Baby "scaring" itself when eating?

[littleginsu]

I have noticed my baby has been doing something odd the past couple of meals... he quickly retreats into his shell, then sticks his head out bobs a little, takes a bite, then quickly retreats into his shell.

Is this just him being a weirdo or is it normal for them to almost scare themselves when they eat? I will sometimes clean his enclosure and water the plants in there while he is eating, and he does not react to my movement like that.

 

[ascott]

Perhaps there are some of the sprintails in there with him...and they can quickly move their head in/out when some get on them.....

I am still laughing at your descriptive....lol

 

[glaerey]

does your tortoise stretches its head and breathe in hard often with its mouth slightly open? i find this phenomenon of sudden head retract motion somewhat got to do with lungs infection which they have difficulty breathing.

 

[littleginsu]

glaerey, no, I have never seen him breathe with his mouth open and he generally only stretches his head all the way out if he smells something yummy. But thank you so much for the information, I will definitely keep an eye on him!!

I was watching him again this morning.. and it so weird. He takes a few bites and then kind of retracts, do they retract in order to swallow? It's like, I half expect him to poop when he does it.

I am going to get home earlier today and take him outside to sit in the sun for a while, make sure he is getting enough uvb.

On a related note, can anyone recommend a good, inexpensive uv meter? Do they have those laser temperature and humidity gun thingies that also read uv?

---

ascott, what are sprintails?

 

[ascott]

http://buginfo.com/article.cfm?id=94

Creepy to humans but truly harmless and also are a beneficial item to an environment full of substrate

 

[Maverick]

Re: RE: Baby "scaring" itself when eating?

I have noticed my baby has been doing something odd the past couple of meals... he quickly retreats into his shell, then sticks his head out bobs a little, takes a bite, then quickly retreats into his shell.

Is this just him being a weirdo or is it normal for them to almost scare themselves when they eat? I will sometimes clean his enclosure and water the plants in there while he is eating, and he does not react to my movement like that.

I have noticed my redfoot doing this when eating occasionally, I could be wrong I got the impression that she was trying to clear food that stuck to her head, or trying to clear some powdered mazuri from her nares by quickly exhaling. Kinda like blowing your nose.
Hope this helps.