Redfoot change of personality :(

[addouk]

Hi all, just wanted to ask some advice. My red foot is about a year or so old i think, I have had him/her since June this year. He/she has always been ok to be handled and enjoyed their head petted. I havent been well for the past few weeks so petting has tailed off a little, but i have been giving a little stroke when feeding everyday and continued to speak to him/her. Over the past few days I have noticed that there has been a personality change a little. He/she has always tried to have a little nibble on my finger (my fault i think from hand feeding mushroom, guess its a little confusing trying to tell the difference between a mushroom and my finger ends)..But the past few days he/she has been really going to get my fingers, and also when I have been petting a little he/she has been trying to ram at me (which unless I am wrong, is agression and a tortoises way of fighting). I want to try to turn this around as quick as I can. He/she is only 11cm shell lenght at the moment...this will obviously be a totally different situation when fully grown (tortoise fear lol). Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Ian

 

[Yvonne G]

I wouldn't worry about it, Ian. I have limited experience with RF tortoises, but the three I have are very docile. No fighting or ramming.

Let's see what @N2TORTS has to say on the subject.

 

[addouk]

Thank you, I hope it's nothing to worry about. Was quite shocked with the ramming and biting to be honest

 

[Yvonne G]

It might just be he's starting to become sexually mature, although a year seems young for that.

 

[addouk]

Thanks Yvonne, if that's what's happening will he/she stop doing it?

 

[Yvonne G]

Probably. They get pretty feisty when the testosterone starts flowing!

 

[MPRC]

My little Ruby is sweet as can be toward me, but when my boyfriend pets and tries to hand feed her she usually runs at him full speed and rams him. I assume she is just testing her boundaries to see what happens. She's less than a pound right now so we think it is cute. She also hides in her shell when he picks her up initially, though she comes out right away. When I pick her up she doesn't hide. I figure she will grow out of it.

 

[jockma]

Mine repeatedly rams and bobs his head at food he doesn't like. Never had an issue with him biting anything other than painted toenails, though (I have an adolescent male).

Before mine started flashing me and doing other "hyargh hyargh me want sexy female" behaviors he would occasionally ram my hand when I put food down in front of him. He doesn't do it anymore. Maybe it's the first surges of sex hormones that typically cause the aggressive behavior and it mellows out as their bodies balance the hormones but as I'm told it's very rare for adult RFs to remain aggressive post-puberty either way.

 

[Randi]

My story is not about a Red Foot but about a Reeve's turtle that I used to hand feed. I hand fed him to get him used to my hands and I ended up regretting it. He warmed up to me nicely but if my fingers were within striking distance, he'd latch on to them. Even if my hand was near, he'd latch on to my palm or the sides of my hands. He started to nip my arms. I would be cleaning his tank or exchanging water and he would non-stop come at me. I had to eventually remove him from his tank during cleaning as it made it very difficult. This behaviour continued a long time after the hand feeding stopped. He no longer attaches to my hands when near them. It took months for him to stop and he has never attempted since. I would avoid hand feeding entirely. My fear was not for myself but rather others who wanted to handle him or be near him. Most were hesitant to be around torts or turtles, and if they were bitten, that'd make the fear worse. It's cute when they are small but as they get larger, it's going to hurt. I wouldn't even want to see how it'd feel now for my turtle to nip my fingers. The only reason I posted this is because I feel the hand feeding is causing the behaviour. I wish I could use my Cherry Head as an example instead but she is very timid. Best of luck to you and yours.

 

[Redstrike]

I don't recommend hand feeding. Spare your fingers the grief. Redfoots are outgoing enough that you can interact without sacrificing your fingers to their beaks. When they're an adult, biting at your fingers will be hazardous.

My two cents, take it or leave it.

 

[addouk]

Thank you so so much for all your replies!
The hand feeding stopped today!!
I will see how we get on over the coming weeks/months and update

Thanks once again x

 

[yillt]

Hi all, just wanted to ask some advice. My red foot is about a year or so old i think, I have had him/her since June this year. He/she has always been ok to be handled and enjoyed their head petted. I havent been well for the past few weeks so petting has tailed off a little, but i have been giving a little stroke when feeding everyday and continued to speak to him/her. Over the past few days I have noticed that there has been a personality change a little. He/she has always tried to have a little nibble on my finger (my fault i think from hand feeding mushroom, guess its a little confusing trying to tell the difference between a mushroom and my finger ends)..But the past few days he/she has been really going to get my fingers, and also when I have been petting a little he/she has been trying to ram at me (which unless I am wrong, is agression and a tortoises way of fighting). I want to try to turn this around as quick as I can. He/she is only 11cm shell lenght at the moment...this will obviously be a totally different situation when fully grown (tortoise fear lol). Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Ian

It's certainly not a sign of illness. When you get better, start socialising him more and bring him some very tasty treats. Red foots are generally known as pretty docile so I'm not sure why this has happened but by what you've said, I'm guessing it's your lack of handling recently. Get better soon

 

[jockma]

It's certainly not a sign of illness. When you get better, start socialising him more and bring him some very tasty treats. Red foots are generally known as pretty docile so I'm not sure why this has happened but by what you've said, I'm guessing it's your lack of handling recently. Get better soon

I think RFs are naturally "socialized", aren't they? Obviously not in a domesticated sense, but the typical Guyanan redfoot is usually so...outwardly carefree when it comes to big bumbling humans prodding at them It doesn't seem like a short lull in handling would make such a drastic impact. I have to agree now that hand-feeding is likely the culprit. For some reason when I first read this thread I got the impression that the tort was being aggressive in general, not just focusing on hands.

Here's an unlikely thing to consider...OP, do you have a Guyanan RF? I've heard that yellowfoots and other races of RF can be more aggressive. Maybe that's your problem?

 

[addouk]

This is the little fella, not sure what kind of red foot he/she is.
Haven't hand fed since I was given the advice..and today I was putting the food in..and he left me to do it! No biting! I guess the hand feeding may have been the issue..will see how the next few days goes and update.
Thanks so much again x

 

[Joseph K]

Mine doesn't ram, but she sure gets feisty when she feels her territory's being threatened. There have been occasions when she's eating outside and a dog (on a leash) will come up to her very tentatively....and Anna will respond by lunging at the dog (no matter the size) and sometimes try to bite it. The dog. It's possible she thinks dogs are food, but she does the same thing when I've experimented with mirrors. I'll show Anna a mirror, she'll stare at herself, and then bite the mirror!

 

[Madkins007]

Some things that can trigger behavioral changes in a lot of animals:

• Change of seasons or weather. Barometric pressure, lighting duration or intensity, etc. Lots of animals react to very subtle changes in their micro-environment.
  
• Dietary issues. Hungry, unbalanced diet, too many calories
• Hormones/growth. Yvonne is right, teen torts are a different animal, but the size and age is not right here. HOWEVER, there is also a threshold and changes between hatchling, yearling, juvenile, sub-adult, etc. These usually do not manifest over just a couple days, though.
• Stimuli. Something it hears, sees, feels, smells, etc. is riling it up- and this can include tank mates, etc. Maybe you smell different?
• Bored. Tortoises sleep a lot and eat a lot, and it is easy to forget that they sorta need things to do in between. Is the habitat big enough to explore? Is there something to climb or dig into? Do you hide food? (I often suspended a bundle of greens or some fruit that they had to work at to eat). Keeping 'lower order' animals 'enriched' in zoos is becoming a bigger and bigger thing. A few years ago, my daughter was involved in a class project with the local zoo to enrich some river turtles on display. It made a big difference for them.