Walks

I've seen a few things about people taking their tortoises on walks and I was wondering how you work up to the level where your tortoise will follow you? I recently adopted a female sulcata who is shy and I would like to one day be able to walk with her.

It's been my experience that she won't walk with you; you'll have to walk with her

I used to walk with Bob all the time. I taught him by wiggling my fingers for his attention, and when he'd follow my fingers he'd get a strawberry. I'd get him going by kicking his back legs. Then I would walk beside him and guide which way he'd go. We took him out in public very often. That's one reason the Christmas holidays are so hard for me. He used to go to Petco so the kids could get their picture taken with him and Santa. Petco would have Bob stay about 4 hours and he'd always make a bunch of money for the Senior Dog Rescue. We'd take him out of the truck, and set him down and he'd walk right in the Petco like he owned the place. First thing he'd do is walk over to say hi to Santa. I would put up a Christmas tree in his shed for him. I miss him terribly around the holidays, guess I plain miss him more as time passes.
@Kendall To bond with your new tort, give lots of treats and sit and talk to her. Hold her and spend time on the floor with her. It takes a long time. Bob was 125 pounds and only 17 when he died. I spent most of my time with him. I have 4 Sulcata now.

I love this photo of Bob walking with my grandson......

maggie3fan said:

I love this photo of Bob walking with my grandson......

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This breaks my heart. Bob looks like he doesn't realize that he is shorter than everyone else!

Bob was very special. I don't know that every tortoise can become trained as well as he was. I had a cat that could be trained and played games, but other cats I've had weren't as cooperative. We had one guinea pig out of 19 that was smart enough to train. I've had some birds that were extremely hard to finger train, and others that were easy. I think it is related to intelligence. I agree that the more time you spend with them, the more you can accomplish.

maggie3fan said:

I used to walk with Bob all the time. I taught him by wiggling my fingers for his attention, and when he'd follow my fingers he'd get a strawberry. I'd get him going by kicking his back legs. Then I would walk beside him and guide which way he'd go. We took him out in public very often. That's one reason the Christmas holidays are so hard for me. He used to go to Petco so the kids could get their picture taken with him and Santa. Petco would have Bob stay about 4 hours and he'd always make a bunch of money for the Senior Dog Rescue. We'd take him out of the truck, and set him down and he'd walk right in the Petco like he owned the place. First thing he'd do is walk over to say hi to Santa. I would put up a Christmas tree in his shed for him. I miss him terribly around the holidays, guess I plain miss him more as time passes.
@Kendall To bond with your new tort, give lots of treats and sit and talk to her. Hold her and spend time on the floor with her. It takes a long time. Bob was 125 pounds and only 17 when he died. I spent most of my time with him. I have 4 Sulcata now.

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Thank you very much both for the pictures and the advice. Bob was a beautiful Sulcata.

Big Charlie said:

This breaks my heart. Bob looks like he doesn't realize that he is shorter than everyone else!

Bob was very special. I don't know that every tortoise can become trained as well as he was. I had a cat that could be trained and played games, but other cats I've had weren't as cooperative. We had one guinea pig out of 19 that was smart enough to train. I've had some birds that were extremely hard to finger train, and others that were easy. I think it is related to intelligence. I agree that the more time you spend with them, the more you can accomplish.

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I believe that's really the truth. Bob was really different. I super miss him.
I had a cat that would heel like a dog. He was 32 pounds when he was the co driver in my big truck. But when he got off the truck he went down to 28. But he was the boss, a very different cat, wasn't afraid of dogs and could find his own semi truck in a trk stop full of trks. 80% of the time. I'd just take off his lease and walk with him and he'd find the trk most of the time. And he didn't need to be controlled, he knew what he should or could do. I have 5 parakeets, I gave up on the finger training after a few months. They aren't tame in any respect, but it's not for lack of trying.
I have 2 cats now that only eat, then poop.
But I have a 2 yr old 11 pound Sulcata that seems to be really different. He was so obnoxious at a year old I couldn't keep him a large tort table in the reptile room, so I moved him out to Bob's shed, (the one I was never gonna use again). Now I really would not advise doing what I've done, but I took that yr old and put him out in Bob's shed and treated him the way I would have Bob, meaning that I opened the doggie door for this BABY every morning and he'd rush out rain or shine and graze like an old cow. I turn on a humidifier daily, not that we really need that in Oregon, except for 3 scutes he's smooth as a baby's butt.
But all the sudden I'm hijacking Kendall's thread, so I think I'll go do my chores then come back and make a thread on a tortoise whose name was Daisy Mae, changed for the obvious reasons to Sam, and now is Monster.

maggie3fan said:

I used to walk with Bob all the time. I taught him by wiggling my fingers for his attention, and when he'd follow my fingers he'd get a strawberry. I'd get him going by kicking his back legs. Then I would walk beside him and guide which way he'd go. We took him out in public very often. That's one reason the Christmas holidays are so hard for me. He used to go to Petco so the kids could get their picture taken with him and Santa. Petco would have Bob stay about 4 hours and he'd always make a bunch of money for the Senior Dog Rescue. We'd take him out of the truck, and set him down and he'd walk right in the Petco like he owned the place. First thing he'd do is walk over to say hi to Santa. I would put up a Christmas tree in his shed for him. I miss him terribly around the holidays, guess I plain miss him more as time passes.
@Kendall To bond with your new tort, give lots of treats and sit and talk to her. Hold her and spend time on the floor with her. It takes a long time. Bob was 125 pounds and only 17 when he died. I spent most of my time with him. I have 4 Sulcata now.

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I just love your story!!! The bond you speak of is the bond I'm hoping to build with my Armstrong. So very sorry to hear of your loss :/

Maggie, everytime I read your story about Bob, and see how you suffer when he passed away. I think like that about two of my torts, Baby Runt and Beastie Boy. Both are sick right now. I just spend $545 in vet bills trying to find out what's going on with Beastie Boy. The vet can't see anything on his x-rays, and his blood work shows nothing! Either the vet is not skilled enough to evaluate his test correctly, or the tests results are not accurately interpreted. I don't want to take over the OP's thread; so, I'm gonna create my own thread on this situation. Sorry Maggie, I feel your pain!

@sibi