Monitoring your pet turtle’s behavior on a regular basis will help you quickly pick up if the animal is sick or is in distress
If you’re worried about your pet and are wondering why your turtle seems to be opening its mouth when you pick it up then this article will help you figure out why
Table of Contents
Why does my turtle open its mouth when I pick it up?
You’ll quickly notice if something is off with your turtle and you’ll quickly look for the reason why if you’re a turtle owner.
Here are the reasons why your turtle may be opening its mouth when you pick it up.
It is being disturbed:
Turtles may seem like sweet and very tame creatures because they are so slow and because they are smaller than us but they can become aggressive when disturbed.
An aggressive pet turtle will open its mouth and hiss at you to communicate that it is angry or upset and doesn’t like being picked up.
This hissing and biting is done to intimidate you. A turtle in this predicament may also kick its legs and squirm when it feels cranky and will try to pry itself out of your hands using its hind limbs
The worst case scenario is that your pet will try to bite you, being bitten by these animals hurts a lot.
What to do:
If you pick your pet turtle up and it does this to you then simply put the little animal down and leave it alone for a moment and allow it to cool down.
Anticipating being fed:
Another reason why your pet turtle may be opening its mouth once you pick it up may be because the animal is anticipating food.
These animals associate being fed with people, with you in this case, or places.
If your pet associates being fed with you then it will open its mouth when picked up by you.
What to do:
This is neither good nor bad behavior, it is simply a behavior that your pet learned.
If you would rather have your pet associate being fed with a certain location, or other people rather than with you, then you can feed the animal in a specific location and have other people feed the reptile.
Doing this will stop the animal from associating eating with you.
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: Red-Eared Slider Breathing Heavily, Turtle Blowing Bubbles Out Of His Mouth, Red Eared Slider Biting At Air, Tortoise Keeps Opening And Closing Its Mouth, Turtle Opening Mouth While Basking, Why Does My Turtle Open Its Mouth Underwater?, Why Is My Turtle Shell Turning Brown?