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Hi all!
I was wondering if you guys got any tricks to socialize with your turtles!
My turtles are 4 inches long, I almost never took them out/pet them.
today I tried and they were scared like hell, what should I do to socialize more with them?

fingers in the water... (but careful they will nip). start trying to hand feed them. take them out more and more... let them get used to you.

Time and patience. Sometimes I just go up to the tank and watch. This way she doesn't think that every time I walk up is not feeding time only.

Mine are wicked socialized. It didn't take them very long, but they are babies from Chinatown and my living situation is sort of ridiculous.
But anyway....I always hand feed my babies. And their bin is next to my laptop/mini home theatere so I sit next to them pretty much any time I'm home. They're also near the door of my apartment so they're used to people coming in and out. I live in a one room apartment with another person, so they see people walk around the room whenever we're here. If I have a guest, they share my bed, so the turtles see other people sit and sleep next to their bin. The tv is on constantly, so they watch the Maury show.
Anything remotely like that should help your turtles get socialized. Watching tv helps a lot, I think. Also just sitting next to their tank helps A TON. Like any time I want them to meet a new person, I have the new person just kinda sit next to them every so often for at least like five days. Then the new person gets to feed them. Then he gets to touch them. It works pretty well.

Idunno. I pretty much had to figure out how to get them used to humans or they'd just be terrified forever.