Toe-biting tortoise!!
 

Hi, my Reggie has been acting very oddly lately and I wanted to ask around and see if anyone has observed any similar behaviour and has any advice for me?

Recently he has been very restless in his enclosure, I've been reading around the forum and think this could be to do with the mild spring weather.
However when I get him out he chases me around incessantly, trying to bite me! He runs at full speed and snaps at my feet, hands, legs (whatever he can reach).
The other day he started humping my shoe and I realised it must be something to do with sexual maturity (he's now just over 3). But will this aggressive behaviour go away?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,

Carol

Ummm.... You will get quiet times and hormonal times ... Right now he's being a hormonal teenager.

All his behaviour is classic mating behaviour and I hate to say this, but Joe's still mating with shoes, etc aged 50. You learn to defend your ankle bones from butting with the sole of your shoe. We have an easily movable fence we can put up when we want to use some of Joe's garden

Yep mines the same and I'm with Joes mum :) it can change according to the weather but doesn't get any better I'm afraid,if I need to do some gardening or my granddaughter wants to play in the garden I have to pen some off or I give Bert/Spot his favourite pot tortoise and that keeps him busy for a little while,the other day he bit me on the ankle but that was my fault for not moving my foot quick enough ;)

Hi,
As others have said this behaviour doesn't get any better.. I have an older male hermanns and he's 'at it' all day!! He has free run of the garden, even my cat has to look both ways before going out the kitchen door!!

One tip we have learnt is he will not bite our feet if we have socks on :-) For some reason he hates it. An old trainer is also a definate distraction from feet.

Hope this helps a little,
Jo

Thanks for your messages everyone.
I'm actually pretty upset that this behaviour will continue. I live in a flat at the moment so Reggie doesn't get outside much where I can pen him off he usually just has the run of the flat, however Ive been finding I don't let him out as much recently because I can't get anything done when he's out, and I feel really guilty for this. Also I was sitting on the floor the other day and didn't see him coming and he bit my hand so hard it was bleeding.
I can't imagine having young children in here if he will continue to behave like that.
I don't know what to do.
:-(

I'm afraid that's the way male torts behave.

You have two choices: One is to get a larger a tortoise table and accept that he cannot have a free run of your floor space (and there many who believe it is not good for them to do so) and the other is to consider rehoming your tort.

Your tort is doing what comes naturally to him. They don't all bite... but it is a risk with males. You just can't tell which ones will :(

Hehehe I think he lurrrvvves you!!!:-D

He doesn't have free run a lot, he just gets out for a trundle about every now and again.
I don't have the space for a larger table at the moment, and I know he's growing out of the one he's in now. But I don't want to give up a family member. I'll have to have a think. We were thinking of moving soon anyway, this may be the push I need to get out of this flat and into a bigger one with a garden and a room reggie can have for himself with a big tortoise table in!
:-) xxx

My tortoise - Tintin - does exactly the same, we've had him for just over 7 years but by his size and weight (150mm and 700g) we think he's probably around 10 so I'm guessing he's just a mardy teenager?

This behavior has only started in the last 6-9 months and like you my tortoise is allowed to roam free in the house, mostly because if we keep him locked in he incessantly butts the door until someone opens it and lets him out!!

The aggression started with my husband, Tintin literally chases him out of the room if he's in that sort of mood whereas with me he just likes to follow me around and usually sits on top of my foot - only a few weeks ago he started to bite me, one day sneaking up behind me and drawing blood out of the back of my ankle. I'm convinced he's learned that my husband retaliates (usually with shouting something like "sod off you little bugger") and puts him back in the viv, whereas I talk to him and pet him. His other favorite 'hobby' is wrestling me for my socks, usually started by him trying to nibble the end of my toe!

We have a dog and the tortoise walks up and down along the front of the dogs bed biting the hard plastic (he's never attempted to bother the dog, and we NEVER leave them alone together) - does anybody know why he might be doing this?

I wondered whether getting him a female companion would stop him being aggressive towards us?