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recently I found that whenever I touch my turtle face(near the mouth area when his body is dry) he would open his mouth way wide, but he's not trying to bite me or anything, or maybe he's trying to scare me away? but I remember my turtle never used to do that, he always let me pet him under the chin, but now he just opens his mouth so wide and I couldn't touch him anymore , do they go through mood changes?

Also, this is amazing, but when my turtle opens his mouth, I saw this 'place' opens up right behind his tongue and then close back up again, it's almost like another opening, is that where he swallow his food? or is this the place to hold the food in place? it's very much like a scene from "alien", where there's a mouth inside the mouth

I have an eastern painted turtle that does the same thing. I think he's just playing tough and giving me a warning. He also hisses, and the sound is not from retracting his head---his head is out of his shell.

That opening you're talking about is most likely his esophogus (sp.).

My turtle doesn't like her chin rubbed either... shell pulls into her shell and gives a mean open-mouthed look. She does like the top her head rubbed though

Haha my turtle does this but you don't even have to touch him. Plus he hisses a lot too now. If you even touch the top of his shell he'll hiss at you. But if you rub his belly for a bit he'll calm down. That's the only thing he likes. So I doubt your turtle is in a bad mood. I know mine always is!

usualy the open mouth n hissing is for the turtle to let air out of his body so he can fully shrink into his shell as much as possible. if hes going to bite, he will lunge.