I've seen that same nose problem many times on young tortoises with runny noses. It's almost like the mucous is astringent or burning. You said he was newly acquired, so maybe he had a runny nose (respiratory infection) before you got him. That would account for the eyes too. So glad he's getting better!Sheldon is my first tortoise so I don’t have much experience. But over the last few months I have read hundreds of accounts and watched scores of videos documenting the experiences of others with their tortoises. There does seem to be a percentage of tortoises that like being touched and a percentage that enjoy interacting with humans. And a probably even smaller percentage that, like yours and mine, like both activities.
Someone posted a link to a study about tortoise personality on this forum. The researchers were documenting consistent behaviors of the individual tortoises, risk-taking, exploration, reactions to stress, new objects and environments and social behaviors with other torts like sniffing, walking to, head bobbing and ramming. They put the torts in a new, bare enclosure and touched their noses to get them to tuck and measured the time the torts took to untuck, then measured the time until they began to explore the new area, and the time to explore a new object. The researchers recorded the times or the failure to respond. The social tests were with other torts, introducing an unknown tort, a familiar male and a familiar female. They ranked the torts on a gradient. They defined personality or temperament as boldness, reactivity, exploratory behavior, curiosity and aggressiveness/sociability.
I already thought Sheldon was bursting with charisma before I read the study. And it really got me thinking about the behaviors he displays and why they are so engaging and appealing. I can understand why his traits would be good to have in the gene pool from an evolutionary standpoint (the aforementioned study was about suitability for relocating threatened species but there could be any number of situations or changes where one or more of his traits would prove valuable). But a fearless, curious, active and friendly tortoise might get himself into trouble pretty quickly in the wild. For tortoises to exist at all is due to the majority behaving in a much more prudent manner.
We are very lucky to have these uncommon guys. Again, Sheldon is my first, but I’ve provided temporary care to a few different torts belonging to friends over the years. None of them acted as he does. I’m fairly well acquainted with Sheldon’s mother and she is totally indifferent to people, although she does react to the food they bring. I’ve wondered about maintaining such a close connection with Sheldon when he outgrows my hand. Reading about your wonderful experiences with your good boy is very heartening. Thank you very much for sharing that story.
I took another photo of Sheldon this morning, just after his first stretch and yawn of the day. I think I see improvement from even just yesterday.
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If the mother's respiratory infection is caused by mycoplasma then Sheldon has it too. The symptoms go away but it's never cured. But he can go on to live a normal, healthy life, it's not a death sentence. Just always remember a stressful situation may cause a recurrence of the syptoms.
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