tortoise behaviour

[paige-012]

I have a lepard tortoise who one day i was sat holding it, i shuck my head and it started to copy my actions now when i get her out of the viv she brings her neck out to me and immediately shakes her head asif she knows who i am. is this normal and can tortoises be taught to do things.? thanks

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome to the forum. The only "training" I've ever witnessed from tortoises is associating people with food.

 

[Missy]

Welcome. Tank comes running(lol) when I call him, but he knows food is involved

 

[mctlong]

Thats cool.

Indy will come running when he sees me, but I suspect he's actually running towards the food I might have than running to me. (I try not to take it personally).

 

[paige-012]

Tippy does these things, every morning between 8 and 9 she will be up banging her shell against the cage until she gets fed, as she is getting bigger now when u open the viv she will try and climb out aswell, but with the head shaking it is very amusing as i shook my head and she instantly copied what i was doing, it seems now its her way of saying hello to me when i get her out. its very amusing and shows that they each have there own personality! but im just curious if anybody elses has or done other things which have taken them by surprise?

 

[-JM]

That's so awesome! You should take a video of her doing it, I would love to see it!

 

[PeanutbuttER]

Whenever I'm in the room my older RF will come out and watch me. If I walk to one end of the enclosure, she'll be on that end, and when I go to the other side, she follows suit. Then I'll bend down and get on her level and she'll just stare at me right in the eyes...waiting...I think it has a lot to do with food.

Sometimes I feed her by just dropping her food in her cage and sometimes by hand. When I drop the food on her dish, she'll eat it just fine but if I stick my hand somewhere in the enclosure where she can see it she'll leave everything to come and stare at it. Even if there's no food.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Paige:

Welcome to the forum!!