Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was feeding the turtle yesterday... I was dangling an earthworm in front of her, and she lifted up her left front leg like she was trying to climb on something that wasn't there, then she lifts her other front leg and somehow manages to balance on her back legs and the back tip of her shell, so the whole front of her body was about an inch or so above the ground... she put her one claw on my finger and tried to snatch the worm, but missed... then she tried again, but right before biting down, she redirected her bite and grabbed the end of my finger. She latched on tight. i was shocked and dropped the worm and lowered my hand to ground level.. once she got all four feet back on the ground, she started pulling and jerking on my finger as hard as she could... I eventually had to hold her shell with the other hand and yank my finger out of her mouth... Don't they know not to bite the hand that feeds?

Has this ever happened to anyone before...?

I have had hatchlings and yearlings bite me on numerous occasions, going for anything that moved....and I avoid entering the turtle enclosure here barefoot: we have a chronically hungry turtle that will try to take a bite out of anything that remotely resembles food. He's a huge adult, too, so he could do some damage.

I don't think your turtle 'attacked' you maliciously, but rather thought it would give that finger a try since the worm was proving to be a challenge...

LOL this happened to me about a week & a half ago. It was Wallinda the hungry one. She saw me handing her a worm and then she missed. She grabbed my finger & started shaking it. I put my hand on the ground then she realized her mistake & let go.

My pac-man frog will bite at anything that moves. He's 9 years old now so I learned a long time ago that if I put my hand down flat so that he is also on the flat surface with all his feet on the ground he then will realize he's made a mistake, so it worked with a turtle the way it does with him.
The frog takes a heck of a lot longer to let go so I learned a long time ago, my hands don't go anywhere near him without heavy yellow kitchen gloves.

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PHRatz

Can you tell me what kind of care you give your pac-man frog ? My son wants one, and I thought that they were hard to take care of. Can you post a picture of your set up, and tell me what 's in it? Thank you.
Terry

>>Can you tell me what kind of care you give your pac-man frog ? My son wants one, and I thought that they were hard to take care of. Can you post a picture of your set up, and tell me what 's in it? Thank you.
>>Terry

Terry I'll have to get a pic of the entire set up but it's a 20 gallon high tank. Not that a pac-man needs the height but that's the size that fits on the bottom of my 20 gallon tank stand. lol

I use a reptile carpet to line the tank but in the corner where he sits most I use a thick pile of spaghnum moss. Under that is a tank heater, to the side is a salad plate I bought in a store that sells all sorts of used glassware that I use for a shallow water dish. He gets in that when he feels like it- once a week or so. I keep his screen top partially covered to keep in the humidity & always use a humidity gauge because it's hard to keep the humidity up without seeing what level it's at.
That's basically it because he doesn't move around much. We call him our living ornament, he'll sit in one spot for a couple of days, then a different spot for a couple of days. When he was a baby I fed him as often as my book recommended, today he eats about once every 10 days.
To me he's very easy to care for but he's not interactive & he has never learned that the hand that feeds him isn't food itself.
We don't bother him, we give him the care he needs but making him move has always seemed to stress him out. He only gets moved on cleaning day. I clean him once a week. I keep 2 reptile carpets, one to hang & dry for a week to replace the one that just got washed so the fresh one is always thoroughly dry before using it.
I guess he's happy? I say that because he is 9 years old now.
That's as complicated as it gets.
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PHRatz

i know it wasn't malicious... After I got over the shock it was kind of neat, I thought.... weird thing was, the dangling worm was right in her reach even before she climbed up onto my thumb...

We've fed her some grubs that were bigger than my finger before, so she might have thought it was dinner.

Has it ever happened? Numerous times.

They don't see it as "your finger".

They see that long slender pink thing as another
worm.

You have to learn to watch your fingers and toes.

And never go barefoot around them.

but did not hold on. He bit me when I was moving the basking rock. He's small enough not to cause any damage.

My painted always tries to bite me if I make him mad by taking him out of his tank.
He is big enough to hurt but I keep my fingers on his back side so he can't reach.
Then when I put him back in the tank he starts begging for food.
He is ALL bluff!
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PHRatz

I caught my painted myself. My parents have a cottage on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. I kept going down to a pond a creek flows through to try to catch one from my kayak. Well, it was rough to kayak back, so I had to carry him. The entire time he was reaching back to where my fingers were on his shell.

Herbivorous lizards bite - that I found out. I was a GTA in a lab where an iguana was kept. Once he was not happy, but luckily I had a glove on.

You talk about your painted begging for food.... Mine seems to always swim fiercely against the glass when I get near the tank, as if he thinks the food comes through the glass, and not dropped from above - and it actually does come from above - not a bright turtle.

That's funny! Fagalo lifts his front foot like that- I wonder if with encouragement he could get all the way up!

I don't think they see very well that close up. I mean, they have extremely keen vision for movement, bug they have a hard time grabbing a dangling worm. It must be a focus thing.

Nanci
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