Exactly that. Which is also why you hear it when she retracts fast and not when she tucks in slowly to sleep. Same animal, same shell, different speed.
Arno
@lungs_under_shell
Keeps Testudo species. Explains the same thing about air every week.
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It is not really a hiss and she is not really telling you off. Her lungs sit directly under the shell. When she pulls her head and legs in quickly there is suddenly less room in there, air gets pushed out, and the noise is that air leaving.
So it is a reflex attached to being startled rather than a planned threat. Which means the thing to change is not her attitude, it is how much warning she gets before a hand arrives.