Weird Movement, Can anyone tell me the reason?

CurtB

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Hey, so today I was tending for my tortoise, gave her a nice warm soak this morning for about 20 mins and let her do her thing in the morning. Overall she seemed fine, nothing out of the ordinary; she ate her food consisted of: prickly pear cactus, organic dandelion greens, kale, rose petals, finely chopped plantain, echinacea, and calendula; she also did her regular sunbathing routine.

Anyways, she went to her little terra cotta bowl that had fresh water, chilled there for a bit bit, peed and pooped, then as she stepped out, she did this weird stroking movement on the right side of her body. The best way I can describe this movement was as if she was doing rapid butterfly strokes (swimming reference) with both her front and back legs on the right side of her body. She kept doing this very quickly as she was moving towards her hide. I've never seen this before, and it freaked me out because I thought something was wrong. Unfortunately, I didn't get to record it to share because that was the first time that ever happened.

I picked her up, observed her, and looked for common symptoms of anything that would need immediate attention (based on what I've researched on this site and elsewhere). I didn't see any discharge coming out of her nose; her eyes are still pretty bright and shiny and not puffy whatsoever. I didn't see any bruises around the shell or on her skin.

After a couple of minutes, she walked out of her hide, sunbathed for a couple of minutes (under 95-100C), and proceeded to eat her cactus and dandelion greens as if nothing happened.

Is this something normal? Has anyone else experienced this? Should I be concerned? I took a video of her close up if anyone can point anything out.

PS. She was active and fine the past few days, nothing that would cause any concerns that should be brought up to my attention.

Video:
 

CurtB

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I have no idea what that kind of movement would be.

I will say she is very cooperative with being videoed. Maybe a future movie star?

Haha, always camera-ready wanting me to shoot her best angles :tort:?

She seemed a little bit more active and normal after that fact, I'm a little bit of a paranoid type when it comes to her, always worrying about her well-being ?

If she does do it again I'll record it, but it looked as if she was itching or something
 

KarenSoCal

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When Sulafat has something stuck on him under his shell, he does some contortions to get it off. Maybe that was it. She certainly doesn't seem concerned.
 

CurtB

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Okay, awesome! Well, awesome in a sense that I'm glad the movements are nothing major that would sound the alarm, thank you for your input Karen :D
 

Beasty_Artemis

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Oh Good! Someone else suggested that she could be just itching herself...... my redfoot did that to me when I first got her. Scared the heck out of me!!! But she never did it again after that, so I always thought she might have been itching.
 

Cleopatra 2020

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Haha, always camera-ready wanting me to shoot her best angles :tort:?

She seemed a little bit more active and normal after that fact, I'm a little bit of a paranoid type when it comes to her, always worrying about her well-being ?

If she does do it again I'll record it, but it looked as if she was itching or something
well it's not paranoia if if you're concerned I go through the same thing thinking I'm posting ridiculous stuff that people are just laughing at me about since I don't get many answers but just keep trudging along and doing your best that's all you can do and by all means never be afraid to post on here whether you get an answer or not
 

CurtB

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Oh Good! Someone else suggested that she could be just itching herself...... my redfoot did that to me when I first got her. Scared the heck out of me!!! But she never did it again after that, so I always thought she might have been itching.
That’s good to know! Yeah it’s my first encounter so I’m glad I’m not alone in this :) . After connecting. The dots from what you said and what she did right before the itch, she did go into her water bowl and straight to the substrate which could have caused the itch. Thank you for your input ❤️
 

CurtB

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well it's not paranoia if if you're concerned I go through the same thing thinking I'm posting ridiculous stuff that people are just laughing at me about since I don't get many answers but just keep trudging along and doing your best that's all you can do and by all means never be afraid to post on here whether you get an answer or not
Haha that’s how I feel sometimes (x but thank you for reassuring my worries! I didn’t see much on the forum about this type of situation so I just HAD to post :p, I’ll definitely keep note of that :)
 
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