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Hello, fellow turtle slaves. My husband found this wonderful site & forum today, so I thought we'd join up. We are the servants of Boris, a 17 year old RES who hails from Garden Grove, CA., hatched by the then President of the OC Turtle & Tortoise Society. We acquired him in 1991 in an attempt to get our first baby, Bela, (a cooter), to eat. Worked like a charm, and undoubtedly Boris saved Bela's life. However, once they began to mature, Bela just wanted to bite, nipping off the tip of Boris' tail. When Boris retaliated with a headlock that looked deadly, we decided their partnership was not meant to be.

We are so glad we kept Boris. He is amusing, friendly, gregarious and enjoys bossing us around. His favorite activity is sitting on our laps while we post on the pc or watch videos. He also loves to sit on our heads; we figure it's an exercise in domination.

Up until the last year, we were certain that Boris didn't have a mean bone in his body, but recently he's taken to viewing Jim as a chew stick, giving him quite a nasty bite on the end of his nose last summer. Jim is now wary of allowing Boris near his face. Jim came to this site seeking answers to this biting dilemma.

A belated welcome to the site. Great names, Boris and Bela (what happened to Bela?)...

As for the biting issue, it would seem obvious that you just have to keep Boris away from the face...Perhaps having eyes staring at him at such a close distance gets his defenses up.

I'm assuming he climbs on the head while you're sitting down on perhaps a sofa, but still, how does he manage to stay on? He's never fallen?

Hi! Thanks for the welcome. Yes, Boris sits on Jim's head while we drink coffee in the morning. I once walked a few steps with him on my noggin, but it was with hands ready to catch. One of his favorite games is to beg for "head time" and survey his kingdom. If and when he starts to wriggle, we remove him from the cranium with our little rhyme, "You fidget, you fall. That's it. That's all", and the head time is over.

Bela was given to my friend in Long Beach, CA., who had the same problem with him. He was given to someone with an outdoor turtle pond somewhere in L. A. County.

Keeping Boris away from our faces is difficult, since he lounges on our stomachs when we read or nap, working his way up to our shoulders. He's fascinated by hair and eyelashes and sometimes makes "kissy" noises while maneuvering his way beneath a chin. Quite a character, is our Boris.