Why do some tortoises dance when their shell is scrachted or squirted with water?

[Dr Darwin]

I do not know why tortoises dance. Mine (Darwin) does not dance when scratched but raises his butt when I squirt him but does not dance. If anyone knows why they do it or how to make them do it please respond. PS this s is Darwin after eating a strawberry.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

We call that the "Hootchy Kootchy Dance." They evidently like to be scratched/rubbed on the back part of the carapace right over the hip area. I have caught my big Aldabran tortoises under the bush, rubbing back and forth on the branches.

 

[Dr Darwin]

Thank you. But is this why Darwin likes getting squirted?

 

[Yvonne G]

Water or your hand - makes no difference to your tortoise. He just enjoys the area to be scratched.

 

[Dr Darwin]

Thank you.

 

[MPRC]

Only one of mine has ever done the little dance and it was right after we got her and she was really dry. She would walk under things and stand up and scratch her behind. Since we started soaking and monitoring humidity she hasn't done it.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hello

 

[ZEROPILOT]

About a year ago I posted about having mounted brush heads to my outdoors enclosures and several of my tortoises would come and scratch themselves on them.
Strangely, they have stopped, but they still dance if I spray them on the butt.

 

[surfergirl]

My sully does this water or touching the rear of his shell. Cracks me up every time.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

There are lots of videos on youtube

 

[Speedy-1]

Hi and welcome !

 

[MPRC]

Quick question for you, does your little tort have an underbite?

 

[Razan]

Tortoises give us a lot to laugh about. New owner of a giant sulcata and seeing this hootcy cootchy for the first time I thought I was making my tortoise go into a seizure. Then thought maybe his leg was injured and he just can't walk right. The epiphany of knowing I did not cause him permanent damage...tortoise owning has it's moments.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

This topic has come up before.
I once started a thread about it (not the first to do so) and the jury is still out on if the reaction means that the tortoises enjoy the stimulation or is it an other type of reaction. It is further compounded by the fact that not every tortoise reacts to this at all.
Personally, it looks like enjoyment to me. But it seems to go against everything else I think I know about tortoise behavior....

 

[keepergale]

My nickels worth of opinion thinks we see a similar response to a couple totally different reactions. They stand and move their "hips" around due to pleasant stimulation. They also stand and do a more violent shake if the are pissed about a stimulation they didn't want. I have seen quite some tantrums involving shell banging when their path to the chow line is blocked. The other day one thought another tortoise was bumping its shell and started violently shaking its shell. What actually happened was it walked near another tortoise but under a branch that bumped the ol"carapace.

 

[RosemaryDW]

New owner of a giant sulcata and seeing this hootcy cootchy for the first time I thought I was making my tortoise go into a seizure.

My little girl backed up to a clump of twigs last week and shook her little tail half off. If I hadn't read about such behavior here, I also would have thought she was having a seizure!

For the record, she does not like me to scratch her shell at all. "No thanks," she says. "I'll do it myself."

 

[Guzboss]

My sulcata does the hokey pokey . It puts its right foot in and then it puts it out. Every now and then it shakes it all about.

 

[Douglas Yardley]

My Red-Foot, Chili, does a dance when I rub the rear quarter of her shell.

 

[Cheryl Hills]

Someone told me if you scratch a torts back end and it danced, that meant it was a girl! Must be the stimulation. I have not seen mine do this yet.

 

[keepergale]

Where do you scratch them to find out if they are a male?