Feeding and Nutrition :: does he get it?

[Pluckt007]

hola, ok. so i dont know if i was all hopped up on nyquil, but i let my finger dangle in the water for some time. the turtle is small enough to where the bites dont hurt my finger. so i let him bite it, then bite it again. again and again. so then i thought, would he ever get it? no matter how many times he tries to bite my finger, it is not food. does he get it. he doesnt bite the fake plants or anything else thats not turtle food either, so why so persisant with my finger? ive noticed he smells my finger too, then he bites. will he ever see my finger not as food? will he ever get it? or can he not seperate finger from food? he seems smart, but i dont know how smart turtles are. it kinda reminded me of a fly trying to fly through a window, over, and over, and over again.

[octpusgirl8]

I guess your finger just looks or smells especially delicious!

[TheComputerGremlin]

Considering that turtles eat fish and other various bugs and whatnot, it is possible that he will not learn that your finger is not food. It would also depend on what you put into the tank. If the only things that go in are food, he might just assume anything is food. But if you think about it, your finger is just as good as any food ... I think turtles seem rather intelligent, at least to me, my turtle definitely knows what the food container and cats look like, but I don't think they are to a dog/cat level where they can learn much, like not to eat certain things.

[SpotsMama]

I think JAX is right - your finger is potential food. It's like a minnow or something to your turtle. Turtles are hunters and meat eaters after all. Right now he's tiny and his bites can't cut your skin but, believe me, when he gets bigger that will change. When my Spot was about 5" he got my finger and took a little chunk out of it. It bled like crazy. I'm real careful with my fingers now.

[eugenetimpog]

Probably that is because your finger is alive and very meaty. Which I think, for a turtle, that is delicious.. Now two of my turtles knows when my finger has turtle food. And they can recognize the food container. If I am just standing and watching them in front of their tank, they will juts look at me. But when I pick up the food container they would be very excited. They will swim towards me very eagerly. It is like they want to break their tank just to get to me

[mikee]

Pluk-07 Your finger is food. Your turtle is not big enough to take a good bite out of it. He is thinking "I can't wait until I get big enough to take a piece out of this guy". If I am not careful while hand feeding mine they will bite me when I am not looking. Think about it: a nice fleshy pink finger. Yum Yum.