Other Turtle Discussion :: Does your Turtle have a personality?

[rainingsugar]

I have three babies

rose loves to swim on the water surface, rarely dives down. She's also the most curious about new objects and me. Has has this particular way of walking in shallow water. like a kitten/puppy with booties on. She way she hold her head up high, lifts her legs higher, and stumps around is so adorable. She is also super greedy, taking food to the far reaches of the tank so the others can't take it from her.

Jack and rose are best friends. Rose basks on top of jack (he doesn't seem to mind) they sleep together nested in the same bunch of aquarium plants at night.

Burt sleeps by himself nested in the other bunch of aquarium plants. Also he is so skittish! sometimes I wake up to see him basking (sunlight from the window) the moment he sees me he dives and swims frantically towards the corner of the tank. He's a duckweed eater

The three share their home with 12 mosquito fish (only one casualty by jack) The fish swims up to me when i approach the tank because they know i feed them first . Jack tries to snatch up a few flakes of fish food, while rose just takes advantage of the huge fish congregation by snapping at them all over the place. She has yet to catch any fish.
The fish also sleeps nested right next to the turtles in the bunches of aquarium plants. Until the first light in the morning, when they swim away from the waking hungry turtles

[amwassil]

Of course they do!

Alexandra (a bit more than a year old): curious and bold. She loves to explore and be held and talked to. Sits in my lap and surveys the surroundings. When I come to her tank she lifts her head out of the water and waits for my voice and a pet. Sometimes she'll play shy and pull her head under water a couple of times before she lets me touch her. Eats anything but will hold out for filet mignon if she thinks it's coming after the pellets.

Augustina (about 3-4 months): hyper and skittish; will panic on the slightest pretext, thrashing around with all four legs gyrating wildly and going nowhere. Eats like there's no tomorrow. Likes to watch but not be watched.

Antonia (about 3-4 months): shy and timid. But unlike Augustina will go into a coma and drift if anything scares her. Likes Alexandra and tags along touching as much as she can; one of her favourite tactics is to float quietly behind Alexandra and then climb onto her back. Very fussy eater; will eat anything, but only when she feels like it. She will let me touch her head in the water, something Augustina doesn't yet allow.

Over the past couple of weeks I have introduced the babies to Alexandra, in Alex's day tank under constant supervision. At first Alexandra was aggressive towards the babies. I allowed her to display, but if she tried to bite I would push her away and tell her "no mouth on the babies". Slowly but surely Alexandra's aggression has steadily diminished. The babies were immediately fascinated by Alexandra and not the slightest intimidated by her displays, although if she managed to get in a nip they would scoot away from her. But then come back! Now, they're together in Alex's day tank several hours each day and Alexandra shows little aggression and almost never tries to bite either of the babies.

Today for the first time all three of them tried to get onto the basking platform at the same time. Although there was a bit of jockeying for position, Alexandra didn't try to bite either of the babies. When Antonia got pushed off, she climbed right back onto the platform! Alexandra had a forefoot on top of Augustina, but little Augustina stayed right there without running.

[apondfortimmy]

This thread is the best thread ever.

I can only give brief descriptions of my turtles' personalities because I haven't been close enough to them to actually interact more than a little bit, because everyone's outside.
Now that I'm bringing them inside, I hope I can get a better idea of who they are.

Timmy (the original): Seems very cranky. Never liked his tank. Always gave me the stink-eye when I came around except when he knew I had fish.
Chewy: He'll pop his head up out of the pond and just watch me. He was hand-fed and really close to his old owners. He was mauled by a dog as a baby so his shell is warped and damaged on one side and he limps a little, but he keeps up with everyone else out there in the pond.
Frick & Frack: Female and male pair. They hang out on the floating turtle dock but I never see them when I'm out there, just when I'm peeking out my window.
Shelly: She's got the roundest shell and the lightest markings and she's very skittish. She's the first one off the rock / log when there's movement. She was said to be a pond turtle before I adopted her, so maybe she's used to the outdoor dangers more.
Mork & Mindy: The smallest turtles out there. I think they were kept in a very small aquarium because Mork's front nails were chewed off. The previous "owner" said that the biggest one was aggressive and chewed the little one's nails off, but I think they're a male and female that were just kept too close together and somebody got irritated at the flicker dancing and gave him what-for. I haven't seen them fight or interact in the pond so I think they just needed some space. I really think the two of them were the most rescue-y of my rescues. The others all looked well-cared-for and had no injuries.

I'm really looking forward to keeping a close eye on all my friends over the winter and getting to know them better. I'm hoping they'll learn that when I come out, I bring treats, so they shouldn't all disappear. Nature is nature, though, so I'm not expecting a whole lot this first winter.

Oh! And Baby Timmy (Powershell): He's so cute. He'll follow your finger but he's still skittish. He'll dive and swim so fast when you come by, hide a little, and then come look at you from the top of the water.

[novroz]

I love this question...funny thing is, people who don't own turtle always think all turtles are same.

I have three now

Kroten: used to be very shy but now craving for attention. She slowly changed like her late older sister, Kame. She will follow me everywhere every morning and wants to be lifted.

Papoe: is still incredibly shy. Maybe it's the basic personality of pink belly. I am still trying to make her trust me.

Kurome: very active. Whenever I let him out of his tank, he will walk all around the room, exploring them one by one. When he is in the tank, he rises his body with front legs moving like a dog trying to swim every time he sees me. He doesn't mind being held at all but when I put him down, he straight away run around the house.

[slider_keeper]

Toku has decided over the years he doesn't want anything in his tank. It started with a skull that got put in his tank the first day it was setup (3 yrs ago), well a few months ago he started to move it around banging it on the tank flipping it over and so on. So, I took it out. Then about two months ago he started to up root the fake plants, like right after I put them in there place. So I just kept putting them back. Finally I said ok, you don't want that stuff I'll take it out. Well, he has now decided he was this one particular plant. So I have pulled the ones that constantly floated and left his "favorite plant" in there! Talk about a personality. My turtle is a house designer lol!