Do Tortoises Recognize Their Owners? The Surprising Answer

You certainly may recognize and love your pet tortoise, but does he recognize you? The bond between a pet and an owner is something very powerful and beautiful. But a lot of people are saying that tortoises don’t recognize their owners from other humans, but my tortoises will act differently when I handle them compared to the way they act when somebody else is handling them. So I did some research to find out if tortoises really recognize their owners, and here is what I found out.

Can tortoises recognize their owners? Tortoises can recognize you and they will understand that you play an important part in their life, but they will not feel any familiarity towards you like dogs would.

Tortoises don’t see us as other people or pets would see us, but they still understand that we play a role in their well-being. So if they don’t see us like we see other people or how other animals see us, then how do they see us?

Understanding what a tortoise thinks about

To better understand how tortoises see their owners you first have to understand how a tortoise thinks. Compared to most animals that can be pets, tortoises maintain a very primitive way of thinking.

There are three things that a tortoise cares about:

Survival
Food
Reproduction

Survival

The first thing a tortoise will think about is survival, everything else comes after. This means that if they consider that an area is too dangerous for them they will leave as soon as possible. If they think a predator is nearby they will hide. If a predator is about to attack another tortoise they will leave to save themselves.

At first glance, it might seem that tortoises are cowards, but that is not true. Those are the logical things to do if your first priority is survival, there is no reason to do something dangerous if all you want to do is survive.

We also have this instinct, but it acts a little different than that of tortoises. One of our primary thoughts is also survival, but sometimes due to our different way of thinking, we will end up placing some other things above that. I am sure that you’ve heard of stories of parents putting themselves in harm’s way just to protect their children, tortoises don’t naturally have that way of thinking and they will always place their survival in the first place.

Food

The next thing that’s on a tortoise’s mind is food. They will always look for food.

When you don’t have anything else to do, and food is a very important part of survival, you will spend most of your time looking for food.

When tortoises are in captivity and they feel safe in the place they are, their main priority becomes food, they are not interested in toys, like cats and dogs are, or anything else, in particular, they just care about food.

Reproduction

The third thing that tortoises care about is reproduction. Tortoises have the natural urge to want to pass their genes further to other generations.

It’s not uncommon for two or more tortoises to fight to win the right to mate with a female. And again you can see how important this is for tortoises since they are willing to fight over it.

When tortoises fight among themselves it will not be a brutal fight, they usually end without any tortoise being too hurt. Those fights are more to prove who is superior and not to seriously injure the other tortoises.

Tortoises are not social animals

Tortoises are not social animals, they interact among themselves very little and they only do it because they have to. They don’t have any other tortoise friends, and no human friends either.

They are only interested in survival and for them being social won’t help.

If you want to know more about social tortoises check out this article: Are Turtles Social Animals?

What does my pet tortoise think about me ?

So your tortoise won’t recognize you as a friend, then how do they recognize you, or do they even recognize you?

Yes, your tortoise will recognize you, and they can easily tell the difference between you and other humans. Tortoises have 5 senses, among those senses are hearing, seeing, and smelling. They can use those 3 senses to recognize you without any problem.

Now that you know that your pet tortoise can recognize, let’s see what they think about you and how they see you. This might not be what you were expecting but they see you as the person who brings food to them, more or less a food dispenser. I know this doesn’t sound nice at all and it’s definitely not what you were hoping but you have to understand that for tortoises that mean a lot. You are taking care of one of their most important needs and that is very important for them. In reality, you are also taking care of their protection and ensuring that they have a place to bask, but there is no way for them to know that.

Because you are the person that brings food, your tortoise will start to develop some trust toward you. Not trust like you and I have in other people, but I think this is a good way to describe it. The way they manifest this trust is by not being aggressive toward you and cooperating with you. For example, they will not bite you when you handle them, but if a person that they don’t recognize tries to do it they will become aggressive toward them.

Taking into consideration the primitive way tortoises are thinking, the trust that they show toward you is the most you can get out of them.

How to tell if your tortoise doesn’t like you

Even if they are not social, and the best way you can tell that they like you is by the fact that they don’t bite you, you can easily tell that your tortoise doesn’t like you.

One thing that they do when they don’t like you is that they hide when you are near them. Tortoises 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 in their shells when they see you.

Another way you can tell that your tortoise doesn’t like you is that they will try to bite you when you are handling them. This is also normal to happen when you get a new tortoise 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 tortoise is different and each has its own personality. But if they do both those things it probably means that you are doing something wrong.

Why your pet tortoise might not like you

Now let’s see what you could be doing wrong.

Aggressive handling

It’s easy to get too aggressive with your tortoise 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 tortoise 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 tortoise will feel claustrophobic and they 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 tortoise, tortoises can be aggressive toward each other, especially when there is little space, this doesn’t only apply to the tank, but also for the basking area. If the basking area is not big enough for all of your tortoises they will fight amongst them, and they will start being aggressive towards you as well.

Not enough food

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

Competition

If you have more than one adult tortoise 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 towards you.

Stress

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

How to get your pet tortoise to like you

If you want your tortoise to like you then you should try to take care of the things I mentioned above.

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 tortoises. 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 tortoises then you should think about giving each one its own 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 tortoise and in their room and think about what could make your tortoise unhappy and do something about that.

One other thing that you could do to make your tortoise-like you is to let it know you. Spend some time with your tortoise, just staying a couple of minutes each day for a couple of weeks should be enough. And makes sure that your tortoise knows that you are the one that is giving the food. If your tortoise doesn’t have the chance to see you then of course they 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 tortoise, not like you. The general idea is that if your tortoise doesn’t feel completely safe and it doesn’t have everything that it needs it won’t like you.

Conclusion

The good part is that your tortoises do recognize you, the bad part is that they see you as the person who brings them food. But as I said that is not bad, in fact, that builds trust and that is one of the most important things a tortoise can offer, so you should be proud.

If you have any questions about how to make your tortoise-like you or any question about tortoises in general, you should leave them in the comment section and I will answer them as soon as possible.