pancake tortoise and greek tortoise question

[bigbeaks]

Hi,
I currently have two greek tortoises in a large enclosure. I have found someone that has a pancake tortoise that I would like to purchase and keep it with my greeks. I would like to know anyone's opinion of that? Also, my greeks are about 5" long. I have always kept them a warm humid hide box for sleeping at night. The have no pyramiding at all. I have two questions.... One is how long do I continue to offer my greeks a humid hide box? And is it ok for the pancake to use the humid hide box? I have two pictures of the pancake I'm thinking of purchasing, and wanted to know if the amount of pyramiding he has is normal for this breed. I don't really know a lot about them since I've never had one. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[mel262011]

its not recommended to keep 2 different species of tortoise together. Can you make an enclosure for the pancake tortoise?

 

[HipsterTorts]

I would recommend not doing that.
Two separate enclosures would be the best possible thing.

 

[african cake queen]

hi, i think of i put another kind of tortoise in with my pancakes . there may be trouble. lindy

 

[Tom]

Its unanimous. Do not mix species. Those two also have fairly different housing requirements since one is from tropical Africa and one is from the temperate Mediterranean area. Plus they each have different gut flora and fauna. What is a commensal organism for one could lead to a deadly infestation for the other. Lastly, behaviorally, these two very different species will be speaking different languages and i is likely to lead to trouble.

I'm no expert on either species, but I would think a humid hide box is not needed for an adult tortoise of any species. If you are letting temps drop at night (as is the norm for most Testudo sp.) then a humid hide box could lead to a URTI. As I said, I'm no expert, so I hope one of our esteemed Testudo keepers will chime in if I am wrong about this.

That amount of pyramiding is "normal" for most of the CBB pancakes have seen (not very many, btw...), but it is not desirable. I'm holding two CBB baby pancakes for a friend temporarily and they have been in a reasonably humid enclosure with a proper humid hide box that they use a lot. So far so good. Still, I don't think you need one for a pancake that size.

 

[bigbeaks]

Ok, I have decided to not get the pancake tortoise at this time. I just don't believe he would do well with my greeks. It's one of those, "don't mess with a good thing".

 

[tortoisefanatic]

Ok, I have decided to not get the pancake tortoise at this time. I just don't believe he would do well with my greeks. It's one of those, "don't mess with a good thing".

Not to throw a wrench into things, but our pancakes (three of them) seem to get along fine with a young leo. They often sleep together, with the leo sometimes resting its head on the back of the pancakes. They eat together, roam around together in their 40 gallon tank, and generally seem to get along fine. When they go outside to plan in their 5' x 5' "pen," they will usually go their separate ways. Now understand that two of the pancakes were raised with this same leo, so they've been together for some time.

Alan

 

[Kristina]

Pancakes and Leos are both African tortoises. I would not recommend mixing species from different continents.