Feeding and Nutrition :: why does my turtle eat everything i hold in my fingers?

[Wildcoyote]

Um hi.
I bought my turtle about 12 days ago and he is already eating out of my hands actualy fingers.
he is eating everything that im holding in my fingers once even tried to bite my finger.
and when i once was fishing out his poop he swimed to it and ate it.
why is he eating everything that i hold in my fingers????

[industrial_girl_2000]

They do that, especially if you hand-feed them a lot. They associate YOU with FOOD. It's normal & it's good to hear that he is taking food directly from your hands. It means he's getting used to you.

[Wildcoyote]

oh thats nice. i just hope that he doesnt think that my fingers are food.

[SpotsMama]

Well.....he probably does assume that the fingers are food! I'd be careful when hand feeding to keep the fingers just out of reach. I've seen Spot look at my fingers like they were prime rib or something.

[adam85491]

I tend to feed my turtles out of my hands a lot, unless I am sick or something. I like to do it, but they seem to try to bite me whenever i reach in and when I am sucking the nasty stuff out, they sometimes try to bite the tube since they can see the stuff getting removed.

[DavidY]

Turtles tend to bite everything and anything.

[iac637]

except when they need meds then they clamp up

[marisa]

If I hold a pellet in front of my painteds, they'll more than likely try to nip at the fingers that are holding it and not the pellet. I think they think that the bigger piece (my finger) is more worthwhile than the pellet (little pigs).