Meet Olive and Feta

[hambiney]

Hi all -

Meet Olive (smaller one) and Feta (larger one) who came to me as hatchlings in early January. When I got them they were pretty close to the same size with Feta being just a little bit bigger. Now Feta is much bigger but both eat and exercise about the same amounts. They are supposed to be females. They seems happy and active and get lots of freshly grown food with good variety. Any thoughts as to size difference? Is one a male maybe?

Thanks,

Hambiney

 

[birdandtortoiselover]

Cute names and cute torts! They are still too small to accurately determine if male or female. You should know that keeping tortoises in pairs can sometimes lead to bullying/dominance. How large is their enclosure?

 

[hambiney]

Outside is 3 ft by 4 ft and inside is 1 ft by 2.5 ft. Inside will be increasing soon.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

If the outside enclosure is large with many sight barriers, then keeping two tortoises together is probably ok, however, when you have a size discrepancy, like YOU do, its usually because the more dominant tortoise (the bigger one) is telling the more submissive tortoise to get out of the territory. The smaller tortoise can't leave the territory and this leads to his growing less and staying smaller, plus its stressful for him/her.

 

[želva]

They're cute.