same genders living together?

[hannah]

hi! my male began attacking my juvinile female so i gave her away to a safer home. but i miss having two. perhaps i should have given him away to my friend and kept her and got another female.....anyway, can two males live together?
is one lonely? he seems sad with the female gone, but most likely thats me being 'anthropor....' uh, whatever that word is. he eats fine, he climbs around, he poops, he's fine. it just seems sad to ME!
but he was giving her hell and placing her in a safer home was a good move.....so, can i get another male at some point or do they have territory issues and really prefer not to deal with one another?

 

[katesgoey]

First I think it was responsible of you to find a safer home for your female if you felt he was hurting her. I'm assuming you didn't have room to separate the male and female. I say that because even if you get another male, they may or may not get along and would have to be separated....or you could get a different species and set it up separately, if you have room. That might make you feel better, but your male won't really care - they don't get lonely so he'll be fine by himself.

 

[Jacqui]

It could go either way, he could have no issues with another male or may continue the same behavior, as he did with the female. If it makes you feel any better, the female would have been the same way. It's just always a chance you take when adding another tortoise.

As to if they need a friend, most folks say no. That in the wild, they only come together for breeding. However, you hear too many stories of how they seem to form bonds with each other. I myself had a pair of Bells Hingebacks that bonded tightly with each other. I also notice how often some of my tortoises seem to spend a large part of their day near each other, even when in large enclosures. So who is really to say?

The main issue is what will you do, if your old tortoise does not accept having the new one around? Is it worth it to you, to try again?

 

[Lucymay]

I have 3 male Russians living together in a large outdoor enclosure. I started with one and added the other 2 at the same time. Just as Jacqui said, mine seem to stay near each other for the better part of their day. I've never had any issues with them 'fighting'.

 

[Torts]

I think it really depends on your enclosure. If it is not a large enclosure, the males will most definitely fight...sometimes they fight even if they do have a large enclosure. I do believe that tortoises enjoy being with eachother. We had our first RT male by himself for about a year and he became listless and depressed. When we introduced him to a "female" (so we thought) he was extremely happy. His appetite came back and he was back to himself again. This lasted about a year or so until our "female" turned out to be a male. Once this happened they became very territorial and aggressive.

Currently the two males are separated and I have one female living with my original male. He tends to be a little aggressive with her but we separate them when this happens. I have read that in an ideal enclosure situation there should be 2-3 females per male to avoid stress on the females.

 

[zekie]

im planing bo buy a female with my male star too. i hope they get along.

 

[dmmj]

The main issue with russians and fighting IMHO is space and lots and lots of hides, I house 3 russias together 1 male 1 female and 1 subadult and they do not fight the male has been trying to mate with the female but so far she does not seem interested, but I have about a dozen hides spread out thru their enclosure. cinderblocks on their side and half buried clay pots an one big buried plastic container, so tht is my advice for keeping multiple russians together, but rememeber some russsains are just bullies also.