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Discipline is important to humans and it’s good that we have it, but what about with tortoises? Do tortoises need discipline? And how would you go about disciplining your tortoise?
This article looks into all of this
Table of Contents
How to discipline a tortoise:
Tortoises aren’t like other animals whom you can say no to get it to stop certain behaviors. Dogs and cats may understand being said no to but tortoises may not
Here is how to discipline a tortoise:
Move the animal elsewhere:
Sometimes moving your tortoise to somewhere else will get them to realize that what it is doing is wrong.
For example, if your tortoise is biting you, or is biting another person or animal, then you can get the reptile to stop doing this by calmly moving the animal elsewhere.
Move your hand away from your pet and put your pet in its enclosure away from you.
Solve its needs:
If your pet is biting then solve its needs to get it to stop biting you. Do this by giving it food or a cuttlebone to chew on instead.
The biting in your pet may be happening because it is hungry and biting is its way of getting your attention or feeding.
Giving your pet a consistent feeding routine should also help to keep the biting to a minimum.
Applying a bitter substance to your hands or feet, or to wherever your pet is biting, should help to get the animal to stop biting that area.
If your pet is scratching the walls or digging holes then this may mean that the animal wants to get out of its enclosure because it is either bored of its enclosure or because the enclosure is too small for it.
Allowing your pet to get some time out of the enclosure as well as getting a bigger enclosure for your pet should help in this scenario.
Avoid punishment:
Your pet tortoise does not understand punishment and will start to fear you if you do decide to punish it. Any type of yelling or hitting your pet may make it fear you and cause it to develop stress.
It’s better to give your pet positive reinforcement when it does things rather than solve the issue using negative reinforcement.
Giving your tortoise positive reinforcement looks like giving it treats or praise when it does something right or when it stops doing something wrong.
How to avoid bad behaviors:
If you understand why your tortoise does things then you can avoid the animal acting badly by making sure all its needs are met.
Tortoises only do things when they feel they have to, so they may act badly when they feel they have to.
Combat this by making sure your tortoise’s environment is up to par ie: make sure that their basic needs like humidity, diet, shelter, and temperature are up to standard.
Always remember that the animal doesn’t understand that doing some things are wrong per se, they are just doing what they think they should be doing
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other turtle/tortoise related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Tortoise Shaking Head Side To Side, Why Is My Tortoise Shaking?, Tortoise Making Croaking Noise, Baby Tortoise Rocking Back And Forth, Tortoise Rocking Back And Forth, Tortoise Throwing Up White Foam, Tortoise Throwing Up Blood, How To Bond With Your Tortoise, Turtle Vomiting White,