General Care Discussion :: Activities/entertainment?

Taking care of your turtle's overall health.

Post Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 8:01 pm   Re: Activities/entertainment?

A lot of people say place tank in a quiet room , no traffic and I'm sure that works for them. To me problem is turtle only see's them at feeding time and or cleaning time. I am different ! Old school ! I have always had a tank in the living room , pass couple decades it's stock tanks just so I can have my chair next to it. Always being seen , where I can lay my arm across the rim and have my hand in or just above the water line. A shy turtle will come up to see. I would just keep my hand still , in a few days start to move a finger to see any reaction. Few weeks later hand in water , let the turtle push it around and just touch my hand , for me do not respond. All this time observing it's response. In time I push back gently , he comes back , push again and still comes back. Today It's a game , I push Piggley around as if on a skim board and he loves it. Time and patience has a lot to do with it when it come to a relationship with a turtle and trust ! In my 5 decades in this hobby I've been lucky that I could break a shy turtle out of that shyness . I do offer plenty of hiding places but with peep holes where a turtle can still look out and observe me as I do him. I offer him what he wants as natural as I can. And Yes today Piggley may run off to one of those spots when I wake him from a dead sleep But he come right out. He says no reason to hide , that's the giant thing that takes care of me , feeds me and plays with me. We Watch TV and that giant thing even reads to me. Piggley come right to me and always try to see if he can get a treat out of me. To get his mine off it I just play with him and that works for us. Piggley shares all his personality's with me and me with him , we are comfortable together. One must interact to have a good relationship , that is to me , my opinion and works for me. If one does not have the time or patience it may not work for them.
litefoot
 
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Post Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 11:08 am   Re: Activities/entertainment?

Good advice litefoot. I do interact with the turtles regularly, taking them outside to run around and let explore (with supervision of course), play with them in the tank. I'll even sit down on the floor with them and interact. They usually see me, will stare at me from the safety of their shell, then run towards me, as if for protection. They'll snuggle up against my leg most of the time, I suspect they feel security. It's just interesting, that after getting them their stock tank, they seem to know that they can only see me through the surface, and the same goes for me. So they know where to hide, while still maintaining site of me.
rambologic
 
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Post Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 11:14 am   Re: Activities/entertainment?

That's why I changed to stock tanks decades ago ! Never seen a natural pond with glass sides. Oh , being an open forum I wrote this mainly for new members that may read this.
litefoot
 
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Post Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 11:46 am   Re: Activities/entertainment?

Those were my thoughts too. I think it's their natural instinct to hide. When they had their glass tank, they didn't have an option. No matter where they were, I could see them, and they could see me. Now that they can actually hide, they take advantage of that!
rambologic
 
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Post Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:54 pm   Re: Activities/entertainment?

Thanks, Rambologic :) definitely was inspired by the folks here as well! Sorry for the delayed response haha
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Kingbird44
 
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