Strange Behaviour

[Joanne]

My hermanns tortoise seems really agitated at the moment. He's being quite aggressive and biting everything.

When he is in his table he paces around banging against the sides.

We are currently living with family and are in the middle of moving house.

He is eating and drinking fine, but I haven't seen any poo for a couple of weeks. He has had a few wees though.

Is he stressed? Temps are 19 cool, 36 warm and room temp (about 15) over night.

 

[wellington]

Could be he's not happy with the living conditions, size of enclosure or sexually maturing

 

[Joanne]

I can't remember his exact hatch year, but I think he is about 6 years old. I imagine he isn't happy at the size of his box. He was in an outdoor enclosure about 3 times as big as this one and he had access to the garden.

Should I be concerned about the lack of faeces? I'd probably be more concerned if he had stopped eating, but he eats really well! I'm buying salad leaves from the supermarket and he's had some dandelion too.

 

[JoesMum]

Hi @Joanne! Makes a change to see you here (She knows me as elsie elsewhere )
.
He's probably just being a maturing male unfortunately. This is classic territorial behaviour - he doesn't want to share his space.

How big is his indoor enclosure? He's grown a lot and may simply want more space. It's not a good idea to let him out to roam the house. As well as the risks of being away from the humidity and heat he needs, he is also aware that there's a wider world and you're in it.

The best way to get him settled is to provide him with a big enough indoor enclosure (4' x 8' / 1.5 x 2.2 metres minimum) I realise this is difficult to achieve until you move, so you're probably going to have to put up with him being a pain for a while.

 

[Joanne]

Yeah he's in a 2 x 4 foot box, so not big enough. His outdoor enclosure will be taken to the new house, so after we have secured the garden he will be allowed out.

There's no way I could get him in anything bigger at the moment, all of my tortoise stuff is in storage (like coir and extra light fittings).Currently it's looking like we won't be moving until next week... grrr! So he doesn't have long to wait.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

You say he's biting everything and eating well.
So it's quite possible that he's eating his poop.
They do this sometimes.
Silly torts.

 

[Joanne]

Eeeewwww.... but he never has before! I'll just leave him to it then!

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm getting the impression that you allow the tortoise to walk around on the floor of the house. I think this may be your problem. Most tortoises are not content to be contained once they've been allowed to realize there's a bigger world outside his small container.

 

[Digger&Blinky]

Hehe my tortoise did this when he wasnt mature he did this alot then afterwards he tried to mate with everthing ( what im trying to say is ur lil baby is becoming a man)

 

[debz]

We have had the same issues with Spartacus.
I hope that as he gets older it will calm down ? He has also tried mating with things.
He does have the run around the living room and he Does not like it when he is confined to a smaller enclosure sadly we didn't know not to do this when we first had him, our own fault for not looking into things more or should i say Knowing the correct place to look for the correct information.
We are going to make an indoor enclosure for him as it is getting far to unsafe for him to have the run of the house any more.

 

[surfergirl]

my Hermanns just went into the man stage and he behaves the same way. He is off the chart active and I think he is looking for a mate or a fight with another male. I soak him whenever he gets overly active and it seems to calm him down for a bit. I have three Russian gals and they are very active but not the same as he is. makes me think it is a male thing.

 

[Joanne]

Thanks everyone, since moving house and settling into a routine, he seems more settled. I'm in the process of clearing an area of the garden for him to live in at the moment... hopefully he will be back outside soon!