Planning ahead with caution.

[Tanner Fry]

For a while now I have been slowly upgrading my Russians enclosure (indoor) and I have maxed out the space in my apartment. Its relatively common knowledge that you should never have one female and one Male in the same enclosure no matter the size however I haven't read about the results of female and female. It is possible that they would still fight each other but I would like to know what other people think. This is of course planning far into the future. I would like to get more tortoises (even if in separate enclosures) I simply wanted to know if one female and female would even be possible in a 10ft by 1.5 ft tort table. Another question that I have been wanting to ask (probably a truly horrible idea) would be putting a female cherryhead in with female Russian tort. Of course when I move in a couple of years the cherryhead would have it's own outdoor enclosure (I would get a house this time). Would interspecies mix work for a year or so? I have heard that redfoots in general are friendlier with each other than the Russians so would two female cherryheads be okay together? Or maybe a 3-1 ratio of three females to one male in a very large enclosure work? Haven't done anything yet and wont for a while but I really want to start experimenting and raising different species!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Russians are some of the scrappiest, most UN social tortoises out there.
I'm going to guess that two of ANY sex would not work for very long. Even given a lot of space. They will seek each other out and fight.
I can say for certain that any Russian would be a horrible roommate for any Redfoot. Aside from the regular reasons why not to mix species....Mixing one of the most peaceful species with one of the biggest brawlers would be a recipe for disaster.
The only female/female situation I ever saw that worked was in the case of Redfoot. But the two, old females had a 400 square foot enclosure full of bushy plants.
Redfoot often do very well in groups of just females or with 2 or more females per Male. But they must have loads of room. And still, there will always be individuals that won't want to play by the rules and will need to be removed.
I wouldn't attempt to put ANYTHING in with a Russian tortoise if it were me.
It will eventually go badly.

 

[Tanner Fry]

As I figured. I wanted to make sure before I ever did anything and the last thing I want is to start a WWE match between my tortoises!

Russians are some of the scrappiest, most UN social tortoises out there.
I'm going to guess that two of ANY sex would not work for very long. Even given a lot of space. They will seek each other out and fight.
I can say for certain that any Russian would be a horrible roommate for any Redfoot. Aside from the regular reasons why not to mix species....Mixing one of the most peaceful species with one of the biggest brawlers would be a recipe for disaster.
The only female/female situation I ever saw that worked was in the case of Redfoot. But the two, old females had a 400 square foot enclosure full of bushy plants.
Redfoot often do very well in groups of just females or with 2 or more females per Male. But they must have loads of room. And still, there will always be individuals that won't want to play by the rules and will need to be removed.
I wouldn't attempt to put ANYTHING in with a Russian tortoise if it were me.
It will eventually go badly.

 

[Tom]

I agree with ZEROPILOT. Russians and redfoots are incompatible in every way. Totally different temperature and housing needs. Different diets. Different temperaments, etc... Species should never be mixed.

Tortoises should never be kept in pairs. Sexes don't matter. Groups can sometimes work, but not pairs.