Lady of the Tort Fort
New Member
Hi everyone!
I'm new on the forum.
I'm also quite new to keeping tortoises, as I am the owner of two one-year-old Russians since three months. Their names are Yoda and Platvoet (Dutch for Little Foot from The Land before Time). The forum has already helped me through a lot of beginner stress, but now I have a question that I haven't found the answer to yet.
When I decided to get a pet tortoise, I first thought I would buy just one, since I had read advice about agressive or dominant behavior from male tortoises and I don't have enough room to keep two adult tortoises separately when one of them turns out to be male or very dominant anyway.
However, the breeder told me that young tortoises often refuse to eat and keeping them as a pair would inspire them to eat properly. Since the vet agreed to that and the pet store was struggling with hatchlings that refused to eat, I bought two one-year-old Russians (already keeping in mind that I might have to find a new owner for one of them eventually).
Both are doing fine, they're active, seem healthy and have a big appetite. They seem to get along most of the time and they do push each other off the best basking spot, but rarely bite each other's legs. Neither seems really dominant yet.
However, Yoda is recently very interested in the flexible, relatively thin skin on Platvoet's neck. I've seen Yoda bite that skin so hard he flipped poor Platvoet on his back last week and yesterday Yoda was chewing something that looked like shedded skin. Platvoet didn't bleed and Yoda's behavior seemed like curiosity rather than agression, but it did get me worried about having to separate them soon.
So my question is: what is your experience with young Russians refusing food when they are kept alone? Is there an optimal age/ developmental stage when it is 'safe' to separate them to avoid feeding problems?
I'm new on the forum.
I'm also quite new to keeping tortoises, as I am the owner of two one-year-old Russians since three months. Their names are Yoda and Platvoet (Dutch for Little Foot from The Land before Time). The forum has already helped me through a lot of beginner stress, but now I have a question that I haven't found the answer to yet.
When I decided to get a pet tortoise, I first thought I would buy just one, since I had read advice about agressive or dominant behavior from male tortoises and I don't have enough room to keep two adult tortoises separately when one of them turns out to be male or very dominant anyway.
However, the breeder told me that young tortoises often refuse to eat and keeping them as a pair would inspire them to eat properly. Since the vet agreed to that and the pet store was struggling with hatchlings that refused to eat, I bought two one-year-old Russians (already keeping in mind that I might have to find a new owner for one of them eventually).
Both are doing fine, they're active, seem healthy and have a big appetite. They seem to get along most of the time and they do push each other off the best basking spot, but rarely bite each other's legs. Neither seems really dominant yet.
However, Yoda is recently very interested in the flexible, relatively thin skin on Platvoet's neck. I've seen Yoda bite that skin so hard he flipped poor Platvoet on his back last week and yesterday Yoda was chewing something that looked like shedded skin. Platvoet didn't bleed and Yoda's behavior seemed like curiosity rather than agression, but it did get me worried about having to separate them soon.
So my question is: what is your experience with young Russians refusing food when they are kept alone? Is there an optimal age/ developmental stage when it is 'safe' to separate them to avoid feeding problems?