Photo Gallery :: Videos of Sheba following me around the house

[industrial_girl_2000]

She looks tiny in the video, but in the second one the size is a little easier to percieve, either way you look at it, she's a doll. If she's single let me know i'd marry her

LOL! I will let her know that she has a pending "marriage proposal"

[Hoooneylynn]

kristen, she cant drink yet.... she doesnt have a turtle id! lol

[industrial_girl_2000]

kristen, she cant drink yet.... she doesnt have a turtle id! lol

[grey goose]

If we all take good care of our turts, this is our reward.......

[dudio]

Just watched the clips again for a kick.
.. Awesome stuff _girl !

No matter what the reason the turtle is responding to you,
it is obviously responding ! I've had mine about the same length
of time, and he still thinks I'm his worst enemy!

Good job on the raising of Sheba.

[Blue Flamingo]

Wow that is so cool. When ever I try to take out my turtle she just tries to bite me and run away really fast. How long did it take her to become so mellow and tame when outside of her tank, or was she always pretty calm.

[mybrosteve]

Ignore this one, pay attention to the next one...

[mybrosteve]

My "baby" is old enough to drink! ::sniff, sniff::

LOL!

I can see it now, Sheeba doing a kegstand at a turtle frat party...

[industrial_girl_2000]

Wow that is so cool. When ever I try to take out my turtle she just tries to bite me and run away really fast. How long did it take her to become so mellow and tame when outside of her tank, or was she always pretty calm.

When I first got Sheba, she was already 6" long & fairly tame....she already was hand-fed & used to humans. I bought her at a local pet shop that had a gorgeous indoor water-fall w/pond set up, and when I first saw her, she was stuffing her face with a goldfish that was too big for her mouth (!). I thought she was interesting, but walked away briefly to look at a few more things in the shop, then came back. She swam right up to me and just looked at me. When I saw the look in her eye, I swear it was love at first sight! I bought her immediately. It was the best $20 I ever spent.

The outside-the-tank training stuff was actually by accident. I always fed Sheba in a separate dish, but she didn't like to be carried there. Not to mention, my mom didn't like that Sheba would be "baptizing" our whole house with water every time I carried her thru the kitchen to her pan of water where I fed her. Sooooo, I figured why not let her walk to her food pan herself. I would take her out of her tank, put her on a towel to dry off, then held some food up to her nose so she would smell it. Then I would slowly start backing away, and she would follow me into the room where she was fed. I don't know how long it was before she started doing this automatically (following me), it might have taken a few months. But every time she saw me, she made a beeline directly for me.

Keep in mind too, that at around this time, there was another turtle in her tank with her: a male RES named Nelson. I had to let Sheba out quite a bit because Nelson & her would fight like cats & dogs all day long. So Sheba was always roaming around the living room since I couldn't trust that the two of them would get along in the tank. And Sheba (as well as Nelson when he was out) got tons of attention from all of us because she was interacting with us in our home ("dry land") environment. Between me, mom, & dad talking to her & petting her whenever we saw her, she got very used to being with us all the time. So she didn't like to be in the tank & always wanted out. Good thing was that the living room was a bit isolated from the rest of the house....there was a step-up to get to the rest of the house which Sheba couldn't climb, so we never had to worry about losing her in the house.

So I have had a lot of direct & gentle interaction with Sheba these past 17 yrs, and I guess that's how she got very used to me.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Just watched the clips again for a kick.
.. Awesome stuff _girl !

No matter what the reason the turtle is responding to you,
it is obviously responding ! I've had mine about the same length
of time, and he still thinks I'm his worst enemy!

Good job on the raising of Sheba.

Thanks! As much success as I have had with Sheba, I will tell you that the male turts are harder to train. Not sure why the females are more responsive, but that has been my general experience.

I have had several male turts in the past (1 painted - Toby, died of RI & 1 RES - Nelson, gave him away to a friend because he fought with Sheba all the time & I worried about his safety). Nelson was around 4" when I got him & I adored him. He hissed at me & tried to bite me many times when I first got him, but I would just let him clamp down and after a while he realized that the biting didn't get him anywhere (Obviously I don't recommend you do this with your male since he is bigger!). But I did similar "training" with Nelson that I did with Sheba (hold some food in front of his face & slowly back away so turt follows you). Sometimes when he would try to bite me, I just put food in his mouth. They do calm down once they realize that you are the giver of treats. It can take many months of doing this to see any results. And after about a year, Nelson would follow me around too.

Another way to train them is to handle them gently all the time. And when I say all the time, I mean ALL THE TIME. I was very interactive with all my turts. I treated them like a friend, like another person. I let them out to walk with me, let them climb on me, & talked with them. Letting a turtle walk from hand to hand to hand to hand works especially well with the turts that are smaller 2-4 inches. Basically, watch a movie, and let the turt walk on your hands daily for several hours. They eventually get tired of walking walking walking and eventually will figure out that you are not the enemy they need to run from. It's a lot of work & takes time, but this worked especially well with my first turt Binky (2" painted turt) who, after 2 months, started sleeping in my warm hands & would crawl into my arm sleeve to keep warm. At the time, I was on summer vacation from high school so I took Binky with me everywhere around the house. She was handled constantly & I always gave her little treats. This turt was spoiled rotten & not stressed out at all! We would sit outside on the porch & she would bask in the summer sun, complete with fanned legs & arms & not even try to run away. Periodically I would put her in pan of water I had to cool her off for a few minutes, then back out & basking again!

[Ozzyy]

how did u get he r to do that.. did u traion her or did she one day do that n her own?

[industrial_girl_2000]

Brandon, I posted the stories just above your post. I know they are long, but they explain everything.

Cheers!

[Ozzyy]

oops sorry... wasnt paying attention

[Ozzyy]

i guess ive already started to train paco then.... whenhes in his tanki whistle when i feed him. so when ever he hears me whitsling... hecomes to my sid eof the tank.... thats a good start isnt it?

[SpotsMama]

Spot's just a cranky male but I have a feeling he'd learn to follow me around if I'd work with him. He's very interactive and not shy (any more). Maybe it's just his Mom talking but I think he's very smart. He'll come sit by my feet sometimes. He doesn't run when I go to pick him up.

However, we have a dog and two young cats and I have to lock them out of the room when I let Spot out onto the floor, so I don't let him out very much.