Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two russian tortoises. One is a CB russian that I got from lllreptile almost a year ago (he was 1.5" when I got him, and is now around 3-3.5". I haven't been able to take him out often and 'bond' with him (well, get him used to being around humans) but usually that ends up throwing him off feed. Should I just keep working on it with extremely short interactions once every week or two, or what do you recomend? He doesn't seem to like hand-feeding.

Then I also have an adult russian that I rescued (female), and she is very shy. I was wondering what I might be able to do to get her more used to people. I think food could come into play with her, because she really loves her greens. She eats more each day than you would think is physically possible. By the way, this is a tortoise that I rescued that the past owners had said 'won't eat greens, so [they] gave him strawberries and tortoise pellets'. Yeah, sure. I bet they never even tried to feed nice healthy greens.

If it was me I'd just keep working at it.
We rescued our sulcata, I seemed to have bonded with her simply by being the bringer of the food. LOL
After she settled in here & realized she would never be deprived of food & then she got used to her territory she became very friendly towards my DH too who was not the bringer of food.
If he goes outside to work on something or some days when he comes home from work and she notices that he's just getting home she heads straight to him for a greeting.

I know not all tortoises and turtles like this but my largest box turtle and the sulcata both like this & that's a vigorous shell rub.
I felt so sorry for our sulcata when she first got here, she was in terrible shape, I just couldn't help treating her like a dog in some ways. I started rubbing her shell as if I was petting a very large breed dog then realized she seemed to really like that. I think that helped with the bond too.. you might try that & see if it scares your tortoises or if they like it.
Other than that I think when they know who feeds them eventually they come around to not being fearful around you.
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PHRatz