Head bobbing

Question
I have recently bought a small hermans tort, ever since I have had him he has been bobbing his head up and down all the time even when walking. Any ideas on what this means? He is too young to be displaying mating behaviour though.

Answer
Since turtle and tortoises cannot move their ribs to breathe, they do it in a few other ways instead-

- Sagging their limbs in and out. You might have seen this, where the it is almost like they are shrugging their shoulders when standing still.

- Inflating their throat. It looks like their neck is blowing up.

- Bobbing their head- which is basically a combination of the other two.

Perfectly normal! Try http://www.tortoiseforum.com if you want to share experiences with other tortoise keepers about this and other issues.

Good luck!