Other Turtle Discussion :: Does your Turtle have a personality?

[Momof3RES]

Hi there. My name is Lilia and I am new here.
I am the mom of 3 red sliders, all girls!!!

Godzilla: is about 3 and 1/2 pounds; she came from China Town, NY to me about 4 years ago; she was the size of an egg... now she is GODZILLA!
She is monstrous, but sweet when I pick her up for feeding time at the kitchen skin; I love when she holds my finger with her paw and does not let go, when I am putting her down back in the aquarium.
She is very curious, loves for me to take her on walks around the house and when she is hungry... so help you God!

Wiggles: came home with Godzilla, but is smaller; she is rounding a pound.
Like her name states... she wiggles... A LOT! Oh my... when I remove her for feeding time, her chunky monkey legs go all over the place and watch out for those nails!! She has showered me several times... BUT when she eats, she is the most docile creature. I even think she is somewhat blind, because when she eats with her mouth sideways (weird)... instead of straight forward and big chunks in like "Zilla".

Little Boobie was suppose to be a boy but I guess the girl at Petco or whatever store I got her from knows even less than I do about turtles. She has been with us for about a year; she is easily scared, "flies" away at the drop of a pin; here in there she still tries to bit me, even though I do assure her not harm coming her way. When she is done with her food, she gets very frantic and wants to return "home" ASAP!

They all let me caress their neck or head... well, almost always. They don't like when I bring them outside and put them either in the baby pool or other aquarium... OMG... it's like "I DON'T BELONG HERE, GET ME OUT OF HERE NOWWWWWW!" The other day I had to clean their habitat, inside our house; by the time they came back inside... they were sooooooo tired... they all slept like babies!

So, what is your turtle like?

[scripta_elegans]

My girl is very bold and curious. She loves to have her shell scratched, and is rather unfazed by me talking to her, cleaning the tank around her, or moving near her while basking. She like to go outside now that she's hit 9 inches long, and will come back and stand on my foot when she's had enough. She is also interested in most new people, but particularly children. My boy is shy and skitty. He hates leaving his tank for any reason, and willjump off his basking platform at any slight movement. He will beg for food, but generally prefers to hide in the depths under his plants. Both are great hunters and will eat Rosies, snails, and ghost shrimp with great gusto.

[Donatello]

my turtles live up to their names completely. michelangelo, rafael. Donatello RIP did too.

[turtlesrmom]

Krush likes to rearrange his driftwood and rocks. He is constantly moving them from one place to another. When I come up to the tank and stat talking to him,he comes up to see me. He sticks his little head out of the water all while I'm telling him how cute he is. He seems to know my voice. Another thing he does is pretty funny. there's one driftwood piece that is long and kind of looks like a big lizard. He challenges it by going up to it, circling around and then fluttering with his little front legs. Once in a while he bites on the driftwood's 'nose'.

[kriminologie]

I've had Everglade for just a little over a month and s/he loves to hide from me. Not afraid to walk around on a towel when I take him/her out of the tank (my other turtle would remain pulled in and not move at all), but avoids me like the plague for now, and spends most of the day (or so it seems) hiding in his or her fake plants. If I move the plants and hold a ReptoMin in my finger underwater, eventually s/he will come over and take it from me. I'm hoping Everglade gets to the point where s/he's comfortable checking me out!

[turtlesrmom]

Awwwwww....Everglade comes out of the water? I heard that it was best to leave them in their tank but when I first got Krush, I took him out every day and let him wander around the living room and he HATED going back in his tank. I would love to take him out every once in a while to let him roam free.

[kriminologie]

Yeah, I needed to brush algae off the shell when I first got Everglade, and every so often I measure or inspect the shell. I also tried feeding in a separate container but at this point the turtle ain't having it. I'm hoping he or she learns eventually that nothing bad happens when I take him or her out!

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

Ranger tends to try and eat everything on the other side of the glass, my fingers elbow shirt and when I feed him I always put the food on his basking area and he tries really hard to fit all the food in his mouth, its funny watching him drop almost all of it half way to the ramp to swim off when he has to go back and pick them up.

[theartbook35]

Typhoon: Likes to swim up to the tank wall and greet me, by tilting her head to the side. She is very attached to me, but she hates my mother, and anyone else that is a stranger. She has a very domineering personality and is also very curious. She gets a kick out of detaching the basking dock from the wall, and pulling things apart. Seriously, if I push the lower suction cups back on the wall, she'll come right over a minute later and rip them right off!

Hurricane: ADHD. She can never sit still other than sleeping and basking. She is always digging, flapping around, moving things, she NEVER stays still. I will hear her wake up at 3 am and be digging through the rocks or flapping around. And she LOVES food. She gets more excited about food than Typhoon and Sadie combined.

Sadie: She is okay with strangers, and okay with me, but she loves my mother. She'll sit in her lap, wrap her feet around my mother's arm and just chill out for an hour straight. Mega picky eater, will not touch anything that is not krill, shrimp or a megaworm. She will definitely eat cuttlebone, thank heavens. She knows the whole floor plan of my apartment, and will wander around while I clean her tank.

And, well, Sophie isn't a turtle but I gotta share her personality too: She's a Colombian red tail boa. I haven't had her very long but she is already very trusting of me. She's great with new people. Usually when I hold her, she spends a lot of time crawling all over my shoulders and arms, then eventually wraps her tail around my neck, sets her head on my shoulder and goes to sleep. She has this odd fascination with people's faces. She go right up to my nose or cheek and just stare at me, or smell me, then she'll tuck the side of her face against my cheek or ear, or sometimes under my chin. It's like she is deciding that it's me, the human she knows well. I am tempted to call it some kind of affection, though snakes aren't really known for that. It makes sense though, that she would try to feel my face with her head, since, that's where all of her important senses are located, and that is what snakes use to feel their environment. She tends to rub her nose on my ear a lot, and loves to tuck her face in my hair.

Look at how big Sophie's explanation of her personality is, in comparison to the turtles... LOL XD

[Ender03]

Turtle Soup (T.S.) Is such a character. He enjoys exploring his tank, even though he knows every inch. He gets super excited whenever I open the drawer that holds his pellets. He plays tug of war with us when we feed him red lettuce. Sometimes he plays starting contest with us. apparently he enjoys extreme sports. We've recently found him climbing his filter/rock in the corner, which isn't odd really, but then he jumps off like he was diving, making a perfect landing! Yeah, we love our T.S.

[Mcfluryyy]

My turtle, McFlurry just loves salmon and randomly swims around >.<

[Brianna]

Jasmine- I bought her from a vendor at a flea market who was selling her in a tiny container with a plastic palm tree with a cm of water at most. She loves people, and when you look at the tank she swims right up to you (looking like shes smiling) and follows your finger. She eats everything she sees, I even had to put her on a diet! She also rides on a mini tech deck skateboard lol. And walks across her aquarium sand like shes a boss XD Sadly though, her tail is broken beyond the point of repair, the vendor must've did something.

Deshawn- Two weeks later I was at the flea market again and the man had even more baby turtles. After I bought Jasmine I called the humane society, who apparently didnt do anything. I was looking at the turtles when I saw on on top of the rest with a container with no water at all. I felt horrible for paying the guy, but I couldn't let Deshawn stay there all dried up! So I took him home. Hes really skittish, but starting to like me more, amd hes very tiny and isn't growing that fast. When I take him out he runs, he is the faster turtle ever!!!

[Matryoshka]

A lot of people think that a turtle is a turtle - if one dies, you can easily get another. This is both right and wrong : they all have their little unique personalities, just like humans.
Sunny is an adventurous turtle. If I place her on the lawn with Lily, she would most likely be the one to run off and explore first, while Lily would just sit there for a few moments before she follows Sunny. Sunny is the big sister figure of the two, Lily would often follow her. She is daring - there was a period of time where my cousin and I were convinced turtles could do tricks. If I placed a finger in the water, Lily would rush off first, while Sunny would retreat a bit and approach my finger. I can imagine her as a mascot for the 'Come at me bro' meme. She doesn't trust people as much as Lily, who would take a nap in my palm, or instantly go to sleep mode if a small towel or any other cloth was placed over her, or even wrapped around her. Sunny would, in both situations, just struggle out of the palm or cloth and go on with her exploration of Newspaper-covered world.
Lily, however, is the sweet one. You could label her as the innocent one sitting in the corner, a little lamb. As I have said, she would go to sleep in my palm or in a cloth (must be soft... newspaper doesn't work!) with my scent on it. She's the sweeter one of the two, mellower and shyer. Many a times, when I place her out in the sun and look at her from afar, her shell looks like one of a Caramel Pink Red Ear Slider turtle. If placed in a room with me sitting at the opposite end, she would totter over, climb up my legs and crawl into my shirt and take a nap there, while Sunny would explore like a boss.

[Anhawes]

Michael Angelo (To be renamed)- We got MA from a friend who was moving back to NC, so she gave us her turtle whom she presumed was a male. After much Debate on the name (Tom, Sonny, and Red), I settled on Mikey. Because he is orange, well I just found out He is a She. Mikey will follow me wherever I go. When she gets hungry he splashes EVERYWHERE to get my attention. I enjoy watching Mikey as she rearranges her tank daily or digs. She loves carrots! But we can not take her out of the tank to feed her, mostly because we have two dogs and three cats, but also because she is TOO curious to eat. I love her!

[turtlesrmom]

Okay....I went away on a camping trip for 5 days and when I came home it seemed to me that Krush was mad at me. Usually when he sees me he comes right to the top of the tank and I put my hand in and I take his paw (hand, etc. whatever) and he dances with me but this time, he ignored me and just kept swimming up and down in the tank, at the other end, away from me. He seemed to be really mad at me. I wonder if he might have felt ignored. Also recently we got a dog and I have been dividing my time between Krush and my new pup, Bono (and the other two animals, B.J., a guinea pig and Missus Missus Hoppigenz, a rabbit). Could he be feeling jealous or left out?