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

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

Tortoises can become attached to their owners, but unlike other animals, they don’t show that much affection. The most common way tortoises 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, tortoises have a much subtler way of showing affection. In the case of a tortoise, less is more. While it might seem strange, you have to know that tortoises 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 Tortoise Sees You

There are three things that a tortoise cares about:

1. Survival
2. Food
3. Basking

Tortoises value those three things over everything else and helping them fulfill any of those needs will create a bond between you and your tortoise. 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 tortoise will see you.

Your tortoise 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 for but you have to understand that for a tortoise 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 tortoise to know that.

Because you are the person that brings them food, your tortoise 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 Tortoise Likes You or Not

Tortoises 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 tortoises 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 tortoises do when they don’t like you is to 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 to their shells when they see you.

Another way you can tell that your tortoise 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 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 personality. But if they do both those things it probably means that you are doing something wrong.

If your tortoise 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 tortoise likes you is that it tries to swim toward you when you enter the room. I have one tortoise 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 tortoises can like you even if they don’t do it.

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

Why Your Pet Tortoise 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 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 enclosure or terrarium is too small the tortoise 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 tortoise, tortoises can be aggressive toward each other, especially when there is little space, this doesn’t only apply to the enclosure, but also to 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 toward you as well.

Not enough food

If you don’t give your tortoise 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 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 toward 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, and even a enclosure that is too dirty for too long can be a stress source.

How to Get Your Pet Tortoise 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 tortoises. If you have to buy them a bigger enclosure. 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 enclosure. Or if you have a very big enclosure then you should think about splitting it up into two sections.

Try to remove a stress source, if the enclosure is placed near the speakers then move it somewhere else. If your dog or cat is always around the enclosure then make sure that you put the enclosure 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 make 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, 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 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.

Do Tortoises Show Affection Towards Other Tortoises or Other Animals?

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

When it comes to other tortoises, they more or less hate them, and if they have a choice they would rather keep their distance between themselves. If tortoises are sharing the same enclosure 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, tortoises will either be scared of them or ignore them completely. 

Final Thoughts

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

Tortoises 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 tortoise 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 tortoises and how they show affection, but if you still have questions about how to make your tortoises like you or any questions about tortoises in general, you should leave them in the comment section. I regularly check for questions and answer each and every one of them.

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