Owning a pet is a fascinating and fulfilling experience. Whether you fancy the rumble of the cat’s fur or the snuggles or tail-wagging of the docile puppy, pets are lovely creatures that can repay the love you give them.
Although it’s common knowledge that pets, such as dogs and cats, show affection and get attached to their owners, what about turtles!
While turtles have become popular pets for many people worldwide, the bugging question is, do these creatures bond or feel affectionate towards their owners?
If you’re wondering if turtles can recognize or feel attached to you as their owners, we’ve done some in-depth research to help you understand this and much more.
Do Turtles Develop Attachment to Their Owners?
Unlike dogs and cats that get excited and reciprocate when you hug or stroke them, turtles don’t like being cuddled or held. Instead, they appreciate you being around but won’t jump up and down to display their affection.
Turtles aren’t the jumpy type; their endearing attributes, such as being quiet, shy, nervous, and unassuming, don’t allow them to act that way.
However, this doesn’t mean that they don’t feel attached to their owners. After a certain period, turtles start to recognize their owners by their voice and scent.
Although there’s a misconception that these creatures are sluggish and dull, they eventually develop a sense of attachment and become fun to have around your homestead.
Often, the relationship between a person and a turtle is triggered and accelerated by how you treat them and whether they feel safe and comfortable in your place.
Turtles may not be as intelligent as cats and dogs. Still, they leverage the little knowledge they have to collect information about their owners and use it to foster formidable relationships.
Can Turtles Recognize their Owners?
The first step to becoming attached to something is to become familiar and recognize it. So, for turtles to feel attached to a person, they must know or recognize them first.
A turtle will most probably give you a hard time the first time you bring them home. But once you start caring and feeding the cute reptile, it will start noticing some unique things about you.
It’s these little things that form the basis for the attachment the turtle develops towards you.
However, if a turtle is domesticated in a household where different people take turns to feed it, it might take a while to start distinguishing one person from the next.
So, if your turtle doesn’t seem to recognize you even after a given period, the best course of action is to exercise patience and continue providing it with the care and protection it deserves. Eventually, it will come around and start showing you signs that it fully understands that you’re its caregiver.
What do Turtles Use to perceive Their Owners?
Like a handful of other creatures kept as pets, turtles use their senses to become aware of and recognize their owners. These include:
Sound
Since turtles don’t have a lot of things to do besides foraging for food, swimming, and basking, they can be excellent listeners. Their keen sense of hearing enables them to analyze and take in sounds from the environment carefully.
Once these creatures get used to your sound, they can recognize your voice from far away. However, this is not something that happens in a few days or weeks. Turtles will need time to isolate a person’s voice from the noise and other sounds around them.
Sight
Turtles also have a very incredible sense of sight and will try to learn little details about you and master your size and shape. When turtles get used to seeing you regularly, they try to register a few things about you in their minds.
Using distinctive features such as height, size, and shape, these cute and shy creatures will slowly become accustomed to you and create some form of attachment.
When you approach a turtle’s living area, you’ll see it look up and try to follow you around and see what you’re about to do. This rection shows that it recognizes you and feels your presence.
While how clearly turtles can see is still up for debate, turtle owners can stamp the fact that these creatures can visualize everything around them with utmost clarity.
Smell
Naturally, turtles can pick up scents and can easily recognize you from your smell. Turtles can identify when edible aquatic creatures are nearby Using their strong sense of smell. It’s this sharp sense of smell that they utilize to hunt for shrimp and fish.
In the same way, turtles will eventually get accustomed to your bodily smell and will always recognize your scent once you deep your hand in the tank or walk inside their enclosure.
How far these reptiles can smell remains a mystery, but the most crucial thing is that this sense of smell helps them develop affection.
Do Turtles Respond When Called by Their Names?
It’s human nature to brand pets with cute names that help show appreciation. Although mammals like cats and dogs are sharp and always respond when called by their names, most people wonder if turtles do the same.
Many turtle caregivers and owners believe that these reptiles are well aware of their name and will tilt the head or move over to where you are when you call them.
Unfortunately, nobody can stamp whether it’s the intuitive perception of sound or actual knowledge of their name that makes them respond. However, since turtles have proven to respond to visual stimuli, it makes sense that they will react the same way to audible stimuli.
Although a turtle’s intelligence is subjective and difficult to quantify, it’s capable of learning through target training.
And since food seems to be an excellent motivator when it comes to training, your turtle will likely associate a name with the treats and care being provided.
So, whether turtles can respond when called by name remains an individualized experience. Some people claim that their turtles actually come around when called by name!
Regrettably, to date, there’s no solid proof that these reptiles have a profound ear structure or boast the cognitive ability to master their name and recognize it when called.
How Do Turtles Show Their Affection?
As mentioned earlier, turtles don’t like cuddling or stroking, and neither do they jump up and down to display affection. If that’s the case, the mind-boggling question is, how do turtles express warmth and affection towards their caregivers or owners?
The fact that turtles are not jumpy and don’t always behave like the rest of the pets makes the novelty of watching them in the pool or tank slowly fade and become an old hat. Most people lose interest in turtles when they don’t show any sign of attachment and overlook the unique ways these creatures show affection.
One of the easily noticeable ways that turtles show affection and warmth toward their owners is sitting close to them without displaying any signs of boredom.
If a turtle completely trusts you and feels safe around you, it will stretch its neck towards you. Although this is rare, it is one of the most fulfilling and exciting experiences for most turtle owners.
When a turtle goes an extra mile to stretch its neck towards you, this indicates that it feels some form of attachment, and it’s curious to see what you’re doing.
At times, turtles show some form of excitement when they see their owners entering their enclosure. They do it in these three ways.
- Once the turtle sees you walking towards them or dip your hand inside their tank or pool, they’ll pace toward you, hoping that you came bearing sweet treats.
- Sometimes, you might see them swimming vigorously around the tank or pool while stretching their necks to try and get your attention.
- It keeps following you around. When you let a turtle loose in an open space, instead of going its way, it starts following your trails. Once you make a stop, they may bump against you trying to beg for a pat.
How do Turtles Respond to Touch?
As mentioned before, turtles are not the usual pets that you stroke, cuddle or pat. They are solitary animals that like to keep their distance and maintain their privacy.
Therefore, they don’t enjoy being picked up and petted, especially when new to a household. When turtles sense that you’re about to touch them, they often retreat to their shells or move away.
When turtles are well taken care of, they feel confident and safe and won’t mind being touched gently. In fact, some of them will start enjoying being petted.
But did you know that there’s a correct way to touch or handle your pet? Turtles require a completely different treatment and handling from other domestic animals. Their solitary and aggressive nature makes them dangerous when not handled correctly.
Here is How You Pet a Turtle
- Never approach a turtle from behind. A turtle needs to see you when you’re about to touch it. If your hand suddenly appears from nowhere and tries to touch the turtle, it might get frightened, hiss, and even bite you. If you want your turtle to relish a touch, make sure that you mind its mental well-being by trying to make sure that it’s comfortable and well aware of what you want to do.
- Let the turtle rest on a flat surface on the ground. When turtles feel secure and comfortable, they become more receptive to human actions. Placing the turtle on the floor rather than on a rug or carpet will calm its nerves and allow it to move or roam freely.
- Start by petting the turtle’s head. Once you determine that your turtle is friendly, you can begin to touch the top part of its head. However, make sure you lookout for any signs of displeasure, such as constantly raising the head and opening the mouth as you try to touch this part. This is a sign to tell you that the turtle is not interested and you should stop.
- Move to the chin and cheeks. If the turtle allows you to pet the top part of its head, you can now gently pass your finger on its cheeks and slowly rub and massage its chin. Be sure to keep your hands off its nose and eyes as touching them can make the reptile agitated.
- Massage the neck and stroke the turtle’s shell. If you feel that you’ve earned the turtle’s trust completely, go ahead and drop your fingers around its neck and massage it carefully and gently. Then, try to stroke the turtle’s shell and see how it responds. Be more vigilant and maintain a soft touch as this area is extra sensitive.
- Exercise patience but show persistency. The more you pet your turtle, the more it will get used to you. However, it would help if you were patient when trying to handle your pet turtle. Remember that it also has bad days and won’t always be receptive to your advances.
What Do Turtles Care About Most?
To develop a strong attachment with turtles, you need to understand how they think and what they care about.
Compared to other creatures, you can say that pet turtles are a little primitive since they only think about these four things:
- Survival
- Food
- Basking
- Reproduction
Survival
When a turtle gets to a new place, the first thing it concerns itself with is security. If it perceives an imminent danger, it leaves without hesitation. If it senses a predator nearby, it starts looking for a secluded place to hide.
For turtles, survival is the first thing that crosses their mind. This is the main reason why they take a flight any time they see another turtle getting attacked. They won’t try to do anything that might put them in danger.
You can understand that survival is their number one priority because they bury their eggs and leave them to hatch without caring what will happen to the young turtles.
Unlike human beings and other pets such as dogs that can put themselves at risk to save their kids, turtles only think about survival. They can’t do anything that puts them in danger, whether it’s protecting their young ones or anything else.
Food
Since turtles are don’t have much to do, most of their time is spent looking for food. Their moderate physical activity and body structure don’t help much since they can’t move swiftly. Therefore, they spend a lot of time gathering and hunting for food.
When domesticated, turtles feel safe and are happy to find nourishment without having to wander around. They’re never interested in toys and won’t show any excitement when you do anything else besides providing them with food.
Basking
Since sea turtles are cold-blooded, you’ll often find them basking, a vital activity that facilitates thermoregulation.
Basking is an integral part of the turtle’s lifestyle, both terrestrial and sea turtles. It helps them stay healthy and active. So, when keeping turtles as pets, you must set up a basking area.
When turtles are in the wild, you’ll often find them find them competing for a basking spot. They even go the extra mile of fighting for these spots, which is enough proof that this is vitally essential to them.
Mating and Reproduction
Like most creatures, turtles have the urge to mate and reproduce. Often, male turtles usually get into fights over a female. This shows how crucial reproduction is to turtles.
So, besides providing turtles with food, basking area, and security, you need to make sure that their natural urge to pass on genes to the next generations is catered for.
However, it’s crucial to note that female turtles can lay eggs without mating with a male. But since the eggs are infertile, they can’t hatch into young turtles.
It’s essential to have both male and female species in your homestead to ensure that turtles keep reproducing.
How to Foster Attachment with Turtles
Turtles can recognize and bond with humans. But, how can a caregiver make sure that they develop long-lasting relationship with their pet turtles?
Turtles are not complicated, and neither do they have endless needs. As long as you keep them nourished, safe, and healthy, they’ll slowly develop attachment and affection towards you.
Here are a few tricks that you can use to keep turtle happy and develop strong attachment:
- Try and give them the right food. Turtles love their food and will appreciate getting sweet treats now and then. Since most domesticated turtles are omnivorous, you must provide them with animal-and plant-based foods to supply the necessary nutrients. If they haven’t shown any aggressiveness or agitation in the past, you can try feeding them by your hand.
- Provide better living conditions. Make sure that the water tank is kept clean to ensure that the turtle remains healthy throughout. Separating the feeding area from the main tank and setting a nesting area ensures a clean water tank.
- Regularly give your turtle a slight pat on the shell to increase attachment. However, you can only do this once you determine that the turtle trusts you and won’t mind being touched. Naturally, turtles are private creatures that don’t like to be touched. So, exercise caution and be gentle while trying to pet your pet turtle.
- Let the turtle stroll around the lawn and garden. At times, you should let the turtle loose to see if it will pay back the affection. When turtles start being attached to you, they won’t go anywhere when let free. They’ll just stroll behind you.
- You can also put the turtle next to you and let it observe as you go ahead with your routine activities. This gives it a sense of belonging and helps it fulfill its curiosity.
How to Tell If Your Turtle Doesn’t Like You?
Trying to hide when you get closer.
The first sign that a turtle doesn’t recognize or dislikes you is retreating back to its shell when you get close. Often, turtles will do these if they fear for their safety and feel like you’re out to harm them.
Turtles can behave like this for months or longer, but if you continue treating them well, they’ll start getting more comfortable and eventually change their behavior.
Trying to bite you
When you get a turtle home for the first time, it might try to bite you when you’re handling it or try to feed it. This a normal reaction for any creature that’s has been taken into a new environment.
However, they’ll get used to the environment after a given period and stop trying to bite you. Patience is required as turtles take a while to adjust.
If your pet turtle keeps trying to bite you even after months or years of ownership, this might indicate a problem somewhere. Maybe there’s something you’re not doing right.
Things that Might Make Your Turtle Dislike You
Poor Handling
Just like any other pet, turtles appreciate being treated and handled well. When you mishandle them, they become agitated and respond by trying to hide from or bite you.
Turtles might have a hard and durable shell, but this doesn’t permit you to handle them carelessly or knock them around. Be mindful about the well-being of your turtle when you are feeding it, lifting, or even cleaning its tank.
Inadequate Food
If there’s something that turtles love more than anything, it is food. These cute and shy creatures spend most of their time looking for food when the wild.
When you domesticate a turtle, you must give it the correct quantity and quality of food. Ensure that the food you’re giving fulfills all its energy requirements. Failure to give turtles adequate food makes them more aggressive, and they’ll always try to bite you.
Small Living Space
Out in the wild, turtles usually have the opportunity to enjoy swimming in large water bodies and enjoy walking in open spaces.
When you bring turtles home and constrain them in a small space, they become agitated, restless, and violent. The lack of free space to move around and bask destabilizes the routine and makes the turtles claustrophobic.
Being in a small space could be the reason why your turtle has an annoying attitude and seems more aggressive to everyone.
This problem is common for people who keep several pet turtles since the limited space can make resources, such as food and basking space, inadequate.
Stress
When turtles are stressed, they respond by being violent and aggressive. Stresses of any kind, whether due to food shortage, competition for basking spots, or unhealthy living conditions, can make your turtle try to bite you every time you get closer.
Other things such as loud music and frequent traffic near their living area can also stress these cute reptiles.
If your turtle has an aggressive behavior that can’t be explained, the first thing you should do is find out whether something is stressing it.
Why You Still Need to be Careful Around Turtles?
While this comprehensive article has laid out facts to show that turtles can fully recognize their owners and show affection, you need to accept that not everything about these creatures is perfect.
Although several aspects make turtles excellent pets, two things can make you reconsider having them at your home:
They Carry Salmonella
Turtles are renowned for being notorious carriers of salmonella. Before you bring home a pet turtle, you need to understand that they carry a dangerous bacterium.
While adults can always wash their hands and disinfect after handling a turtle, the same can’t be said about kids.
So, the decision to bring a turtle home will be based on whether you have your kids or people with weak immune systems, such as the elderly, in your household.
The salmonella bacteria can lead to diarrhea and gut pain. It can be fatal to persons with weak immune systems and kids below five years.
They Can Bite You When Aggrieved
Although most domesticated turtles only tend to display violent and aggressive behavior when they are new to a homestead, they can also end up giving you painful bites if mishandled.
So, you may want to add this cute reptile as a pet, but you need to consider whether you’ll be able to restrain your kids and other members of your from agitating it and making it feel frightened.
When these creatures sense danger, they can bite the aggressor and leave them nursing painful wounds.
If you’re confident that you can cope and tackle these two challenges, you can now prepare a tank and bring your pet turtle home.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will Turtles Get Attached to the Owners Over Time?
Turtles are intelligent creatures that can bond and learn to recognize their owners. However, their bonding and attachment to humans are not like that of a dog or cat.
How Do Turtles Recognize Their Owners?
Turtles can recognize their owner using three senses; sight, smell, and sound. They can master your size and shape, your voice, and even how you smell.
How Long Do Turtles Stay Before They Get Attached to Their Owners?
Actually, there’s no timeline on when these reptiles will bond or show affection towards their caregivers.
Essentially, how fast a turtle can bond with the owner depends on the care its getting and its natural attributes. Most of the aggressive turtle species can find it hard to establish attachments.
Can Turtles Show Affection?
Yes, turtles can show affection towards their owners but not through the typical dog and cat hugs and strokes. They may extend their heads toward you, swim towards you when you approach the pond or tank, or sit still next to you without getting bored.
Do Turtles Like to Be Held?
Unfortunately, turtles are not fond of being touched or held. However, when they get comfortable and feel safe around you, they can allow you to pat or touch their head and neck.
How Can You Make a Turtle Get Attached to You?
As long as you give your pet turtles the happiest life and fulfilling experience, they’ll bond with you at any time.
To make turtles happy and fulfilled, you need to give them enough food, provide ample living space, keep their residence clean and healthy, and ensure that they are safe from all types of predators.
Can Turtles Dislike You, and Why?
Often, turtles can fail to get attached to their owners and start to dislike them. When this happens, they often try to bite them or hide when they see them.
While this is uncommon, it is usually a result of several things such as poor feeding, stress, being constrained in small living spaces, and fierce competition.
Conclusion
So, do turtles get attached and feel affectionate towards their owners?
The answer is Yes. Turtles are intelligent creatures that can recognize and feel attached to their owners. However, their attachment is a little odd since they don’t like hugging or stroking like dogs and cats.
Their kind of attachment is not that easily identifiable, and it will take a keen person to note that there’s an existing affection between a turtle and its owner.
For individuals who are willing to take time to understand everything about these cute turtles, they can be phenomenal pets. You’ll need to keep them happy by feeding them, handling them carefully, and maintaining hygiene in their staying areas.
Although turtles can be a little demanding, especially when you want them to live a healthy and happy life, they are terrific companions to have around your household.
So, if you’ve been wondering whether pet turtles feel attached to their owners and display some kind of affection, you’ve got your answer.
Now, get out and shop around for the most docile and easy to maintain turtle species. If you treat your pet turtle well, it will reciprocate by showing some affection and getting attached to you.