If your tortoise went missing, here is how and where to go look for them: look for burrows, look under things, inside anything they can crawl into, wait for the morning sun as it might bring the tortoise out of hiding, and alert the neighbors. If all else fails alert relevant authorities in your area, and advertise on Facebook or in your local paper.
Tortoises wag their tail to aid them with pooping, peeing, and with mating. The tortoise tail hosts these two functions in one hole known as the cloaca. While it can also be part of the courtship ritual, tortoises do not wag their tail out of happiness (like dogs do).
Hibernation is basically a long, deep sleep to help an animal survive harsh winter conditions. It’s not a traditional sleep where brain activity, digestion, and other bodily functions keep going. It’s a period of torpor, which is inactivity in both body and mind. The body keeps functioning in a hibernating animal but at incredibly slow rates. This reserves energy and sustains the animal until conditions outside the hibernation area are more suitable for life.
When a tortoise goes into hibernation, they will slow their metabolism down to almost nothing. That makes it appear as if he isn’t alive. His breathing will slow, hie heart rate will drop, his temperature will plummet, and he’ll stop eating and drinking. It really does look like death, but don’t worry. This total inactivity is perfectly normal.
Pet owners everywhere love it when their little or large friends give love back. Who wouldn’t want snuggles from a cute puppy or to listen to the loving rumble of a cat’s purr? But what about tortoises – do they get attached to their owners? Are our scaly friends affectionate like a mammal or bird …
Tortoises are not aggressive creatures. They don’t normally show aggression to humans, animals or other tortoises. Like other animals they can be territorial and moody but with the right care, the potential for tortoise aggression can be significantly reduced.
When it comes to tortoise pregnancy, things are a little more complicated and a lot more mysterious than dogs, cats (or even people!). As tortoise keepers it’s our responsibility to provide the right environment, food and care for the parents, the eggs and those adorable little hatchlings.
Tortoises use a combination of vocal, visual clues, and smells to communicate with other tortoises. They may also communicate through touch, either by exploring with their mouths, bumping into something, or stepping on it to feel under their feet.
Tortoises can be potty trained to some extent but it’s not an easy task. Potty training tortoises is more like convincing them to do a natural behavior when you ask and less about teaching something completely new.
Tortoises do have night vision, and are able to see in the dark when they need to. This is due to the extreme amounts of rod cells they have in their retinas in comparison to humans as well as most other animals.