Adult tortoise not liking baby tortoise and wants to fight :( Please help

RoseHeart

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This morning I found a baby tortoise in my front garden. It's quite small but definitely a few months old already. Now I currently have a male tortoise who is around 3-4 years old. He has been with me for several years staying in our courtyard garden (it's very spacious, lots of grass and trees). I decided to close off a area within the courtyard for the baby tortoise. However who knew baby tortoises could climb like crazy.... the little guy/girl crawled right over and ended up in the main yard with my other tortoise. My big tortoise basically went CRAZY! He started chasing the baby and the poor baby made these awful squeak noises. I immediately separated them.

So now basically I want to know this. Is there a chance that they will eventually get along or is it best for me to just at this point give the baby away? I do know how to take care of tortoises so it's not like I'm unable to do that but I really want what is best for both of them. If my big tort is going to keep doing this chasing business then I will have to let the baby go. But if there's a chance that with time they'll get along a bit better then I'm willing to to try.

Also NB ... I think the baby might be a different kind. I'm not 100% sure of this but by the looks of it they are not from the same kind. My plan was to raise them together till the baby is a adult and then make some changes either by putting one in a different location (at the back of our house for example) or giving one away.
 

Maro2Bear

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Greetings. There are many, many posts on this Forum regarding this issue. Bottom line, tortoises are solitary reptiles and do not get along well together. I'm sure the large tort is aggressively telling this baby to get out of his territory! Easier to find your new guy a safe place, with a caring owner. I'm presuming no chance to relocate the baby to a safe, natural area in the wild?
 

mike taylor

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Your adult Tortoise is doing his job . That's what they do in the wild . They chase any intruders out of their turf .
 

Gillian M

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Hello, if you are intending to keep the baby tort, then separate them immediately before bullying harms the poor little thing.

Good luck.:)
 

Yvonne G

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Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

I'd be very interested in seeing pictures of both the tortoises.
 

Tidgy's Dad

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AnimalLady

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Hello!
Any way you can show us a pic of the torts? I'm very curious to see them!

I WISH a baby tort would just wander into my yard! These things never happen to me! When I was raising rabbits, a few people at work gave me random rabbits that just wandered into their yard, and I'm like..what the heck! Why cant they wander in MY yard! lol! :)
 

Tom

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Its not difficult to make an enclosure that the baby can't climb out of. You can use plywood or cinder blocks. You might even want a lid to keep predators out, if its a little one.

The chances of them somehow getting along later on are very slim.

The tortoise in your avatar looks like it might be an angulated tortoise. I can't be sure, but I'd love to see some pics too. :)
 

RoseHeart

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Hi guys. Sorry for the delayed reply. I ended up giving the baby away immediately to someone who really wanted it and had the ideal garden to house a tortoise with no other animal threats. It was best for my boy and the baby. Attached is a photo of the baby and then my boy

IMG_20151128_180557.jpg IMG_20151125_102708.jpg IMG_20151222_085823.jpg
 
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Tidgy's Dad

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it's a shame, but maybe for the best if you don't have room for two separate enclosures.
The baby is sweet, but your boy is extraordinarily beautiful! :)
Yes, he's a lovely example of an angulated tortoise, i think. Chersina angulata.
Native to your home country.
If i'm right you will need to obtain a permit as it is a serious offence to own an angulated without one.
 

RoseHeart

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it's a shame, but maybe for the best if you don't have room for two separate enclosures.
The baby is sweet, but your boy is extraordinarily beautiful! :)
Yes, he's a lovely example of an angulated tortoise, i think. Chersina angulata.
Native to your home country.
If i'm right you will need to obtain a permit as it is a serious offence to own an angulated without one.

Thank you!! He is beautiful. I do not have a permit as they are hard to obtain but these tortoises are widespread in this area and he literally walked into our yard. The only place for him to go is to wild nature reserves and it's not really the safest place to house tortoises as we get many fires in this side of the country and there are many risks. Many tortoises die when crossing roads or get picked up by tourists. In fact our precious Table Mountain was set alight yesterday and the fire killed many animals. I'm not risking it. My tortoise is too important for me and I give him the best possible care.
 

MPRC

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Beautiful tortoise, it sounds like you probably did what is best for the baby.
 

RoseHeart

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wait.... is that parrot beaked tortoise? i've been researching these guys for a while

I didn't know what kind the baby tortoise is but after giving me the parrot beaked tortoise suggestion, I googled and it seems like the baby is in fact a parrot beaked tortoise!!! It must definitely be one. The pictures look identical to him. :)
 

hingeback

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Wonder whether mother torts are ok with their kids staying with them when they have grown...
 

naturalman91

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I didn't know what kind the baby tortoise is but after giving me the parrot beaked tortoise suggestion, I googled and it seems like the baby is in fact a parrot beaked tortoise!!! It must definitely be one. The pictures look identical to him. :)

yeah they're really rare in the pet trade and carry a hefty fine if caught with one, they say the population is relatively stable but local populations maybe threatened from poachers or destruction of habitat so now you can't keep them as pets or export or import without special permission
 

RoseHeart

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yeah they're really rare in the pet trade and carry a hefty fine if caught with one, they say the population is relatively stable but local populations maybe threatened from poachers or destruction of habitat so now you can't keep them as pets or export or import without special permission

The baby literally was found in our yard. Tortoises are very widespread in this area. As mentioned before on this thread there is only one nature reserve in this area and there is constantly fires there. One lady I know had a tortoise and took him there to the nature reserve and after a few weeks she found him again in her garden o_O I think it's good that people need permits but I have never heard of anyone in this area being fined for tortoises in their garden. I think it's one thing to keep them in your garden in the same area they are from and another to take one away from their habitat somewhere far away in a unstable or unsuitable environment. I do understand why permits are required by law though especially in trading.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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They are two species as you have sorted out, both may be male ( looks that way as far as I can tell from your pictures). Angulates (the larger one) are well know for aggressive behavior towards all other individuals regardless of species. The other one, the small tortoise is a parrot beak, and they are so adapt at climbing, they can "swim" through grass well above the ground. They literally brachiate ( @dmmj , I linked that just for you) like monkeys as much as a half meter off the soil surface in tall grass. They are very good climbers. For such small tortoises them roam a large space, and can move about pretty fast.

There is a FaceBook group called 'cape tortoises' where among good local care advise you'll be prompted to get permits etc. All that permit stuff is your own choice, but the local care info is excellent.

Many folks on TFO might be a bit wishing they too could have your problems, many great species of tortoise in RSA.
 
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