Do Pet Turtles Show Affection? (+How to Make Them Like You)

You may certainly love your turtle, but does your turtle love you back? And if it does, how does it show it, is there any specific way in which turtles show affection?

Turtles can become attached to their owners, but unlike other animals, they don’t show that much affection. The most common way turtles show affection toward people is by having trust in them and not hiding when they see them.

So, unlike other animals that wiggle their tail, purr, or sit on you to show their affection, turtles have a much subtler way of showing affection. In the case of a turtle, less is more. While might seem strange, you have to know that turtles see the world very differently than humans or other pets do. And the way they see us, their owners, while it might not seem too impressive to us, it means a lot to them.

How Your Turtle Sees You

There are three things that a turtle cares about:

Survival
Food
Basking

Turtles value those three things over everything else and helping them fulfill any of those needs will create a bond between you and your turtle. As their owner, you are providing all of those things for them, but they don’t really know that. The only part that they know is that you bring them food, and that is how your turtle will see you.

Your turtle sees you as the person who brings it food, and that’s about it. I know this doesn’t sound nice at all and it’s not what you were hoping but you have to understand that for a turtle that means a lot. You are taking care of one of its most important needs and that means a lot. In reality, you are also taking care of protection and ensuring that it has a place to bask, but there is no way for your turtle to know that.

Because you are the person that brings them food, your turtle will start to trust you. And the way they manifest this trust is by not being scared or aggressive toward you and cooperating with you.

How to Tell if Your Turtle Likes You or Not

Turtles don’t exactly show their feelings toward their owners like other pets, so it can be a little hard to tell if they like you or not, but if you look closely at a few small signs you can easily tell.

Let’s start by looking at what turtles do when they don’t like somebody, since they tend to show more signs when they don’t like somebody, than when they do.

One thing that turtles do when they don’t like you is to hide when you are near them. Turtles will often do this when you first get them because they don’t know you and they think that you might harm them. But after some weeks or months in some cases, they will get the idea that you don’t want to harm them and that you are taking care of them, and they will stop hiding or retreating to their shells when they see you.

Another way you can tell that your turtle doesn’t like you is that it will try to bite you when you are handling them. This is also normal to happen when you get a new turtle but after some time they will understand that you don’t want to hurt them and that you are only taking care of them.

The fact that they don’t like it when you get close to them and they try to bite or they hide won’t always mean that they don’t like you. Sometimes it can be just their personality, after all, every turtle is different and each has its personality. But if they do both those things it probably means that you are doing something wrong.

If your turtle doesn’t do any of those things with you and acts a little indifferent toward you, it usually means that it likes you.

Another common sign that a turtle likes you is that it tries to swim toward you when you enter the room. I have one turtle that does this when he sees me entering the room, but I also have two that don’t, even though I treat them the same way. So from my experience, this is a good sign, but your turtles can like you even if they don’t do it.

If you think that your turtle doesn’t like you don’t worry, you can easily change things.

Why Your Pet Turtle Might Not Like You

There are quite a few things that you might be doing wrong, so let’s take a look at the most common mistakes.

Aggressive handling

It’s easy to get too aggressive with your turtle when you are handling them. They look very resistant and this might make you think that they won’t feel anything if you handle them a little rough.

If you put too much pressure on them when you handle them they will feel it and they won’t like it. The same thing happens when a predator will attack them, so naturally, they will think that you want to harm them.

When you wash your turtle you also have to be careful not to put too much pressure when you are cleaning them with a brush, even if the shell is durable it doesn’t mean that they will not care. You also have to be careful when you clean the edges of the shell because you could scratch their skin with the brush and they won’t like that.

Small living space

If the tank is too small the turtle will feel claustrophobic and will start being more aggressive toward everybody, or they could just get scared and hide all the time.

This is a very common problem when somebody owns more than one turtle, turtles can be aggressive toward each other, especially when there is little space, this doesn’t only apply to the tank, but also to the basking area. If the basking area is not big enough for all of your turtles they will fight amongst them, and they will start being aggressive toward you as well.

Not enough food

If you don’t give your turtle enough food it will start to go hungry and it will try to bite anything that can be eaten, so it will also try to bite you.

Competition

If you have more than one adult turtle they will be aggressive toward each other for countless reasons, it doesn’t matter what you do they will start to be aggressive. This doesn’t mean that they will be fighting all the time, but they will do it often enough that they will start to be under continuous stress and as a result, they will also be aggressive toward you.

Stress

Any source of stress will affect your turtle, as I said, having another turtle with them is one way your turtle can get stressed, having the music too loud all the time can stress them, and even a tank that is too dirty for too long can be a stress source.

How to Get Your Pet Turtle to Like You

Now let’s take a look at how to solve the problems I just mentioned.

Handle them with care, even if they look like they can still feel the fact that you are being too rough with them.

Make sure that they have enough space, swimming space as well as a basking area that is big enough to accommodate all of your turtles. If you have to buy them a bigger tank. For more information about that check out the Recommended Gear page.

Make sure that you give them enough food, and that their diet consists of enough meat, pellets, fruits, and vegetables.

If you have two adult turtles then you should think about giving each one its tank. Or if you have a very big tank then you should think about splitting it up into two sections.

Try to remove a stress source, if the tank is placed near the speakers then move it somewhere else. If your dog or cat is always around the tank then make sure that you put the tank in another room or that they won’t be able to get close to it.

Try taking them outside a little, everybody enjoys a little walk once in a while.

Every case is different so try to look at your turtle and in their room and think about what could make your turtle unhappy and do something about that.

One other thing that you could do to make your turtle like you is to let it know you. Spend some time with your turtle, just staying a couple of minutes each day for a couple of weeks should be enough. And makes sure that your turtle knows that you are the one that is giving the food. If your turtle doesn’t have the chance to see you then, of course, it will be scared of you since they don’t know you.

I gave you the most common things that can happen that will make your turtle, not like you. The general idea is that if your turtle doesn’t feel completely safe and it doesn’t have everything that it needs it won’t like you.

Do Turtles Show Affection Towards Other Turtles or Other Animals?

No, turtles don’t usually show affection towards other animals or other turtles.

When it comes to other turtles, they more or less hate them, and if they have a choice they would rather keep their distance between themselves. If turtles are sharing the same tank they will most often then not end up fighting each other to establish dominance, so they don’t have any affection for each other.

As for other animals, turtles will either be scared of them or ignore them completely.

Final Thoughts

The good part is that your turtle has feelings towards you, the bad part is that you won’t see your turtle wiggle its tail to show its attachment towards you, or even rub its head on you.

Turtles are the silent and solitary type. They don’t really show their emotions, but this doesn’t mean that they are not there.

If your turtle doesn’t show any aggression toward you and doesn’t hide in its shell when you get close, then most likely it likes you and has learned to trust you, and by not hiding and biting you it shows its affection.

I hope this article answered all of your questions regarding turtles and how they show affection, but if you still have questions about how to make your turtles like you or any questions about turtles in general, you should leave them in the comment section. I regularly check for questions and answer each and every one of them.