Page 1 of 1

How to teach her I am not food.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 12:48 am
by Impulse Shopper
She's on salmon as a staple at the moment. It's the same color as my flesh.

She's hand fed, swims to me.

Epiphany: when it's time for her veggies (green lettuce), she averts it to go for, you guessed it, my flesh.

She's 4 months old. I just let the lettuce float, and she gets pellets in water, too.

If her teeth touch me, because she's so small, no biggie, but she's growing fast! (Not too fast, I don't believe.) When she gets bigger, her strong teeth and my flesh may not be compatible. Will she eventually learn that I am not food? :msgreen:

Re: How to teach her I am not food.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 10:27 am
by steve
Some have also said that feeding in tank makes them approach us at an angle, so they might accidentally bite us more. I think she knows but it won't stop her :).

Re: How to teach her I am not food.

PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 2:40 pm
by Impulse Shopper
I'm not sure if she knows I'm not salmon. Sometimes she gets so excited, she dives up in the air, aiming straight for my pinky, even though the food is between my thumb and forefinger. Also now she's started to chomp at my finger (so cute) if I'm playing with her by dragging my finger along the aquarium. It's all good, but I really don't think I'll want to be bitten when she gets bigger (and she's growing fast!). :msgreen:

Re: How to teach her I am not food.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 6:14 am
by mythicalpet
Don't hand feed her. :mrsgreen:

Re: How to teach her I am not food.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 8:25 pm
by Impulse Shopper
mythicalpet wrote:Don't hand feed her. :mrsgreen:


Nope. She's very accustomed to being coddled, and she's expert at being hand fed by now (won't bite hard if at all on flesh).

Re: How to teach her I am not food.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2015 8:00 am
by unclejoe
we have a little midland painted, and he does the same thing. We have had tonnes of experience feeding wild turtles by hand,, from RES to Fully grown 24" carapace Female Soft shells. Let me tell you we did get bit. But considering we fed up to 14 different turtles at feeding time the bites were very rare. Once if not less a month and we fed them twice a day. That being said, all were adult turtles when we started to hand feed. I worry that our little guy might think that hands are for snapping at everytime they are in his/her tank. We thought to hopefully maybe avoid this, we now only feed him on his basking spot. So we are training him he can only have his pellet once he crawls up on the basking rock. We do know how smart turtles are so we are hoping that he will learn that he is only gonna get fed when up there and not keep snapping at us any time he sees our hands.. Don't know if it will work, but gonna give it a try. Already I can put my hand in the tank and he will swim on it and sit there.. but he sees my thumb and tries to eat it..lol I don't know how good their eyesight is at this point. But he only gets a treat or a pellet when he crawls up on the rock.. Hopefully he will learn.

Our wild turtles had a spot on the bank of the pond that we fed at.. And that is where they waited for us,, sometimes all day for feeding time. They never snapped at our hands.. Sometimes at bare toes, cause bare toes just looked like wieners..lol To prevent that we wore shoes. but other then that they were pretty awesome. Considering the different types and breeds we had,, clammering over each other to get to the food,, none of them intentionally tried to bite us. We enjoyed this interaction so much, there is no way I am not gonna feed my pet captive turtles by hand. JMO

What kind of turtle do you have? In our experience the RES' were the most aggressive and snappy feeders.. They love their food, but their beaks or mouths whatever they are called aren't very sharp. Unlike the FL Red bellied Sliders. They have very sharp edges to their mouths and a sharp beak. So glad she was a basically calm feeder, only got us a couple times in 4 yrs of feeding, but when she did it hurt..lol