Species compatability

Susan T

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I am currently tortoise sitting. I have my own 8 year old CA desert tortoise who is currently enjoying the company of two of his siblings for a few weeks. They get along just fine. I am also caring for a friend's Russian tortoise. Does anyone have any experience with these species cohabitating? I'd like to put the little Russian in the outdoor enclosure with the Gopherus clan, but I am worried he will be bullied. (The Russian is about about 7" in length, and the others 10 - 12".)
 

dmmj

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Avoiding the many reasons why not to do this. I honestly would be more worried about the russian doing the bullying. To a russian " size matters not". There are other reasons,.
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Susan, and welcome to the Forum!

NO - in case you didn't get it, that's a GREAT, BIG, NO!!

Never ever mix species, and especially NEVER mix a Russian in with other species. Russian tortoises are gathered up from the wild in great numbers and piled up on top of each other in small areas, where they poop, pee and die on each other. They come into the pet industry very 'dirty,' and I don't mean dirt. They are covered with germs and infested with germs and parasites. Don't ever put a Russian tortoise with another species.

Now here 's something else for you to think about. The Gopherus species of tortoises have what is called URDS (upper respiratory distress syndrome). This is what has killed off an enormous part of the wild population. You don't know if your tortoise (s) have it or not, so don't ever take a chance on putting other tortoises with your desert tortoise for fear of passing URDS along.
 

Tom

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Never mix species. Very risky and many die this way.
 

FLINTUS

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In this case a definite no. Some do keep mixed species successfully, but geographically these are a long way away, not a good idea. A question though for you lot, would you be happy to mix Amazon Basin Red Foots with Amazon Basin Yellow Foots, providing they were not of a breeding age? Surely that would be less risky than mixing the Amazon Basin Red Foots with 'normal' non-specific locality northern Red Foots? See, IMO, breeding ethics aside, the main problem is parasites and the immune system, but to be honest, very few of us have exact localities for our tortoises, and the localities in some species are not even talked about in the pet trade-an example would be that nobody on here or other forums seem to breed specific Russian subspecies, just the general species-, so as long as they're from the same area, surely that is OK, if you are willing to mix the species' localities anyway? Behavior would also have to be considered, but if they are of the same genus, they generally will behave similarly.
 

Susan T

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Thanks, everyone for helping me keep the tortoises safe and healthy!
 

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