Kipley
Active Member
The thing is the more torts you have the more space you need. If there is plenty of room for all them all to spread out and avoid each other it may work, but in the confined space of a tortoise table, I think there would still eventually be problems and you would end up with 3 enclosures. One member had 3 torts (can't remember the species) and recently came home to find that the head had been bitten off one of them - absolutely horrific and they had ignored the start of bullying behaviour. I will try to find the post but it contains some horrible pictures. I don't know what outdoor space the OP has but my guess is that in the UK it's not going to be as big as US yards/gardens.
Right now the hatchlings range from 11 grams to 18 grams and are the size of a 50 Cent piece. They are in a relatively small 2 ft x 3 ft concrete mixing tub. I have a wooden Turtle table with a set of lights ready to go at an instant's notice. I have another large tub ready to go as a third enclosure - I'd have to get a UVB tube for it though.
I live on 1/2 acre securely fenced lot backed up to forest, so plenty of room. I've already staked out an 8ft x 20 ft area for the tortoises outside enclosure and I plan to construct it so it can be divided into 2 or 3 separate enclosures as the need arises. It will have lots of visual barriers as well.
As Grandpa Turtle 144 said above, the key is knowing what to watch for, and that is what I've been educating myself on for the past few weeks. Stalking, staring, food aggression or preventing others from getting near the food, climbing on, etc. All the subtle signs that I'm trying to acquaint myself with before such behavior is evident.
I believe I went into this (for once!) with adequate background work and research before bringing the Tortoises home. Keeping my fingers crossed that holds true.