Tortoise Tricks?

[Nicole.Smiles]

I've heard you can teach a tortoise to walk on a leash and come when called, have any of you done it? If so how?
How old do they need to be before you can teach them these things?

Are there any other tricks?

 

[matt41gb]

I doubt you can do these things. Sulcata can't hear like we do for one thing. They have excellent sight and smell. They will come to you because you feed them, they are responding to a stimulus. I've seen a video of a sulcata following a man all over town, but not on a leash. I wouldn't recommend a leash anyway since they have a habit of getting terribly tangled up in rope. Their brains just don't have the capacity to learn a trick like a dog can. I know some will argue this, but they just aren't wired to do tricks.

-Matt

 

[Tom]

Its certainly possible, but I don't know of it being done. Just about everybody's tortoises will come running over when they see you if you just hand feed them once in a while. This IS training. Grazing/browsing animals are much harder to "train" because the whole food motivation thing doesn't work so well. Tortoises also don't have any sort of pack structure like dogs, primates or lions, so you can't use that either.

 

[tortoisenerd]

I think tortoises are meant to be watched, not taught tricks. I would never subject them walking on a leash or similar. The only sort of "training" my tort has had was: my husband worked with him over the course of a couple months so that he is more likely to flip back upright on his own (successful I think as we haven't found him on his back again), he will come to eat when we tap his slate tile (we started doing this every time we put food down and now he at least looks up at us from what he is doing if not walk over to eat), and he eats when hand fed (so we can give him meds if needed while making sure they are all eaten). We try not to do too much hand feeding because he tends to associate our hands with food, so will try to bite at fingers when they come into the enclosure, which when he gets bigger could get more painful.

 

[jackrat]

Mine jump through hoops of fire.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I 'trained' Bob to climb into a cart about 2 years ago and he will still get in every time I tip the cart down in front even tho months have passed since he last saw his cart. I agree with Tom about them getting tangled in a leash and where would you put a collar? Their necks are so soft I don't see that happening.

 

[DonaTello's-Mom]

Mine can sing! ......Lol

 

[matt41gb]

Actually, now that I think of it. Mine poops in only one corner of the yard. Ha!

 

[andrew71888]

There is a women online and she did infact teach her tortoise (sulcata) how to come to her by snapping her finger and calling the tortoise name slowly. IT sounds odd but it worked.

 

[Tom]

Mine poop EVERYWHERE!!! A lot.

The best tortoise trick I ever saw was at a reptile show in Louisiana. The big sulcata tortoise wore a jar on its back attached to a velcro strap that went all the way around his shell. The jar said "donations" and people just magically walked by and put money in the jar. No joke. Best trick I ever saw!

 

[DonaTello's-Mom]

No it doesn't sound odd Andrew, pretty cool I think. I've 'clicker' trained my horses to jump barrels (without halter and lead rope) 'smile', shake their head to say 'yes' and 'no', pickup their feet and fetch balls. It's fun to teach them new things to do. I could 'snap' my fingers instead of 'clickering' and get the same results. But food is often the reward or rather motivation to do the trick. After they know the trick well then they just get loved on. My tort DonaTello knows now when I 'tap' his food dish it means mealtime. But since I've read posts on biting sully's I'm not going to hand feed mine too much anymore. I kinda find fingers useful.

It's called 'operant conditioning'.

---

Oh too funny Tom! And very clever may I add!

 

[chairman]

When I lived in an apartment I thought it would be a great idea for me to get a leash for my hingebacks for them to get outdoor time. I went with a rabbit/ferret/cat leash and tightened it around the middle of their shell. The leash worked in that my torts couldn't escape it (shell serrations kept the string in place). It FAILED in the 'walking a tort' category- it was like trying to walk... well, a cat. They just didn't understand the leash. I gave up on it pretty quick and just chased them down when they started to get too far away.

 

[Scooter]

I have seen galops target trained in order to get them into their sheds at night once they were too big to pick up.

 

[aktech23]

Tortimer comes when called. every time. He's not that fast, he'll be out 5 minutes or so after calling. The tort is 99% fed by grazing, so it's not so much "food god" but he will, from time to time, get treats when called.

 

[spikethebest]

i have my galapagos tortoise trained to play statue (stand on all four legs nice and high, and stick her neck out fully, and point her head up to the sky). and she doesnt poop in her house...ever. and when she accidently falls asleep outside in the big warm pile of hay/grass i have for her, i can get her to easily wake up, and move into her heated sleeping house. gotta love my littlefoot!