Tortoise doing push ups

[EppsDynasty]

So the lady at the animal shelter needed to rehome 2 hermanns tortoises she has had for 3 years. This is where we come in, so now we have 2 hermanns, seems to be male and female. My question(s) are...........Both seem to push their front legs like they are doing push ups. Is this normal for them? I have seen this behavior in some videos but unsure if it's a healthy behavior. My next question is, do they have issues with back legs when cold? They seem to stretch both back legs out and not use em like they should. We live in the desert some humidity is pretty much non-existent here. So every morning we give them a 10 minute soak then feed. When I pick them up they just keep back legs out, after soak they use as normal. I ask these questions because for the 3 yrs. she had them the care was not great. As it's very dry here and humidity is vital for proper care Any suggestions would help out. We have Green house panels that we are going to use to make a little greenhouse in their enclosure for a humid environment. Saw that on a care video for them.

 

[SinLA]

can you post a video? TO do so you would post it somewhere else like youtube and then link here

 

[EppsDynasty]

Ill have to try and get one today and post it to my youtube. Having a very challenging time figuring out this pic and video thing. I can build you a house from start to finish, fix your car, tractor but can't figure out how to get a picture posted here.

 

[wellington]

Do not house them together. Tortoises should never be housed in pairs. Separate them ASAP.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Dana: The 'push up' thing is them breathing. Youngish tortoises push their front legs in and out to aid in breathing.

The back legs thing is telling you they're not warm enough. They're stretching out their legs to get more "sun" shining on bare skin to help them get UVB and heat.

The reason you want to separate them is because the male will want to breed the female all the time and it's stressful for her. She will eventually just hide in a corner to get away from him. If it weren't a male/female ratio, it's still stressful because you would have a top dog and an underdog. The top dog tells the under dog to get out of his territory, which he can't do because of the four walls. This is stressful for both of them. Stress causes lower resistance to pathogens and eventually a sick tortoise or two.

 

[EppsDynasty]

Thank you Yvonne, was pretty sure about the legs but learned something new. Had no idea of the breathing thing. So when we brought them home it was obvious the male was bugging her. Being firm believers in SEPERATE tortoises we did exactly that. As I started to educate myself on this species I found a Sticky here that says 2 males to 4 females. This very much so confused me, especially coming from here. We knew that the male was a problem, and would just chase her "sick". Thank you for confirming that they need/have to be seperate.

 

[Yvonne G]

Thank you Yvonne, was pretty sure about the legs but learned something new. Had no idea of the breathing thing. So when we brought them home it was obvious the male was bugging her. Being firm believers in SEPERATE tortoises we did exactly that. As I started to educate myself on this species I found a Sticky here that says 2 males to 4 females. This very much so confused me, especially coming from here. We knew that the male was a problem, and would just chase her "sick". Thank you for confirming that they need/have to be seperate.

It always works better when there are more than two. One male with two or more females works better because he's not always picking on the same female. The two to four ratio is tricky because you have to be alert to the two males fighting.