# Can my tortoise like me?



## vlad21 (Jan 24, 2016)

Good afternoon everyone! 
This may be a stupid question so please bare with me. 
Is it actually possible for your tortoise to like you? Mine seems to like us a lot, and it makes me very happy. She perks up and starts trying to get out when she hears us talking. She lets me pet her head now, and she just loves to be on one of us. I guess the reason I ask is because I've heard that with reptiles such as snakes, they never learn to "like" anyone, they just grow a tolerance for certain people. I want to know if that goes for tortoises as well. So is my tortoise just people friendly, or does she really love me? 
Thanks  

here's my little gal just in case you want to see her


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## naturalman91 (Jan 24, 2016)

they just tolerate us. they don't really "like" us per say but they do see us as food god so they think a treat is coming they're way when they see us 

and realistically they have no choice but to tolerate us what are they gonna do bite us and run away like a dog? lol


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## vlad21 (Jan 24, 2016)

naturalman91 said:


> they just tolerate us. they don't really "like" us per say but they do see us as food god so they think a treat is coming they're way when they see us
> 
> and realistically they have no choice but to tolerate us what are they gonna do bite us and run away like a dog? lol



Good point.. That's why I asked. I've heard stories of people saying that their turtles/tortoises do not like them. So I was happy to believe mine liked me but I guess she doesn't! Lol. Thanks for the help!


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## naturalman91 (Jan 24, 2016)

vlad21 said:


> Good point.. That's why I asked. I've heard stories of people saying that their turtles/tortoises do not like them. So I was happy to believe mine liked me but I guess she doesn't! Lol. Thanks for the help!



i think when people see they're tort as not liking them it's a territory thing like hey they're in my area this is mine!


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## dmmj (Jan 24, 2016)

I can't say one way or the other 2 B honest. i do have a redfoot who does not like human males, but he sure does like the ladies.


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## Gillian M (Jan 24, 2016)

What a *gorgeous *tort!  GOD bless.

Although I too read that reptiles do not "like" anyone I have a feeling that Oli  likes me.(And I *LOVE* him). Whatever answers you get to your question:

a) this is not mathematics  where 1+1=2
b) reptiles, like all other animals have a brain and a nervous system.  Therefore I believe they can like/dislike a person.

And a very warm welcome to the forum!


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## vlad21 (Jan 24, 2016)

Gillian Moore said:


> What a *gorgeous *tort!  GOD bless.
> 
> Although I too read that reptiles do not "like" anyone I have a feeling that Oli  likes me.(And I *LOVE* him). Whatever answers you get to your question:
> 
> ...


I think I may just stick with the idea that she loves me  because I love her!! Thank you much!


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## dmmj (Jan 24, 2016)

if you really want to know how much your tortoise can and cannot like you read up on the reptile brain and see whether or not they can form connections.


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## Maggie Cummings (Jan 24, 2016)

If you'll do a search and look up Bob stories, you'll see a person and a tortoise that are so bonded it's obvious to others. I socialized Bob from the time he was 3. He went everywhere. He became quite popular in Corvallis. More people knew Bob than me, they always asked, 'Are you Bob's mother?" He went to OSU Pet Days. Petco had him come at Christmas, get your pix taken with Bob for $5 or Santa for $10, all proceeds to Senior Dog Rescue. He did that for about 9 years.

A couple of weeks ago some guy came up to me in the Safeway and asked, "You bringing Bob to Santa this year? My kids have 4 years of pictures of them with Bob, they are so looking forward to it. I started crying, left my groceries and came home.
Petco, hung black crepe streamers and Bob's picture on Christmas. The freakingest thing you ever saw. Groups of kids crying, frankly, I'm damned sorry I went. Bob touched more people than I can even imagine....strangers are still asking me about him.
The hardest thing I have ever gone thru. But anyone who says torts don't have emotion for us just hasn't tried to bond with their animal. Bob's bond with me was visible. But we worked at it for 15 years. I know I was his food Goddess.


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## Maggie Cummings (Jan 24, 2016)

naturalman91 said:


> they just tolerate us. they don't really "like" us per say but they do see us as food god so they think a treat is coming they're way when they see us and realistically they have no choice but to tolerate us what are they gonna do bite us and run away like a dog? lol



I disagree big time....I had a 15 yr bond with Bob, ask anyone on this forum, they will all tell you it was obvious. Plus, read the Bob stories, see for yourself.


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## naturalman91 (Jan 24, 2016)

maggie3fan said:


> I disagree big time....I had a 15 yr bond with Bob, ask anyone on this forum, they will all tell you it was obvious. Plus, read the Bob stories, see for yourself.



i've read your thread on bob you and him had a very rare unique relationship kinda like the guy with the snapper that seems to seek attention very rare but amazing none the less 

but i don't think that apply's to everyone most of us are simply tolerated as food god


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## Maggie Cummings (Jan 24, 2016)

naturalman91 said:


> i've read your thread on bob you and him had a very rare unique relationship kinda like the guy with the snapper that seems to seek attention very rare but amazing none the less
> 
> but i don't think that apply's to everyone most of us are simply tolerated as food god


Thank you. I know what we had was special, I don't hope to have that kind of relationship with another animal.


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## Big Charlie (Jan 24, 2016)

I think it depends on how you define "like." My tort comes to me and appears "happy" to see me. I think it is a mixture of curiosity and knowing that past encounters with me have been positive. I think he likes me as much as he is capable. He can tell the difference between me and someone else, and he treats me differently than a stranger. I think you can cultivate the relationship with your tort and it will be rewarding for both of you.


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## Big Charlie (Jan 24, 2016)

maggie3fan said:


> If you'll do a search and look up Bob stories, you'll see a person and a tortoise that are so bonded it's obvious to others. I socialized Bob from the time he was 3. He went everywhere. He became quite popular in Corvallis. More people knew Bob than me, they always asked, 'Are you Bob's mother?" He went to OSU Pet Days. Petco had him come at Christmas, get your pix taken with Bob for $5 or Santa for $10, all proceeds to Senior Dog Rescue. He did that for about 9 years.
> 
> A couple of weeks ago some guy came up to me in the Safeway and asked, "You bringing Bob to Santa this year? My kids have 4 years of pictures of them with Bob, they are so looking forward to it. I started crying, left my groceries and came home.
> Petco, hung black crepe streamers and Bob's picture on Christmas. The freakingest thing you ever saw. Groups of kids crying, frankly, I'm damned sorry I went. Bob touched more people than I can even imagine....strangers are still asking me about him.
> The hardest thing I have ever gone thru. But anyone who says torts don't have emotion for us just hasn't tried to bond with their animal. Bob's bond with me was visible. But we worked at it for 15 years. I know I was his food Goddess.


Oh my! This makes me cry! I'm so sorry for you.


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## ZEROPILOT (Jan 25, 2016)

I feed my tortoises. I clean my tortoises. I do everything for my tortoises. my wife couldn't care less. However, one of my tortoises, (Julio) Clearly is in love with my wife. 
I also had a big male RF that wanted to be held and sit in my lap. Food or not and would pace his pen if he ever saw my through a window.
There are some unusual and unique relationships in the tortoise world.
I think that not all of them fit into the logical spectrum.


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## Pokeymeg (Jan 25, 2016)

My tortoise went through a phase where he was flashing his weewee.... But only to me, NEVER to my husband. I'd say he 'liked' me then! Ewww 

In general though, I do believe that with enough time and care, it is possible to form a bond that transcends the simple 'tolerate the food god' bond!


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## W Shaw (Jan 25, 2016)

Honestly, I think that people who say that reptiles don't bond are just stuck in a 30-year-old mindset. I know more about rattlesnake research than tortoise research. 30 years ago, people thought rattlesnake couldn't bond and had nothing going on in their brains but instinctive predatory behavior. We now know that they show strong maternal bonding. We know that siblings maintain lifelong affectionate bonds, and that individuals within a den have friends they spend significantly more time with and individuals they avoid, We also know that they're capable of advance planning.

When I looked for similar research on tortoises, I didn't find much. For the most part, no one's bothered to do the research, and in fact, one of the first things I came across was an article commenting on the fact that, despite the current trend toward studying social behavior, tortoises as a whole have been "largely ignored." So at the moment, their social behavior has simply not gotten the attention that other species have, and until they do, the "old guard" will continue to maintain that they're just little machines. The same argument that has been used throughout history to justify treating nonhuman critters like typewriters. It's very inconvenient for humans to be forced to think of the psychological well-being of other species, so there will always be resistance to research suggesting they're sentient, feeling beings.


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## dmmj (Jan 25, 2016)

calling them sentient is a big big big big big big big big big big big stretch big stretch


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## dmmj (Jan 25, 2016)

biiiiiiiiig stretch


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## vlad21 (Jan 25, 2016)

maggie3fan said:


> If you'll do a search and look up Bob stories, you'll see a person and a tortoise that are so bonded it's obvious to others. I socialized Bob from the time he was 3. He went everywhere. He became quite popular in Corvallis. More people knew Bob than me, they always asked, 'Are you Bob's mother?" He went to OSU Pet Days. Petco had him come at Christmas, get your pix taken with Bob for $5 or Santa for $10, all proceeds to Senior Dog Rescue. He did that for about 9 years.
> 
> A couple of weeks ago some guy came up to me in the Safeway and asked, "You bringing Bob to Santa this year? My kids have 4 years of pictures of them with Bob, they are so looking forward to it. I started crying, left my groceries and came home.
> Petco, hung black crepe streamers and Bob's picture on Christmas. The freakingest thing you ever saw. Groups of kids crying, frankly, I'm damned sorry I went. Bob touched more people than I can even imagine....strangers are still asking me about him.
> The hardest thing I have ever gone thru. But anyone who says torts don't have emotion for us just hasn't tried to bond with their animal. Bob's bond with me was visible. But we worked at it for 15 years. I know I was his food Goddess.


:') that is so sweet


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## vlad21 (Jan 25, 2016)

maggie3fan said:


> If you'll do a search and look up Bob stories, you'll see a person and a tortoise that are so bonded it's obvious to others. I socialized Bob from the time he was 3. He went everywhere. He became quite popular in Corvallis. More people knew Bob than me, they always asked, 'Are you Bob's mother?" He went to OSU Pet Days. Petco had him come at Christmas, get your pix taken with Bob for $5 or Santa for $10, all proceeds to Senior Dog Rescue. He did that for about 9 years.
> 
> A couple of weeks ago some guy came up to me in the Safeway and asked, "You bringing Bob to Santa this year? My kids have 4 years of pictures of them with Bob, they are so looking forward to it. I started crying, left my groceries and came home.
> Petco, hung black crepe streamers and Bob's picture on Christmas. The freakingest thing you ever saw. Groups of kids crying, frankly, I'm damned sorry I went. Bob touched more people than I can even imagine....strangers are still asking me about him.
> The hardest thing I have ever gone thru. But anyone who says torts don't have emotion for us just hasn't tried to bond with their animal. Bob's bond with me was visible. But we worked at it for 15 years. I know I was his food Goddess.


This is so sweet. :')


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## vlad21 (Jan 25, 2016)

Mine also likes to climb up my chest and try to burrow into my neck. What does this mean? Is she just trying to hide?


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## dmmj (Jan 25, 2016)

vlad21 said:


> Mine also likes to climb up my chest and try to burrow into my neck. What does this mean? Is she just trying to hide?


it's probably warm there. tortoises like heat warmth


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## Gillian M (Jan 25, 2016)

vlad21 said:


> I think I may just stick with the idea that she loves me  because I love her!! Thank you much!


I have done that with Oli.


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## Gillian M (Jan 25, 2016)

vlad21 said:


> Mine also likes to climb up my chest and try to burrow into my neck. What does this mean? Is she just trying to hide?


I'd love to see her doing that!


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## Kapidolo Farms (Jan 26, 2016)

They can "like" us similar to how they like each other. Cats and dogs for example are very social, and think of us as one of them as much as we think of them as one of us. Some turtles and tortoises use the service of cleaner animals, like birds that might remove ticks from the skin of larger tortoises. Some aquatic species also allow, maybe even seek out, fish that will pick algae and dead skin from their bodies. These natural behaviors can be very endearing and translate to your petting them.

They all will quickly sort out that food appears from you and that can also be part of the mix of being liked. This can be individual to individual too. Some of my tortoises don't care when my wife or mother-in-law are in view, but I invoke a strong "food source" response. Other tortoises seem to shy away no matter how many times your the food source, or at the other end of the spectrum, any person is a food source.

Very shy species can come to realize you are not a threat and loose the 'run run' response, until you pick them up once or twice, then they run again at your presence. To call all these things 'like' might be overstating it. They are still wild animals who manage resources, and you are a resource. Well, people are ultimately like that too. That's why we find bonds with cats and dogs, some birds even, to be stronger than bonds with many other people.


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## dmmj (Jan 26, 2016)

resource? That sounds so cold now I'm sad


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## GotTort (Jan 26, 2016)

Would torts utilize a human resource department?


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## dmmj (Jan 26, 2016)

Ba da bump (rim shot)


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## Kapidolo Farms (Jan 27, 2016)

In another venue, perhaps with participant overlap, a post was made that suggests these pets not be called wild animals, because of the bonds they can and sometimes do form with people. The focus group of animals was iguanas, but could just as easily be the bond with Maggie and Bob. I don't think having a strong bond with an individual makes it a wild animal or not. There are many wild deer that come to trust a few people and will walk up to them for food, yet that same deer will evade hunters. So the deer, while a wild animal, is not unable to bond with people.

I don't think the 'wild animal bond' is a distinction based on bonding or not but rather the history of the line of animals with people. It starts with individuals who do bond with people, but that is the individual, not the whole species or breed. The first wild cats that spent time near people did not all of a sudden mean that all wild cats were bond-able(if that's a word). There are still wild cats that are wild in Africa that don't bond with people. Pretty much the same with wolves and dogs.

I was in some national park in Colorado, the one with more peaks than all the others. Any how after a long a vigorous hike I stopped for a snack. There were many semi large songbirds flitting about. People were putting food on the ground for them. One kid kept putting the food ever closer, but the birds would only get so close, and closer they just left the food on the ground. I put my hand outstretched with some chips and a bit higher than my head. Right away a few of the birds cam and grabbed the chips on the fly. I did it again and one landed, ate the chips and just sat there for several moments. Maybe my warm hand felt good on its cold feet (ice on the ground). Then with no more chips another bird then a total of four were perched on my hand. 

They were most certainly wild birds, with a bond for the moment. I have to wonder if the kid who kept placing the food closer had some mal-intent the birds could perceive. I was sorta drunk with the moment, it was a great feeling. Someone got to close to take a picture and they all took off. I further wonder if I went to the same place with some frequency they would come to recognize me.

We had a boat billed heron at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. That bird bonded so strongly with me that a few years after I left that position and came back, she remembered me and push to the wire cage to say hello.

Point is bonding does not indicate that they are wild or not. It just means they find something they like about you or maybe people in general. For the most part we are a resource to most pets, as they are to us. Habituated behavior can feel like this too.


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## W Shaw (Jan 27, 2016)

People also need to keep in mind that captive bred animals are not wild animals. In fact they're generations removed from a wild state. the fact that they're not one of a handful of species arbitrarily defined as domestics isn't really relevant.It's an important distinction because people often naively assume that if you release a captive-bred exotic into the wild he'll be happy to have been freed from captivity, but (with some notable exceptions) most captive-bred animals are not equipped to survive in the wild and deal with predators. An animal who has spent his whole life having his food brought to him in a climate controlled environment is not particularly happy to be suddenly exposed to extreme temperatures, with no breakfast waiting for him when he wakes up, and predators around every corner. That is NOT his native habitat, and he's no more happy to be there than an urban New Yorker would be to be set down in a remote area of Africa and told, "Go and be free! This is where your species originated!"


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## BernieL (Sep 9, 2022)

vlad21 said:


> Good afternoon everyone!
> This may be a stupid question so please bare with me.
> Is it actually possible for your tortoise to like you? Mine seems to like us a lot, and it makes me very happy. She perks up and starts trying to get out when she hears us talking. She lets me pet her head now, and she just loves to be on one of us. I guess the reason I ask is because I've heard that with reptiles such as snakes, they never learn to "like" anyone, they just grow a tolerance for certain people. I want to know if that goes for tortoises as well. So is my tortoise just people friendly, or does she really love me?
> Thanks
> ...


Very sweet.


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## Vpvarano (Sep 9, 2022)

vlad21 said:


> Good afternoon everyone!
> This may be a stupid question so please bare with me.
> Is it actually possible for your tortoise to like you? Mine seems to like us a lot, and it makes me very happy. She perks up and starts trying to get out when she hears us talking. She lets me pet her head now, and she just loves to be on one of us. I guess the reason I ask is because I've heard that with reptiles such as snakes, they never learn to "like" anyone, they just grow a tolerance for certain people. I want to know if that goes for tortoises as well. So is my tortoise just people friendly, or does she really love me?
> Thanks
> ...


The most accurate answer for your question is that we would never be sure since we are not tortoises to know what they think  But what science says is that they at some point understand that you are no harm and that when you are around many times something good happens, so since they associate you with some good things they might just feel comfortable staying around you. Now in human language that could translate in the tortoise “likes” me


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## jsheffield (Sep 9, 2022)

One of my tortoises hates me, so I guess so...

Jamie


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## BernieL (Sep 9, 2022)

What Vpvarano says makes a lot of sense. Part of me wants our Pete to 'like' us, and part of me thinks I may be kidding myself, and maybe just projecting my own thinking into him. There are, however, times when his behaviors seem to show at least what Vp says, that he at least recognizes that we mean no harm, or are a source of food, and maybe more. Who knows? I just find myself looking forward to seeing this small creature each day, and wanting to make sure he has food and protection. That he feels safe is enough...I think...or maybe overthink.


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## Gillian M (Sep 9, 2022)

I often wonder if my tort likes me or not, hates me? I have not been able to get anywhere.


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## OliveW (Sep 9, 2022)

Nobody knows what goes on inside any animal's head. People can "research" all they want, but they can never know for sure. While it's true that humans can project their emotions onto their pets, there is absolutely no way to know if certain pets, like tortoises, have emotions because they can't show it like dogs. 

I've had pets that liked me, and have had ones that didn't want anything to do with me despite me being the primary caregiver of all life in our home. The only other reptile I've ever had was an iguana that I didn't want, but took care of because it was me or nobody. He grew gigantic and violent towards everyone but me. I could handle him, but nobody else could. I guess he never sensed that I didn't like taking care of him. It was a LOT of work. I didn't get him on purpose, but I do believe he liked me. 

I've had hamsters that loved me and would run to jump in my hand, and hamsters that would bite the crap out of me but let others handle them. 

As far as our sulcata, I do believe he has the ability to like people. He comes out of his burrow to both my husband and myself now, but nobody else. He is very deep, so it takes him 5 or 10, but he does eventually wander out when he hears one of us. We are NOT a food source. He's a grazer. When he sees one of us, he will come greet us if he's already out. For a solitary creature, he's not very solitary. He enjoys company.


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## Beasty_Artemis (Sep 10, 2022)

My red foot likes me. She dances when I scratch her bottom.


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## BernieL (Sep 10, 2022)

Our Pete does that too. We call it the Russian Rhumba.


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