle my babies daily, and older ones or adults as needed or when I want to.

The counter argument would be that too much handling, or too much handling to soon, before they have a chance to get used to it, can be bad, and I agree with that too, but I love to see people tame them down, and desensitize them to human contact and handling. I think that in the long run it is much better for them to be used to human interactio, even if it does cause some short term stress for them while they get used to it.

Well, I know hingebacks can be skitish, so I handle mine to a minimum. I have been feeding him more earthworms the last while (they're like berries to a redfoot)
He'll absolutely bolt and flail to get to them.
However, without thinking, I have inadvertently trained him to bolt when he sees my hand.
I like to use the backside of the terracotta water bowl as an extra food dish, so I rinse it and then feed him on it. It seems he feels the vibrations when I dig the bowl into the substrate. When this happens he'll spin around, check and come out of hiding, and look at what's happening. So currently it seems he doesn't mind me, even when I take him out to soak, he seems ok with it.
But rarely do other people handle my torts so I can't answer on your question @jeff kushner , but it does raise a few intresting questions!

 

[zolasmum]

Zola has been handled a lot all his life, and is totally at ease with humans - since we live in the UK, where there no native tortoises, there are many people who have never seen one up close, let alone touched it. We meet lots of people,who , when we are out with him , are really delighted to see him, and stroke his shell,etc -we sometimes allow favoured people to hold him, (closely supervised ) and the wonder and delight on their faces can be quite moving !
Angie

 

[jeff kushner]

I can't debate the should or not, just that I haven't been a handler in the past.

This is all fantastic stuff and is widening my knowledge base, substantially. Like Tom says, I found that b/c of my regular contact Matilda, it's nearly impossible for me to set up any type of real scientific-methodology but that okay, b/c I have you guys! If you see it my way, this is a goldmine culmination of literally hundreds of years of observational data, freely given! Education, free and WITH Cliff Notes too! How cool is that?


"KERRY, I told you, Little Sis was gonna tell on me!"

LOL...you are so funny & I just love you guys! I learned "honor and respect" at a very young age with 3 older sisters......they didn't give me much choice.....I also learned how to appreciate though, w/o being run over like a freight train.....which yes, even my Kerry would do in a heartbeat if permitted by a lesser man<LOL>....I think it might be a gender thing ? but it's cool.....I'm not much for the passive type.

I told her all about the toothbrush this morning! It's funny b/c she has two of them here in travel caps on the holder. She said that she'd have a 50% chance of not tasting "turtle"............I suggested a way I could fix that for her! <s>

.........and yeah, I started finding excuses to put a "birthstone ring" on that girls finger 3 months in! I talk a whole lotta bull but ea of you knows, it's all bull b/c I'm truly humbled by how fortunate she chooses to be with me and our plan is to get married when I retire in 3 yrs, only b/c I don't want to be married & not live together.

 

[Cathie G]

Well... to at least give you an answer of some sort to the first question. My tort does know me. When I enter his room in the morning he comes out of his little man cave to greet me. It's not about food or anything else at that time because usually he just sits there observing.. It could be just because I turned the lights on and he's used to my routine with my morning rounds and he's nosy. His number one love is to get to go outside and anybody that pets him gets a standing ovation 👋👋👋. He'll stand up as tall as he can into the palm of your hand and stare intently into your eyes. I do know he trusts me though just by his reactions to me picking him up. He has become more relaxed over the years. I know that because he doesn't do the instinctive hiss and duck as much. He relaxes when I'm carrying him outside also. I've always handled him a little but usually it's just for his regular care. Possibly, being able to earn an animal's trust enough to bypass their instincts is a form of love. On the other hand some animals can't do that. It doesn't mean they hate you. It just means they can't get past their instincts. Just my thoughts.🙂

 

[turtlesteve]

I will say 100% that turtles and tortoises can and sometimes do recognize individual people and act differently. However, I’ve personally only seen it in the context of food - e.g. they will become very curious or even excited when someone who feeds them is around, and will ignore humans who never feed them.

 

[Starlight_kitsune]

In my (limited) experience, our torts and turtles definitely have preferences, but food is a large factor in who they like or dislike.

For example, if looks could kill, I'd be long dead because our sulcata Bridger cannot stand me and if I'm around he's got major cranky face on, food is a factor for that though, just not the only one. I still feed him and give him treats, but he's just not a fan. He tolerates most of the household, adores my partner (the bringer of food and giver of soaks), but if I even approach the enclosure he's long gone. I honestly think its partly because I'm often louder than I intend to be due to my bad hearing and ADHD, and that at some point I've startled him and so he just doesn't care for me much now.

Our russians like me, but then again they like everyone because they're little beggars who constantly want food. My big female box turtle, Lizzie Borden, on the other hand, hates everyone equally. She tolerates us when food is involved, but just barely. All of the others we have mostly prefer my partner because he feeds them.

 

[PJay]

I have found that each turtle species and even individuals within a species have their own personalities but most are more interested in me when they are hungry than when not. I have a male Chinese box turtle that always becomes very active when my friend comes over. As soon as he hears her voice he starts pacing, pausing occasionally to look around the room. If it's just me and my daughter at home he sleeps all day.