Behaviour

[The Maltese tortoise]

Hey all fellow Testudo owners, I am new to this forum. I have 4 tortoises. One female, one male , who had two offspring. The offspring are a female (approximately 5 years old) and until time of writing a baby of unconfirmed gender ( only a month old). The two females and male live in our garden, whereas the baby lives in his incubator. Occasionally, I have observed that when I place the two females alone, the younger female starts to behave like a male , attacking, following, biting, ramming her mother. The only thing she has not done is climb. I am lost for an explanation so if anyone has any plausible explanations to enlighten me on this weird behavior, they can do so below.

Thanks to all who answer.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

Just to be sure we're on the same page - these are Egyptian tortoises, right?

It sometimes works out that two tortoises together fight, or one tries to assert dominance over the other, or chase the other out of his territory. When you've got three together, the male is probably the dominant one, and the young female keeps in her place.

Can we see pictures of your tortoises? We don't have many Kleinmanni keepers on the Forum.

 

[The Maltese tortoise]

Yes it is true, unfortunately their numbers are dwindling , I do not have any pictures on hand but will post some as soon as possible.

 

[The Maltese tortoise]

This is the 1 month old baby

 

[Yvonne G]

Beautiful!

 

[The Maltese tortoise]

here are my other three tortoises

 

[ZEROPILOT]

The behavior is anything BUT unusual. They are solitary creatures. I believe that only the red and the yellow footed tortoises enjoy living in groups and even then , not all of the time. Mine (RF) all get along, but I have very large pens that have doors that I can use to separate annoyed tortoises from one another.

 

[The Maltese tortoise]

Thanks for all your advice, I do believe that it is more a sort of dominance thing since she doesn't seem to act strange when there's the male around

 

[[email protected]]

The behavior is anything BUT unusual. They are solitary creatures. I believe that only the red and the yellow footed tortoises enjoy living in groups and even then , not all of the time. Mine (RF) all get along, but I have very large pens that have doors that I can use to separate annoyed tortoises from one another.

I keep my egyptians in large groups and they actually do better when they have "companions".

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks for all your advice, I do believe that it is more a sort of dominance thing since she doesn't seem to act strange when there's the male around

this behavior i have also in my group, 12 of them and this is normal behavior as stated.

 

[tortadise]

Same here. With young and adult specimens.

 

[ismail]

Hi there. Nice kleinmenni you've got. Do you keep them in the garden all year round? What do you feed them?

 

[The Maltese tortoise]

Not always. In the Winter we keep them inside at night and when it rains since it would be too cold for them outside. In the summer all day outside then since our summers are quite hot and they seem to stay in that kind of temperature.we wash them almost on a daily basis in the summer to maintain hydration.If it rains then we get them inside immediately. In summer we may bring them inside as a precautionary measure since there may be rodents running around outside. Normally I feed them lettuce, banana, strawberries, watermelon, tomatoes, they even like to eat certain types of flowers such as morning glory. If there are any more foods that they may enjoy please let me know.

 

[[email protected]]

This is the 1 month old baby

I have 12 of them in different sizes and age, I just love them!!!

 

[[email protected]]

Not always. In the Winter we keep them inside at night and when it rains since it would be too cold for them outside. In the summer all day outside then since our summers are quite hot and they seem to stay in that kind of temperature.we wash them almost on a daily basis in the summer to maintain hydration.If it rains then we get them inside immediately. In summer we may bring them inside as a precautionary measure since there may be rodents running around outside. Normally I feed them lettuce, banana, strawberries, watermelon, tomatoes, they even like to eat certain types of flowers such as morning glory. If there are any more foods that they may enjoy please let me know.

Since it is a desert tortoise I never feed them banana, strawberries, watermelon. I tend now to feed more weeds and less and less lettuce, mulberry leaves, grape leaves, albuten flower, hibiscus flowers...