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How do you coax your turtle out of his/her shell? Mine is three years old, and should be familiar with me but it takes him a while for him to eventualy come out of his shell and i don't even know what I did to do it?!?! If I try to pet his head he ducks in, if I pet his shell, well that doesn't do anything.... I almost have to pretend that I'm not paying attention, and he will try and run for it or hid under me;or something like that... Can you please give me some hints?

Just work with him daily. The time will be well-spent. Something as simple as just letting him walk from hand to hand to hand goes a long way with a turtle. Make sure he hears your voice too. It sounds silly, but turtles can hear really well & can differentiate voices so even if you just say something to him like "I'm leaving now but I will be back in an hour" goes a long way (no need for baby talk, thank goodness!).

You can also divide up his food into multiple portions & feed him periodically throughout the day so he sees you & associates you with food (this helps a lot).

Just keep working with him. In my 18 yrs of turtle-keeping I have found that the boys are more stubborn than the girls in terms of "training" them to be more relaxed, but it can be done. Just be patient & work with him daily.

i dont think that you're supposed to "pet" your turtles. they dont like to be handled.i think that the best advice i can give you is to make him look at you before you feed him. he will begin to recognize you more and know you as his caretaker when he learns its you who gives him his food.

With my turtle it went a little backwards. When he was little when I first got him he let me hold him all the time. He would walk all over my hands and such. Then as he got older he freaked out everytime I got near him! Now that i'm feeding him in a separate tank he's a little more used to me, but nowhere near how he was like as a baby!

if i take george out he comes out of his shell and walks around.. climes up my shirt trys to see if my shirt tastes good etc etc lol

can they really differentiate voices? or is that just your opinion from experiences? I also didn't think they could hear, i thought they could only hear vibrations.

well sound is transfered by vibrations, just like we hear, only our ear drum is located far in our head, unlike the turltes; on the side of the head