Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My sister has 2 new baby RES. She's had them for 3 weeks now, and they're eating and seem to be adapting well. She started taking them out briefly to be handled just the other day, and one of them bit her. Bit - and hung on.

I had a two RES as a kid. Sis had one for a brief 2 months prior to these new babies -- it escaped while sunning in the yard. (I warned her that they could climb ...) Anyway, these RES never bit.

We chose RES because they were "friendly". Should we think this one bite was a fluke, or should we expect that we have a biter? Should we expect it to bite again? Are some turtles nippier than others?

Also -- do you hand-feed your RES? The previous (now escaped) RES was already trained to eat from my sister's fingers. She started wondering whether this was wise -- might it eventually become so trained that it mistakes fingers for food? Do many of you hand-feed your RES, and if you do, do you have to watch out for your hands? (Since this turtle will also be handled, we don't want it to be a nipper.)

Thanks for your advise,
Leslie

I don't know if I can give you advice per se but I can tell you about my own experiences.

I have a 6 inch male who is very accustomed to being handled and hand-fed. There have been times when he has gone after a finger instead of what I was holding. But even in those circumstances he didn't bite with any force, or pressure, didn't hang on, and didn't make that mistake again during that feeding.

On the other hand, I have two juv. that are not as accustomed to being held, and I have not tried to hand feed yet. If I have my hand in the tank for whatever reason and they feel threatened, they will nip hard and hang on.

I do think a turtle's level of nippy-ness is part of their personality, and expresses how comfortable they are with human contact. In my experience hand feeding has reduced fear of human contact and has helped them become more social. Even when the larger one did bite it was specifically because he got confused as to which was the food item and when he did bite he immediately saw that he made a mistake. I am sure that others have had an even more diverse range of experiences with hand feeding and its effects on social behavior and personality.

Just remember to use common sense with hand feeding so that you don't loose and finger parts, no matter how good/bad your turtle's intentions.