Male/Female - Female aggressor

[BuffsTorts]

Hello
I have had 2 Russians for a few months, clean fecals just done on both of them
Male and a Female.
My female seems to be a beast, I have put the 2 together under supervision a few times now for up to 2-3 hours at a time.
Sometimes my female is VERY aggressive and rams my male with her shell.
Is this normal? I was expecting HIM to be the aggressor.

She is 5.8" and he is 4.5".

I have a second female lined up, but I was hoping I could put the pair together in a 4x5' cage, and use my old 2x5 cage for the new female.

When they are together I would say only 5% of the time she is a meany, the rest they walk around each other sniff each other, walk away from each other, just like I would have expected.
But the 'fighting' annoys me because now I do not have a cage for a new female
I eventually want to breed.

Is it normal for the female to be aggressive? Will she calm down over time with him? Can I continue to put them together supervised and see if she backs off?

They have been sharing dinner the last few nights very peacefully and I would ohh so love to have them together...
Please give me suggestions.
Thanks

 

[egyptiandan]

She wants to get bred and he's not interested. Thats why she is ramming him.

Danny

 

[BuffsTorts]

She wants to get bred and he's not interested. Thats why she is ramming him.

Danny

LOL good news, somewhat lol
Can I let her beat on him a little? He just gets up and walks away from her then she gets tired of him and goes off on her own.

Or any ideas how I can help him out?

 

[egyptiandan]

I'd just leave them together. Not much you can do for him as he may need a bit more size to get interested in the girls.

Danny

 

[BuffsTorts]

I'd just leave them together. Not much you can do for him as he may need a bit more size to get interested in the girls.

Danny

Awesome, I will continue to have them eat together and spend the supervised time together until I get the new female in 2 weeks, and then I will try a little more permanent togetherness.
I was told on the RFUK forum he was at least 7-10 years old.

 

[egyptiandan]

It's more size than age that determines whether a tortoise is adult or not.

Danny

 

[BuffsTorts]

Cool

 

[Stephanie Logan]

She wants to get bred and he's not interested. Thats why she is ramming him.
Danny

OMG, alert the media! Surely this is an historic First.

 

[egyptiandan]

It is

It happens here all the time, though usually the male gets the idea after a couple of days.

Danny

 

[BuffsTorts]

LOL
Today when she almost tried to ram him, he looked at her opened his mouth for about 3 seconds, then proceeded to walk over her to get to greener pastures, and she was helpless and just sat there saddened.

I rearranged their cage and now I have a 4" circle that is 105o, going down to 90 about 12" away.
Is this hot spot a concern, or will they just choose to sit elsewhere if they think it is to hot?
The low spot of the cage is usually about 75, about 50% of the cage is 80ish.
20 sq feet.