AboutMark Adkins Expertise I will be glad to help with your tortoise- and turtle-related questions. My specialty is Red-foot and other Tortoises, but I can help with many aspects of turtle care.
Understand- I am not a vet, and the more information you can give me, the more accurate my answer can be.
(Because of the number of questions I get, I reserve the right to direct you to a good website that will help rather than re-inventing the wheel.)
Experience Tortoise and other reptile keeper since 1964.
Member of the Nebraska Herpetological Society.
Author of books and articles on tortoise care.
Currently own five Red-foot Tortoises.
Expert: Mark Adkins Date: 7/13/2008 Subject: Russian Tortoise
Question My boyfriend has owned "Steve", his Russian tortoise for a year now. My question more out of my own curiosity because I believe Steve is a healthy tortoise. My boyfriend believes that he is a wild tortoise and seems a bit older than the two years the previous owner told me (the previous owner also told me that he wasn't wild, but she fed him a high protein diet!).My boyfriend has done tons of research on care, diet, habitat, etc.... to get Steve into excellent health.
My question is about a behavior that Steve does. He tends to bob his head up and down every now and then (more so when he's in the sun or under his basking light). From my point of view it looks like he's just bobbing his head up and down and then it looks like he's opening and closing his jaw but keeping his mouth shut (if that makes any sense). My boyfriend thought it may be a respiratory problem and had him checked out at the vet (the vet thought he was fine). I was recently at a pet store where there were three baby Russian tortoises, and I noticed that two of them were doing the same action. Is this normal? is it something that they do when they are basking in the sun? or is my boyfriend right about the respiratory problem?
Thanks for any help you can give :)
-Ellen
Answer It is just one of a few basic breathing behaviors. Since they cannot expand their chest or ribs, they usually breathe by sagging their limbs out and pulling them in, or inflating their throat, or bobbing their head. They will add opening their mouth to many of the other techniques.
