In this video I arrive home from vacation this weekend, went to check on Echo, and he came over in an instant, nudged my hand to let me know he wanted a head rub, and then came to crawl into my hand for more attention. ( No I was NOT pressing hard on his head, however I am left handed, and was using my right hand to do the petting, With how gentle I have to be my hand was a little shaky cause its not my dominant hand. Don't worry he is perfectly fine, and it just seems a little rough at the beginning)
~ Please copy the link, and then paste it into your address bar, I hope the video is ready to be viewed, I just uploaded it half an hour ago
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF95RIP1b-g
I wanted to kind of cover the topic of this video and how I got Echo to be this way. Ever since I got Echo (Plus 3 days letting him settle into his home) I have made the effort to get him out of his enclosure and to get around me. He was some what shy but he never would show being scared when i picked him up (like going potty on my hand, which can be common for other torts and owners) although he would hide in his shell if i moved to fast or grabbed him without coming from the front. To be honest, a lot of tortoises that come up to you want food, but actually in our case, I have never tried hand feeding Echo, and when I put food in his enclosure, he is out soaking, so he still has never registered my hand as food. We are now here on June 9th, and from what i've witnessed the past month, my tortoise is really friendly and loves being interacted with. He loves to get his head rubbed, he loves to come crawl into my hand, he is starting to slowly recognize his name (although it might be my imagination), he comes up to the glass of his cage and just stares out and waits until i go over and open up the door and pet him, then he saunters off to eat more. This is My opinion, but I think people don't give tortoises enough credit. Echo has never seemed stressed out by being handled. He is held securely, but he has never stopped eating or drinking, or gotten sick, or anything of the sort. He is very healthy (even with the first 2 months of no UV, I know, terrible on my part, but don't worry he has a MVB bulb and gets outside every day this summer) and is growing, he is a loving tortoise.
~ Please copy the link, and then paste it into your address bar, I hope the video is ready to be viewed, I just uploaded it half an hour ago
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF95RIP1b-g
I wanted to kind of cover the topic of this video and how I got Echo to be this way. Ever since I got Echo (Plus 3 days letting him settle into his home) I have made the effort to get him out of his enclosure and to get around me. He was some what shy but he never would show being scared when i picked him up (like going potty on my hand, which can be common for other torts and owners) although he would hide in his shell if i moved to fast or grabbed him without coming from the front. To be honest, a lot of tortoises that come up to you want food, but actually in our case, I have never tried hand feeding Echo, and when I put food in his enclosure, he is out soaking, so he still has never registered my hand as food. We are now here on June 9th, and from what i've witnessed the past month, my tortoise is really friendly and loves being interacted with. He loves to get his head rubbed, he loves to come crawl into my hand, he is starting to slowly recognize his name (although it might be my imagination), he comes up to the glass of his cage and just stares out and waits until i go over and open up the door and pet him, then he saunters off to eat more. This is My opinion, but I think people don't give tortoises enough credit. Echo has never seemed stressed out by being handled. He is held securely, but he has never stopped eating or drinking, or gotten sick, or anything of the sort. He is very healthy (even with the first 2 months of no UV, I know, terrible on my part, but don't worry he has a MVB bulb and gets outside every day this summer) and is growing, he is a loving tortoise.