Tortoise on lap

Joanne

Active Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
299
Location (City and/or State)
Lancashire, UK
It's awful... It's like, the entire length of his body... At first I thought he had partially gutted himself!
 

ZEROPILOT

REDFOOT WRANGLER
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Tortoise Club
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Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Messages
28,938
Location (City and/or State)
South Eastern Florida (U.S.A.)/Rock Hill S.C.
Funny. I thought it was just me.
My friendly male. The one I just sold liked to climb into my lap whenever I would do pen maintenance. I had to stop letting him do so because the first two times he did he left a "DEUCE" on my pants.
Most unpleasant.
 

Rutibegga

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2015
Messages
429
Location (City and/or State)
Philadelphia, PA
Funny. I thought it was just me.
My friendly male. The one I just sold liked to climb into my lap whenever I would do pen maintenance. I had to stop letting him do so because the first two times he did he left a "DEUCE" on my pants.
Most unpleasant.

Pen maintenance? I think you and I might have more in common than tortoises.
 
Joined
Sep 14, 2015
Messages
60
Location (City and/or State)
SoCal
I have 7 Russians in my enclosure, if I go in to clean it, I get swarmed. If I sit down, they all climb onto my lap and I've never been used as a toilet. I have put a lot of work into my Russians so they know me well and are pretty friendly, even with strangers. I don't see anything wrong with letting them on your lap, just use common sense. I sit on the ground with my legs extended in front of me, so if they do fall off my lap, its not a long fall and I sit on loose dirt when I do this. Sitting on a chair over a cement patio is probably a bad place to let you tort sit on your lap. So just see if they do it willingly, all 7 of mine willingly climb up and lay on my lap, so I think that's why I haven't been used as a toilet. Don't force it, just sit in their enclosure a couple times a week and let them get used to you, eventually if they're friendly they'll come check you out. Don't pick them up, just let them decide whether or not to climb on your lap. Once they do it on their own, it becomes a thing to do for them. Personally, I see nothing wrong with my method, I give my torts the right to choose so its stress free.
 

Prairie Mom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
4,340
I have 7 Russians in my enclosure, if I go in to clean it, I get swarmed. If I sit down, they all climb onto my lap and I've never been used as a toilet. I have put a lot of work into my Russians so they know me well and are pretty friendly, even with strangers. I don't see anything wrong with letting them on your lap, just use common sense. I sit on the ground with my legs extended in front of me, so if they do fall off my lap, its not a long fall and I sit on loose dirt when I do this. Sitting on a chair over a cement patio is probably a bad place to let you tort sit on your lap. So just see if they do it willingly, all 7 of mine willingly climb up and lay on my lap, so I think that's why I haven't been used as a toilet. Don't force it, just sit in their enclosure a couple times a week and let them get used to you, eventually if they're friendly they'll come check you out. Don't pick them up, just let them decide whether or not to climb on your lap. Once they do it on their own, it becomes a thing to do for them. Personally, I see nothing wrong with my method, I give my torts the right to choose so its stress free.
PLEEEAASE, get someone to take a photo of this:)
 

McSnotoisethetortoise

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2018
Messages
12
Location (City and/or State)
USA, Connecticut
If you're sitting on the ground in his enclosure my redfoot will climb into your lap and then just stare at you. Sometimes if I'm outside of the enclosure he'll start trying to climb out and if I pick him up and put him in my lap he just falls asleep.
 

NightOwl

New Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Messages
19
Location (City and/or State)
Tennessee
oh how cute!
I used to have a tortoise who did the same thing.
Buuuut he was a big leopard tortoise so a little less cute and more painful haha
 

Kymberlyn

Member
Joined
May 19, 2021
Messages
32
Location (City and/or State)
Southern Ohio - Zone 6b
It seems a lot of people put their tortoise on their lap I always thought that was a bad idea. What do you think
My baby sulcata prefers to sit on me. I sit near him/her when we are in the yard. He will explore for a minute or two and then races over to crawl up my legs and get to my lap.

To be honest, he might be doing this for the shade provided by my big belly. LOL
 
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