To Much Love?

[ICUSleeping]

Is there such a thing as giving my sulcata The almighty Zeus to much love?
Im constantly talking to him and holding him and soaking him. I mean the normal is, in the morning me and my 2yr old go wake him up soak him put him out side in his area let him be out side for how ever long the weather alows then when i bring him in i soak him. Now after that sometimes i just put him away but other times i hold him talk to him let him walk around my bed maybe feed him take him out with me and my kid so car rides to the grandparents house...am i smothering my 6mnt old tort? He seems ok with it i just dont want him to hate me because i love him i just cant get enough of my lil guy. I love to hand feed him and hold him during soaks. I would really love for him to respond when i call him. Does anyone's tort do that?

 

[MnM10]

I would say no such thing as too much love but it's jus cuz I'm the same way lol. This is gonna be a long reply sorry lol. But I hold Flash as much as I can he just stares at me. I can tell when he's stressed (usually when strangers hold him) and if he ever fusses when I hold him I simply put him down. Most of the times he doesn't mind though. He goes with me to pick my mom up from work I hand feed him from time to time. He sniffs me a lot lol. And he definitely responds when I call his name. I always say hi and bye when I leave and he always turns when I say I'll be back Flash (I swear my mom has seen it too lol). When I get near him he walks fast toward me too I put him outside close to my front door and instead of walking off he turned right around and came back inside the house. So I def believe they know their surroundings and who cares for them on a daily basis.

 

[wellington]

Beautiful daughter and cute little tort. I say love them as much as you want as long as they aren't getting stressed.

 

[remitort071312]

I'm do glad to know I'm not the only one who loves my tort so much! I'd doing any thing for her. My friend went to the fair around here and they had a huge sulcata there and she sent me a picture, I don't know much about traveling animals but something about the sulcata being shipped around in a crate from fair to fair just rubs me the wrong way, I mean it had some pyramiding but it looked healthy. It look so sad in the picture I just wanted to go steal it and give it a stable home.

 

[Livingstone]

There are a couple of things wrong here:
1)You shouldn't be waking him up, you are messing with the bio-rhythm of the animal. Your lights if you are using them should come on at a set time, the animal will instinctually come out and bask to warm up then start walking around. This is when you should be soaking him before going outside.
2)You only need to soak once a day for 20 minutes in baby-warm water.
3)There is no need to go with you in a car, thats just crazy, the animal may eat something on the floor or come in to contact with chemicals in the car. Not to mention the Nox created by other vehicles, and c02 emissions.

If you love your tortoise you should strive to have the most natural life cycle possible, with a good diet, and a balance of human contact. All tortoises have operant conditioning, you are the food god, he will always come to you if you are the one who feeds him. The hand feeding is re-inforcing that, but you have to think, what if someone else has to take care of him in your asence? If he wont come for food, and won't eat without you thats not going to help much.

There is considerably more natural beauty in an animal doing what it instinctually should do, than what it is trained to do in an unnatural environment. Think about a lion in the circus, the people watching the lion are happy, but is the lion? Which do you want more?

 

[Urtle]

I agree with the above.

 

[dmmj]

I would cut out the car rides, not good normally.
I wold also do one soak a day, more are not really harmful for the most part, but they don't help either.
I didn't see any mention of waking him up in the middle of night, but if doing so, I would stop, disrupt their sleep patterns as little as possible.
Please no hand feeding, you will see many stories on here of them getting spoiled and only want to be hand fed, and or doing injury to their owners unintentionally, we don't want to have to nickname you stumpy later on.
I am not picking on you just offering helpful suggestions, there is nothing wrong loving your tortoise/turtle, you just have to treat them a little differently than you would a dog or cat.

 

[ICUSleeping]

By wake him up i dont mean grab n go. Me and my daughter turn his light on say his name and then go about the morning geting him later when hes up. He doesnt go for car rides everyday but i do take him over to places where he can roam and eat. When hes in the car hes in some kind of box not roaming free and he has stuff to eat and hide under.

 

[lovelyrosepetal]

Hey, Personally I think that loving your tort is fine. As long as your tort does not get stressed and you are not doing anything to make it sick, than I think you are doing fine. Everyone has their own way of caring for their pets and no one way is the only way or the best way. If you are concerned about something you are doing, change it and keep doing what works for you and your family. I think it is great that you have such a great love for your tort.