How Do Tortoises Communicate? (+How to Talk Back to Them)

One of the most important things that you can do for your pet tortoise is to understand it. Despite their calm and silent appearance, tortoises can actually be very talkative. And in order to know what your tortoise is trying to tell you, you have to know how tortoises communicate.

The main way of communication of a tortoise is nonverbal, through the use of body language. Tortoises can also communicate through sounds, but the range of sounds that they can produce is limited. The most common nonverbal communication forms are body posture, head-bobbing, nose touching, biting, and hiding.

Despite not being the most social animals, tortoises communicate a lot between themselves, with other animals, and of course with their owners. In this article we are going to take a look at how tortoises communicate, what it means, how they communicate with their owners, and how you can communicate with them.

Tortoise Verbal Communication

Tortoises don’t have vocal cords, so they can’t create too many sounds.

And the sounds that they are able to make are not entirely made on purpose. Those sounds are created when tortoises move and expel the air in their lungs. For example, the most famous tortoise sound is the one that they make when they are mating. In case you can’t remember it, here is a quick video to refresh your memory:

If you look closely at the video you will notice that the sound comes out when the tortoise retracts its head. When the tortoise does this, it puts pressure on the lungs which quickly expel air. It’s more or less the same way balloons make funny sounds when you let the air out of them.

And this is how all tortoise sounds are produced. And in most cases they are not intentional.

Some tortoises will use the sounds that they can make to their advantage, and intimidate predators that were trying to attack them. While for us the sound is funny, for other animals it’s not, it’s just a sound, and in certain circumstances it can be intimidating.

So, overall there is little to no intentional verbal communication coming from turtles. But the same thing can not be said about nonverbal communication.

Tortoise Nonverbal Communication

Let’s start with the beginning, the hello.

Tortoises say hello to one another by touching their noses. But for tortoises this means a lot more than that. It means trust. It means that they are peaceful. It means that they are willing to take a risk.

In order to touch noses, tortoises have to get very close to each other. And this is not something that they do often. As I said, tortoises are usually not social, and if another tortoise gets too close it’s usually a sign that they want to fight, or get rid of the other tortoise. So, getting so close and being peaceful is something very special for a tortoise.

Another peaceful thing that tortoises do is head-bobbing. And they do it to attract mates.

For tortoises this is a mating ritual. Some animals show their beautiful colors, others hunt, some fight, and others dance. Tortoises move their heads, which in a way is a kind of dance.

But tortoises are not that peaceful, especially when it comes to other animals. But they are usually not looking for a fight. Instead they are trying to intimidate their opponents.

And they do this by raising their shell, and stretching their neck and tail. This way they make themselves appear bigger, which might make their opponent back away. This is very similar to the way a cat’s tail puffs when it’s scared. Or how a bear rises on two legs when it faces an opponent. It’s a way to intimidate their opponent.

But this whole intimidation phase doesn’t last that long. And most tortoises end up hiding in their shells when they are attacked. This is the standard response of a tortoise when it’s scarred.

A very unique form of nonverbal communication can be seen at the gopher tortoises. The male tortoise will go to the borrow of a female and will use its food to knock on the ground to see if the female is there. This act is usually done in the mating season and it is intended to bring the groper female out of the burrow. If the female is unavailable it will communicate by either blocking the entrance or by hissing. Or it will let the male in the burrow.

Now let’s see how tortoises communicate with their owners.

How Tortoises Communicate With Their Owners

With a few exceptions, tortoises mainly communicate in two ways with their owners, either by being fearful or by not communicating at all. Which can seem like a big letdown at first, but if you think about it it isn’t.

Tortoises like to be alone, they don’t like having company, because other animals scare them. The most common interaction a tortoise has with other animals is being hunted. So they naturally avoid other animals.

And even if you don’t want to hurt your tortoise, there is no certain way for it to know that, so until it is sure of that fact it will be scared of you.

After a while it will get to trust you and at that point it will ignore you. Which is the nicest thing that turtles know to do.

So, even if in human to human interactions ignoring somebody can be rude, in human tortoise interactions it is the nicest thing a tortoise can do. But things don’t stop there. Even if your tortoise can’t do anything nicer, that doesn’t mean that you can’t.

How to Communicate With Your Tortoise

So, you can’t really talk to your tortoise, and when it comes to non verbal communication again, there isn’t anything that you can do. But what you can do for your tortoise is to take good care of it, give it food, water, and a clean environment. While tortoises will not exactly understand why you take their poop away, they will most certainly understand that you give them food and water. And for a tortoise this means everything.

And here are a few tips on how you can earn the trust of your tortoise faster.

Be gentle with your tortoise. Tortoises won’t be too thrilled to be picked up at first, they need to get used to it. If you do it carefully every time they will feel safe, but if you do a lot of sudden movements they will think that you are attacking them and they will either hide in their shell or try to bite you.

Move slowly. When you are near your tortoise try not to make any sudden movement. If you do so they will think that you are trying to attack them and they will be scared of you.

Breathe steadily. Most animals only breathe fast when they are doing intense physical activities like fighting, hunting, or running away. If your tortoise feels that you breathe very fast they will think that there is danger nearby, or worse that you are a danger to them.

Give them time. Tortoises are very timid, and can need quite a while to get used to a new environment, or a new person. So take things slowly and don’t try to force things.

But sometimes no matter how much you try to communicate to your turtle that you care for them and you are not dangerous, they will not understand. And this might simply be because they don’t like you.

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.

Another possibility is that you are giving them the wrong type of food and they want something better.

If you are not sure what to feed your turtle, how much food to give it, and how often you should feed your tortoise. I would suggest you check out my article: How to Feed a Tortoise (How Much, How Often, and What). There you will find a complete quiet that will teach you everything that you need to know.

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 make 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.

Final Thoughts

And this is how you can communicate with your tortoise.

As you’ve seen, tortoises are not the most communicative animal out there, so the things that you can do to communicate with them are also limited. But there are ways to show your affection, and even if your tortoise won’t respond back with grand gestures, it will appreciate everything you do.