Housing Female Russians Together?

jharris01

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Hi there - new member looking for advice on the possibility of housing two Russians together.

I have an 8 year old female Russian tortoise (owner of 5 years) housed in a tortoise table that’s approx 3’ by 5’.

Recently, to my surprise, I found a Russian tortoise in the middle of a busy street. I took the tortoise home and have been unable to find the owners or anyone looking for a new pet. I am pretty confident that she’s female. She is probably 1.5” - 2” longer than my current tortoise. To my dislike, I have her in a 40 gallon aquarium as a makeshift home.

At this point not sure what my options are for housing. Never planned on having a second tortoise. From what I’ve read keeping, keeping tortoises together seems to be less than ideal, but I was hoping to possible get some insight from anyone else who may have experience putting together two female Russian tortoises? She seems healthy, can double check with a vet before introducing, but not too keen on creating a toxic environment between my resident tortoise and this new gal.

Appreciate any insight!
 

ZEROPILOT

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Russians fight.
Males. Females. It's kind of what they're known for.
They're very active and very scrappy.
I wouldn't even consider it.
These guys chomp off tails and limbs. They don't just follow each other around like some other species when they are being aggressive.
And keep the new one far away from the older one because of possible cross contamination with pathogens or diseases.
You literally don't know where he or she came from.
3 months minimum of quarantine is always required.
And two of ANY species is never encouraged.
ESPECIALLY Russians
 
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Tom

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Hi there - new member looking for advice on the possibility of housing two Russians together.

I have an 8 year old female Russian tortoise (owner of 5 years) housed in a tortoise table that’s approx 3’ by 5’.

Recently, to my surprise, I found a Russian tortoise in the middle of a busy street. I took the tortoise home and have been unable to find the owners or anyone looking for a new pet. I am pretty confident that she’s female. She is probably 1.5” - 2” longer than my current tortoise. To my dislike, I have her in a 40 gallon aquarium as a makeshift home.

At this point not sure what my options are for housing. Never planned on having a second tortoise. From what I’ve read keeping, keeping tortoises together seems to be less than ideal, but I was hoping to possible get some insight from anyone else who may have experience putting together two female Russian tortoises? She seems healthy, can double check with a vet before introducing, but not too keen on creating a toxic environment between my resident tortoise and this new gal.

Appreciate any insight!
Hello and welcome.

Tortoises should never live as pairs. Sexes don't matter. As ZEROPILOT pointed out, Russians are especially bad about this. This is not "less than ideal". This is a recipe for disaster.

And quarantine.

And your enclosure is already too small for one tortoise. Adding more wouldn't be a good idea even without all these other reasons.

Its fantastic that you rescued this tortoise and tried to find the owner, but if you want to keep it, you will need to make a separate enclosure.
 
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