# Ever been bit by your tort?



## AcidElvis (Dec 21, 2012)

I was feeding my Russians today and realized he could have snapped at my finger. Has anyone been bit by their tort and did it hurt?


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## Jacqui (Dec 21, 2012)

*knocking on my wooden head* but so far I have been really lucky. I watch my fingers (and toes) real carefully.  With the big sulcata boyz, I am more worried about unexpected butting. I have had some really close calls with both snapping turtles and sidenecks. I do recall my son, years back he was bringing in the trio of mud turtles and one bit down on him. Keep in mind, these guys were only like 3" in length. This turtle clamped down and would not let go for quite a few minutes. She did break the skin and my son said it was a pretty painful pinch.


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## african cake queen (Dec 21, 2012)

hi, my female cake would never bite. snip the male well...he would get me if i let him. he doesnt want me around his lady.thats how he got his name. hes alittle snippy.


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## dmarcus (Dec 21, 2012)

I have been bitten and it really hurt, and my wife was bitten and blood was drawn. Of course this was a large Sulcata doing the biting and it was while I we were hand feeding.


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## CourtneyAndCarl (Dec 21, 2012)

Carl has bitten me once and it was an accident, he was going for the leaf... even for a little guy it was quite a pinch.


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## EKLC (Dec 21, 2012)

The Captain wants to taste my hand when I hold some cactus of zucchini for him. Usually I can just move the food for him, but he's got me a couple of times.


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## Yellow Turtle (Dec 21, 2012)

My aldabra has tried to bite my fingers many times in the past so I tried once to let him bit it. It was quite painful for only 14 cm size.


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## kimber_lee_314 (Dec 21, 2012)

My DT accidentally bit me when I was hand feeding him once day. It hurt!!!


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## Baoh (Dec 21, 2012)

My animals will eat feces and can bite right through large carrots. I prefer not to be bitten.


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## jtrux (Dec 21, 2012)

I'd imagine it could be quite painful if a larger tort got a hold of you.


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## SDDTMama (Dec 21, 2012)

Yes, while hand feeding him (a Mojave Desert tort that's 4 months old ). It hurt, and he didn't even break the skin! I have been _much_ more careful, since, because as he ages I imagine he'll be equipped to cause quite a lot of damage!


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## dmmj (Dec 21, 2012)

Turtles yes, but no tortoise bites yet, though my CDT tries and eat my toes all of the time.


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## CtTortoiseMom (Dec 21, 2012)

I have been rammed but never bitten. At a 4H fair Sid (47 pound sulcata) was walking around at a reptile demonstration and almost bit a lady on the back that was sitting in the grass. She was wearing a green shirt and was a little lumpy, I think Sid thought she was cactus! Thank goodness they are so slow, i was able to get to him and turn him in the other direction and he slowly walked the other way.


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## Moozillion (Dec 21, 2012)

Baoh said:


> My animals will eat feces and can bite right through large carrots. I prefer not to be bitten.



Ewwwwwww!!! Good point!!


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## Talka (Dec 21, 2012)

Bitten twice. Once while hand feeding, the other while giving medicine. But when your little guy hasn't eaten in 3 days because God knows why (maybe he gets thrills out of making me worry), you sorta panic and hand-feed some tomato. Which he then goes crazy for and takes bites the size of his head. Which then end up drawing blood.


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## laney (Dec 22, 2012)

Bit on the throat when I swallowed and my neck moved lol it must have looked interesting, it was a little sore but got more of a fright than anything but he got a shock too haha


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## Cowboy_Ken (Dec 22, 2012)

Everyone says it hurts but compared to what? I for one like to compare all non-snake bites to the bite of a collord lizard. Now they have a good solid bite when healthy. Also the where bitten is important.


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## stinax182 (Dec 23, 2012)

my large Russian chomped on me once! didn't hurt really, just scared me! i make sure i feed him giant leaves as to distance my fingers from his mouth


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## Moozillion (Dec 23, 2012)

laney said:


> Bit on the throat when I swallowed and my neck moved lol it must have looked interesting, it was a little sore but got more of a fright than anything but he got a shock too haha



Vampire tort!!!!


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## Watsonpartyof4 (Dec 25, 2012)

I was hand feeding Tyrone chicken on and he bit down on my finger! It felt like a pair of locking vice grips got clamped on my finger and was sore for the rest of the day!


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## Zabbi0 (Dec 25, 2012)

All these posts are interesting. 
I was told when I bought Sami, my sulcata that she couldn't bite?
I even stuck my finger in her mouth. I don't know I just remember the guy saying she couldn't bite. Is this not true?


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## stinax182 (Dec 25, 2012)

Zabbi0 said:


> All these posts are interesting.
> I was told when I bought Sami, my sulcata that she couldn't bite?
> I even stuck my finger in her mouth. I don't know I just remember the guy saying she couldn't bite. Is this not true?



anything with a mouth and teeth can bite. and probably will if harassed enough. even a baby tortoises beak can be sharp and hurt in the right place. never purposely put your finger in ANY animals mouth.....what would you do? I'd bite you if you shoved your finger in my mouth.


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## Zabbi0 (Dec 25, 2012)

I don't know. He said she didn't have teeth it was just her jaw I would later have to worry about or something like that. In any case- never had any probs with biting.


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## stinax182 (Dec 25, 2012)

only one of my torts would bite me, and he's the only one who will eat any kind of worm, so he always thinks my fingers are treats. the odds of your tort biting you to defend itself or punish you is small, but him mistaking it for food, definitely  or if you hand feed him, use large leaves. they don't have very good depth perception up close and might bite your finger trying to fit the largest amount of food physically possible in his mouth haha. if you're offering it to him, its fair game


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## Maggie Cummings (Dec 25, 2012)

Bob has bitten me several times and it's all my fault. I have hand fed him since he was little and I never thought much about it until he started biting at the air or my hand even when I didn't have food for him.
Think about this...when a wild tortoise bites at their food they clamp down hard making sure the 'food' doesn't get away. The last time Bob bit me I couldn't get the bleeding to stop and my DIL the medical person had to come over and help me. She says I should have gotten stitches, but the way things get turned around I was afraid that they would call Bob a bad tortoise like the mean dog who bites. And they'd keep track of how many times he bites then they would euthanize him. That would be just horrid. If you can look at a torts jaw line it's serrated like a steak knife. So he gets my hand or finger in his mouth and clamps down hard and I am smacking his face and pushing on him and acting like a crazy person and all that does is makes them clamp harder. So my advice is to never never hand feed them. You don't want the tortoise to associate your hand with food. 
Take my experience and pay attention...big tortoises can bite very hard and it bleeds and hurts a bunch..I have no doubt that given the right situation he can bite hard enough to bite a finger off...


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## CharlieM (Dec 26, 2012)

Baoh said:


> My animals will eat feces and can bite right through large carrots. I prefer not to be bitten.



That's a great example of why I won't hand feed.


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## IowaGuy28 (Dec 26, 2012)

The full-time Vegas breeder I got Tilley from, I asked this very question to, said they are herbivores (which is nearly common knowledge) and that should they attempt to bite its most likely because they think that your toes/fingers are just another something to eat....a snack. He told me him wife was nipped at once and immediately released when the food somehow "didn't taste right". I believe this topic goes either way, freak accident(?). Tilley has Never even opened his mouth at me and I rub his chin and head all the time.

My 2 cents...


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## Holycow (Dec 26, 2012)

I work with animals and have been bitten by just about anything you can imagine (with the exception of venomous snakes). I hand feed my sulcatas and red foot and have been bitten by them (completely due to lack of caution on my part). As far as turtle bites go the worst for me was a common snapper +20 years ago. Mud and musk turtles also have strong defensive bites, a stinkpot turtle about the size of a computer mouse took a perfect cartoon-like bite chunk out of my hand once while I was not paying attention. I've never seen a sulcata or redfoot try to bite defensively (although I guess it could happen.) Keep in mind Defensive bites from just about any juv/adult turtle or tortoise can be EXTREMELY PAINFUL and BLOODY. As far as they are concerned they are fighting for their life.
That said, my experience with Feeding Bites from sulcatas are the tortoise lets go as soon as it realizes the finger (or toe) is not food. I'm sure my 50lb tort could do serious damage if he bit and then clamped down with full bite pressure. But he just never has, he kind of gets a puzzled look and then stops the downforce of the bite and I get my finger (or my wife's toe) out of there. The bites are very similar to the bite from a bird like a parrot or macaw except the birds seem to realize what they are doing and DON'T let up on the bite. I've had many feeding bites from pet sulcatas and I can't recall one time where blood was drawn. 
My two cents.


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## avel (Jan 8, 2013)

Also been bit by my sulcata while feeding. It weights 50lbs and probably didn't bite down as hard as it could of.


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## mercurysmom (Jan 9, 2013)

At the reptile store, I absentmindedly attempted to pet one of the gigantic Sulcatas on display. I startled him, and he flinched with his mouth open towards my hand. I pulled it away fast enough, but I may have been bitten if I hadn't.


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## JoesMum (Jan 9, 2013)

I've been bitten a couple of times by Joe. It's always a result of me not being careful when I hand feed him. If my fingers smell of strawberry, he makes assumptions 

It hurts and I've had a blood blister, but he's never broken the skin.


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