New Tortoise being attacked all the time

[Greenie29]

Ive had a horsefield tortoise for about 8 months now which i bought from a pet shop who said its about 18 months to 2 years old, they said its most likely a female from all the tortoises they've seen before... named her Squirtle... Squirt for short... and on thursday last week was my birthday so my mum decided to take me back to the same place and get me another one for company so im guessing its about 18 months to 2 years old and they said its most likely a boy... we named him tommy...

Anyway tommy is about half the size of squirt and since thursday squirt has been "attacking" tommy almost all the time... she does this thing where she tries to climb on top of him and then when he pushes away she tries to bite his head but her head shakes alot when she does this...

The point of this post is... please can someone tell me what the hell is going on? ive tried to keep them seperated as much as possible but im really worried that one of the is going to get hurt or something

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Greenie29, and welcome to the Forum!!

It's just not a good idea to have two Russian tortoises in the same indoor enclosure. They do not play nice!!! (as you've found out)

It really doesn't matter if one is male and the other is female, or if you have I.D.'d their sex correctly. The problem is that the first tortoise has claimed the habitat as belonging to her/him. It is her territory. And now you've added another tortoise to her territory. They are solitary creatures. They don't live together in the wild. They don't live in pairs or groups or herds. They live alone, and that's how they want to live. This way they don't have to compete for the best hiding place or for the food.

My advice is to set up two separate habitats, and plan on it being that way for the rest of both tortoises' lives. Either that, or re-home one of them.

 

[gregcalverley0327]

Maybe trying to breed?


0.3.0 sulcata tortoise
(Manavi, aspen, Bronx)
1.0.0 Russian tortoise
(Ivan)
1 Great Dane
(Koko)

 

[gieseygirly]

Sounds like the female might actually be a male!? Either way, you've got to separate them and keep it that way. It will just get worse and eventually one of them (probably the smaller) will end up really hurt or dead.

 

[Tom]

I agree with Yvonne. 'Nuff said.

 

[Greenie29]

Hi Yvonne,

Thank you for answering so quickly, i will get to looking for a new one as quick as possible.

Thanks everyone else who posted so quickly as well

Thanks again,

 

[JoesMum]

I agree with Yvonne too. Regardless of that any new tort should be kept entirely separately, IN QUARANTINE, for a good 6 months to prevent either making the other sick. They must be separated.

After that, you can try introducing them in a large enclosure, but may have to accept that separation is permanent. It is more likely to be successful if the enclosure is new to both of them, so that Squirt doesn't see it as her/his territory being invaded.

By the way mental and physical bullying isn't restricted to males. Females will do both too.

 

[bigsteaks]

hey there
we got a great Russian male in December from pets mart. he was in great health (for a pets mart tort) and really seemed to enjoy his table we built him.
2 months went by and we rescued another male from a college student who could no longer care for him properly. we had some similar problems at forst with bullying ad nipping and just constant nonsense. it was going in both directions. some days Tank would bully Leonard and vice versa. after some constant attention from my wife and myself and some separation they are now the best-est buddies a tort could have. they fuss over the food a little but other than that they sleep nestled with each other they bask together and they generally enjoy there time together. so dont give up just yet separate them when they are bugging each other and as silly as it seems talk to them like they are kids!!!!!! that's what worked for me.

 

[jeffstort]

Cool it's good they get along

 

[Tom]

hey there
we got a great Russian male in December from pets mart. he was in great health (for a pets mart tort) and really seemed to enjoy his table we built him.
2 months went by and we rescued another male from a college student who could no longer care for him properly. we had some similar problems at forst with bullying ad nipping and just constant nonsense. it was going in both directions. some days Tank would bully Leonard and vice versa. after some constant attention from my wife and myself and some separation they are now the best-est buddies a tort could have. they fuss over the food a little but other than that they sleep nestled with each other they bask together and they generally enjoy there time together. so dont give up just yet separate them when they are bugging each other and as silly as it seems talk to them like they are kids!!!!!! that's what worked for me.

This is not good advice. Both of your tortoises might have temporarily stopped continuously trying to rip each other apart, but I can assure you, they are not "buddies" and both would rather live alone.

And tortoise can't hear, so it doesn't matter how you talk to them.

 

[MikeCow1]

I'm with Yvonne on this one, too. You really shouldn't try and keep two Russians together. They are way too territorial

 

[jjsull33]

I agree with Yvonne also, my "best buddy" russians lived fine for years then all the sudden he started attacking her and hurt her pretty bad. No matter how much I tried to intervine he kept going for it. Needless to say they no longer live with each other, and to this day any time he sees her while they wander the yard during cleanings he will run straight for her and do it again, and he is not just trying to mate he never attempts to mount just bites, rams and chases away.

 

[ben2684]

My tort Terence I 'inherited' as his owner at the time/friend found him sat with one of her other Russians head in his mouth. There was lots of blood and several trips to the vet. Luckily little tortie survived and I Got Terence!! They had previously lived together for three years without any problems. Tortoises are solitary animals. As much as we would like to give them human characteristics and proclaim them 'buddies' I reckon they would be much happier if they were in their own enclosures so that they could call their space their own. By no means am I an expert (quite the reverse!!!) but listen to the more knowledgeable people on this forum, they know their stuff

 

[Greenie29]

Thanks again to everyone who posted and gave me advice but i think i will listen to yvonne here (well everyone said the same lol), there separated now... i emptied a massive draw from my chest of draws and tommy (the new one) is living in there until i sort out another table and lights and everything