Tortoise health

[kellen eckhardt]

Hello, I was just looking to the community for advice. I recently got my Russian tortoise about two weeks ago, it has been great, between eating well and spending plenty of time outside and burrowing quite often. I have all of the proper enclosure parameters but I guess that I’m just overthinking. I was petting my tortoises shell earlier today, and it was super jumpy when I did that. I was scratching the side of her shell, and she was like backing up and turning around. I was applying no pressure at all, could this be a sign of anything? Please let me know, thank you.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Would it be åossible that you post a video of this behaviour? You can do it by first posting the video on some social media like youtube and then sending a link on this thread. It is hard to say without seeing it on video.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello, I was just looking to the community for advice. I recently got my Russian tortoise about two weeks ago, it has been great, between eating well and spending plenty of time outside and burrowing quite often. I have all of the proper enclosure parameters but I guess that I’m just overthinking. I was petting my tortoises shell earlier today, and it was super jumpy when I did that. I was scratching the side of her shell, and she was like backing up and turning around. I was applying no pressure at all, could this be a sign of anything? Please let me know, thank you. View attachment 373925

Hm. If you scratched the shell side closer to the tail, then "wiggling" is what they often do (look for "tortoise butt scratching" on the forum or YT). Haven't seen a good explanation yet - perhaps it tries to avoid mating or shake off the wedge or just enjoys because can't scratch the itchy place itself.

Attached GIF is perhaps from Reddit.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Yeah, I would like to see was the tortoise running away? How were the back legs? Was the tortoise tucking his head in?