Same enclosure for two star
- Thread starter Mishti
- Start date
Are you asking for indoors or outside? The general answer is, as big as possible. It's not easy to keep TWO tortoises in the same enclosure, especially indoors. When you have two together, there is always a dominant and a subordinate. The subordinate is constantly being told to get out of the territory (even if you can't see it with your own eyes, it IS happening), and because they're contained within walls, he can't escape the dominant tortoise.
If you house them outside it's a bit easier because you can have a large area with quite a few sight barriers and the subordinate can get out of the other tortoise's sight. But it's still not ideal. One tortoise is best. If you want more, then separate enclosures works, or three or more tortoises works, but hardly ever does two work.
If you house them outside it's a bit easier because you can have a large area with quite a few sight barriers and the subordinate can get out of the other tortoise's sight. But it's still not ideal. One tortoise is best. If you want more, then separate enclosures works, or three or more tortoises works, but hardly ever does two work.
babies.... though I have two right now.... the female about 2.5-3" and male about 2" n m planning to have more.... but I need proper enclosure... coz I don't want them to fight.... or bully each other... what can I do so that the babies don bully each other while keeping them in the same enclosure??? pls guide me....
Well, I'll tell you what I would do and encourage you need to research other opinions on the forum about group dynamics to decide what's best for you.
With Indian Stars, I think they do very well in 1.1 pairs if set up well. For awhile now I have suspected they benefit from a monogamous type of relationship, and funny that this just came up in a conversation I had yesterday...anyway, that't not completely on topic when we're discussing babies and it's only a suspicion I have.
I don't know what your limitations are as far as available room, construction ability, that sort of thing, but for a couple/few babies you could probably get away with a 55 gallon Rubbermaid for as long as a year, depending on how quickly they grow. In my opinion, the key to any group dynamic, 1 male 1 female, 2 males 1 female, etc...is to provide multiple hiding areas, multiple feeding stations, and lots of site barriers. That way your tortoises aren't in competition over the best hiding spots or stress each other when they're trying to eat and can easily get away on their own.
Getting back to the group dynamic, if set up properly, even a 1.1 Indian Star group can be successful in my opinion. Most here do not feel that way, and there are plenty of threads on the topic so please check those out. Whatever you decide to do, you should have a back up plan in case one of your tortoises is either misbehaving or appears to be stressed and needs to be separated. This applies to 1.1 groups as much as 10.10.
With Indian Stars, I think they do very well in 1.1 pairs if set up well. For awhile now I have suspected they benefit from a monogamous type of relationship, and funny that this just came up in a conversation I had yesterday...anyway, that't not completely on topic when we're discussing babies and it's only a suspicion I have.
I don't know what your limitations are as far as available room, construction ability, that sort of thing, but for a couple/few babies you could probably get away with a 55 gallon Rubbermaid for as long as a year, depending on how quickly they grow. In my opinion, the key to any group dynamic, 1 male 1 female, 2 males 1 female, etc...is to provide multiple hiding areas, multiple feeding stations, and lots of site barriers. That way your tortoises aren't in competition over the best hiding spots or stress each other when they're trying to eat and can easily get away on their own.
Getting back to the group dynamic, if set up properly, even a 1.1 Indian Star group can be successful in my opinion. Most here do not feel that way, and there are plenty of threads on the topic so please check those out. Whatever you decide to do, you should have a back up plan in case one of your tortoises is either misbehaving or appears to be stressed and needs to be separated. This applies to 1.1 groups as much as 10.10.
I don't think you can know the sexes at that size, but either way you should build a 4x8' (122x244cm) closed chamber and divide it in half. This will last them a while longer, and eventually it would be good to build them each their own 4x8' enclosure.
Like this:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/closed-chambers.32333/
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