A biting tort

[Darina]

Hello everyone,
I´m a proud owner of 3 hermans who will be 2 years old this August. One of the torts started biting the other 2, so I had to separate them. Is this normal? Do they have too little space, or why is this happening?

Darina,
a tortoise mum from Bratislava, Slovakia

 

[Stazz]

Hello Darina!
Welcome to the forum

Are your torts males, females? It depends how much space they have really. How have your housed them, indoors,outdoors? How big is their enclosure?
It all counts ! I don't know too much, but it's just info people will need to help you out

 

[Crazy1]

Sounds like one of your torts is establishing itself as dominant.

 

[Darina]

I separated the biting tort from the other ones, because I am concerned about possible injuries. My torts are indoors now, as it it not hot enough yet. They spend all summer on the balcony, which is very large, approx. 10 meters (33 feet). Should I keep them separated when they will be on the balcony? Also, I am considering designing a new tort table with 3 levels, 1 for each tort. I don´t know whether they are males or females. They are 20 months old - when will they come into puberty? I will post some measurements (torts, current tort table...) next time.

Darina

 

[Darina]

So, I measured my torts and my tort table. The biggest tort is the "biter", so he would be the dominant one. He is about the age to be turning into a male, althrough it should have happened in 4 months. The other 2 are living peacefully on the tort table now - no biting.

Here are their sizes:
1) 10 cm (4 inches), 297 g = "the biter" - he is called Darling, but is no darling at all now
2) 10 cm, 232 g
3) 9 cm (3,5 inches), 273 g
Btw., aren´t they too big for their age? They were allowed to feed as much as they wanted until now - now they get only the amount of weeds that would cover their shell.

My tort table (now including only 2 torts): 99 x 68 cm (39 x 27 inches)

 

[davidvd59]

The only time I had a tort bite another tort was at feeding time, squabbling over food.

 

[tortoisenerd]

That table sounds too small for more than one tort those sizes...

 

[K9KidsLove]

Hi...I agree with Kate...that table is too small for 2 torts. You could put the single one in there for a while, but will soon need one bigger about next year.
Good luck
Patsy