Scratching the Shell?

[prc93]

I just had my male tortoise Apollo out for some walking around time and I started to scratch the back of his shell. He began sticking his head out, bobbing from side to side, and kinda nestled back towards my hands. It seemed like he enjoyed being scratched, has anyone else experienced this?

On another note, Apollo is my big male Greek while I have a Greek hatchling that is presumably a female. After a quarantine period, I introduced them for supervised time. She is of course a little intimidated, but he got close enough to get a good look and took off in the other direction. Do anyone know how adults usually interact with hatchlings? I realize if they are about the same size males would fight other males and probably try to mate with females, but do they all just ignore the little ones?

 

[ascott]

Yes, I have a redfoot here that seems to favor the shell rub/scratch and will plant his feet in solid and will flick his rear end left to right and round and round backing that thing up to get a good scratching...it is fricken hilarious...

As for the adult to hatchling behavior...I can not answer that personally....but there are others here that have that experience I am sure...

 

[marginatawhisperer]

Several of mine have done it too, proving they have sensory perception there. It horrifies me that people in the not so old days drilled holes in their shells. They seem to favor the back of the shell, so I scratch them from time to time there. Some mount a brush for self service.
I would compare outer shell layer to fingernails.

 

[Irish]

My Greek loves to be scratched. It is a riot to watch.
He gets aggressive around other yorts though. . .

 

[pennyw]

My large Leopard shakes her back end when you scratch it.
It is really funny.