Tortoise bit off the head of cage mate.

Kyleb43

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Hello all, I’m new to this forum because I came home today to find that my adult female tortoise had bit the head off of her female cage mate. I keep all 3 of my tortoises in the same cage as a breeding group, (M/F/F). I only occasionally saw fighting before this but nothing I believe to be serious. Here are some pictures.

IMG_1557802971.577709.jpg
IMG_1557803032.131959.jpg

I guess my question for the community is, have you ever seen something like this happen to any of your torts?
 

dmmj

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I have seen very viscous bites & wounds from fighting males & males trying 2 breed but never decapitation. Sorry 2 hear about the death of your tortoise.
 

Kyleb43

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No, I keep them inside. The three of them have been together with no problems for over a year now.
 

dmmj

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OK, except for breeding purposes my males are in separate enclosures
 

G-stars

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No, I keep them inside. The three of them have been together with no problems for over a year now.

Let me start of by saying that I’m sorry your tortoise died. What size of an enclosure were those 3 tortoises sharing?

You stated in your original post that there had been occasional fighting. So there had been problems and obvious signs to remove them from each other for over a year. This could have and should have been prevented. If I was you I would learn from this experience and remove the pair from each other before you are left with only one tortoise.
 

Yvonne G

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I've seen female russians with their eyelids bitten off by another russian, or leg scales, etc., but I've never seen this kind of injury. I wouldn't have thought a tortoise could inflict this injury. Are you absolutely sure it couldn't have happened some other way?

I'm so very sorry this happened. This is an awful thing to come home to.
 

Ben02

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I’m so sorry:(

I never knew a tortoise could cause that much damage, it kind of looks like she was squashed by something.
 

Tom

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Those don't look like tortoise inflicted wounds to me. Looks like something a cat or dog would do. I've never seen damage like that inflicted by another tortoise.
 

dmmj

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Those don't look like tortoise inflicted wounds to me. Looks like something a cat or dog would do. I've never seen damage like that inflicted by another tortoise.
that's what I was thinking but they were indoors
 

Kyleb43

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Well I know it was the other female because when I came home she had blood on her face...
 

Ben02

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Well I know it was the other female because when I came home she had blood on her face...
Ok, does the other female have any wounds?

I’m sorry to ask this from you but is it possible you could take some closer pictures of the passed tortoises head and neck? I 100% completely understand if you are not comfortable with that. Again I am very sorry this happened:(
 

Toddrickfl1

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They had a similar incident at the Petco by my house a few years ago. They had two Redfoots in a tank and they came in one morning and one had bitten the head off of the other.
 

dmmj

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They had a similar incident at the Petco by my house a few years ago. They had two Redfoots in a tank and they came in one morning and one had bitten the head off of the other.
in that case the tortoise may have died and the other one may have scavenged (?) it. They eat dead things in the wild
 

Toddrickfl1

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in that case the tortoise may have died and the other one may have scavenged (?) it. They eat dead things in the wild
That's what I told them probably was the case, and is probably the case with the OPs Russian.
 

dmmj

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That's what I told them probably was the case, and is probably the case with the OPs Russian.
Either is possible in both cases impossible to tell one way or the other
 

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