Russian and Gopher live together

[satdiver]

I know you are not supposed to mix species, but a guy at work has raised a baby russian and baby desert tortoise together since they were babies. They have been living together outside year round for over five years now in southern Nevada.

I was surprised by this and thought they would get one another sick being different species and told him that is not a good idea. He said they both inhabit similar habitats in the wild and both species hibernate and they actually hibernate together as well. Don't know if they are male or female but his enclosure is pretty big with several hides and two burrows.

So, this left me questioning everything I have read about mixing species, these two torts seem to live together without issue. My russian tortoise is now just over a year old and still living in his zoomed box and growing like a weed and I will be moving him to an outdoor enclosure this spring, and he will remain a solitary animal.

Anyone else ever hear of a desert tortoise and russian tortoise living together or any other type tortoises living together? Who knows maybe its just a one in a million occurrence that these two species of tortoises seem to do well living outdoors year round.

 

[KarenSoCal]

Maybe their large enclosure is prolonging the inevitable. I don't know anything about Russians, but I do know that DT's do not mature sexually until 10-15 years old. If Russians develop similarly, your guy at work may have a shock when he finds the carnage on the day both these torts start feeling their hormones!

Not only that, but my understanding is that Russians are very scrappy and very territorial.

I don't believe this will end well. As @Tom says "they get along fine...until the day they don't".

Even if male and female, they are different species of tortoise, and I have never heard of these 2 crossbreeding.

Tell your coworker he has a disaster waiting to happen if he doesn't change the situation.

 

[Tom]

When we say do not mix species because of disease potential, it does not mean that 100% of the time all tortoises will die if exposed to foreign species. Sometimes people do it and get away with it. Sometimes they don't. Its a form of "Russian roulette".

In any case two tortoises should not live as a pair. Especially not these two scrappy species. Because someone has done it and they are still alive, does not mean it has been good for them, or that the next person who attempts it will also have tortoises that last that way for five years. Again, its very risky behavior and catastrophe is probable and likely.

Your co-worker is flirting with disaster. He/is either ignorant or he doesn't care about the welfare of the animals he is responsible for. Its a bad situation in either case. I hope that you can convince him to make some changes before the tortoises make the changes for him.

 

[satdiver]

Well I doubt he will build a different enclosure for one of them as I suggested and I referred him to this site and the http://tortoisegroup.org/ for more info. it's to bad too because his yard is more than large enough for another enclosure.

Now on the plus side, I was given two baby desert tortoises today they hatched in September. I got my Russian when he was about 2-3 months old as well and he is doing just fine, he lives in a zoomed tortoise box with heat and UVB bulbs, his shell is nice and round no pyramiding and he seems to be doing great. So is raising a baby desert tortoise the same as a baby Russian?

 

[Tom]

So is raising a baby desert tortoise the same as a baby Russian?

Yes. Nearly identical. The only real difference is that DTs should have some grass in the diet and Russians don't need it. Looks like you need 3 enclosures.

Here is the Russian info. The last one is a sulcata feeding sheet, but the info applies to DTs too. There is a good food list to refer to.
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/russian-tortoise-care-sheet.80698/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

Most of the info you'll find for baby DTs is wrong and will lead to their death. They need to be soaked daily, they need damp substate to dig into, and they do not do better outside.

 

[satdiver]

Tom,
Thanks for the info. My son and his wife are keeping the baby desert tortoises, they are in a large storage bin with coco coir bedding and a log hide spot. I am getting them the zoomed powersun bulb as well.

 

[Yvonne G]

The thing is, tortoises metabolism is slow. They may have something growing inside them from being exposed to microorganisms that they're not used to, and it may take a very long time to adversely affect them. So one day one of them gets sick and dies and the guy wonders what happened, not even considering the fact that tortoises from different continents have been living together.

 

[Cathie G]

Maybe their large enclosure is prolonging the inevitable. I don't know anything about Russians, but I do know that DT's do not mature sexually until 10-15 years old. If Russians develop similarly, your guy at work may have a shock when he finds the carnage on the day both these torts start feeling their hormones!

Not only that, but my understanding is that Russians are very scrappy and very territorial.

I don't believe this will end well. As @Tom says "they get along fine...until the day they don't".

Even if male and female, they are different species of tortoise, and I have never heard of these 2 crossbreeding.

Tell your coworker he has a disaster waiting to happen if he doesn't change the situation.

I've always had a little bit of worry that my tortoise is lonely even though I know better. So I tried him out with Daisy May. My tortoise is a little buthead and that lasted all of 5 minutes. I removed Daisy May to safety.