Two Yellow Foots

[KiwiLychee]

I've had Kiwi, my first tortoise, for 5 years now. I recently just got another tortoise named Lychee just three days ago. Depending on the sex of Lychee I'd definitely be interested in breeding them as soon as Lychee is mature.

I've been keeping them in a separate enclosures for now. I don't know how Kiwi will react to a new baby Yellow Footie like Lychee. Mostly I'm nervous that Kiwi will be territorial and attack Lychee.

Has anyone had any experiences having two tortoises of different sizes and maturity together in the same enclosure? Are Yellow Foots usually aggressive toward each other?

Many thanks for your replies!

 

[BILBO-03]

I don't know about yellow foots but tortoises never do good in pairs but I would like to see a pic of your tort

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

I don't like to keep different sizes together. The bigger one doesn't respect the smaller one's space and they usually get trampled. YFs are slightly more aggressive than RFs are. I had three YFs hatch several years ago and I kept them all in the same habitat. All three ended up losing their tails (bitten off by the other litter mates). There was no one aggressor. They were an equal opportunity group.

Once they are big enough to live outside, they get along pretty good in a large outdoor yard.

 

[jockma]

I definitely don't like the odds here, with the size difference and the fact that you'd be introducing a new tort into Kiwi's kingdom of 5 years. I would keep them separate indefinitely, unless you can house them outside and Lychee catches up in size.

I love their names.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

There is also the real and possible danger of parasites being introduced by the new tortoise.....
Even IF they were ever to be housed together, a quarantine period is mandatory.

 

[Anyfoot]

I very nearly got some yellowfoots a while back, like an idiot I thought they would be ok with reds. Anyway I did a bit of research and spoke to some people and the outcome was they are more aggressive than reds and would probably dominate. I believe that the males can be very aggressive towards each other and live an almost solitary life in the wild. They don't seem to group up like the redfoots do. So hopefully you will not have 2 males.
@tortadise may be able to give you more details on this species.

 

[tortadise]

Yep. About 3-4 times a year during season changes we have to separate our male Yellowfoots. Almost lost one of them a few weeks ago actually. The alpha male ripped some flesh off the neck of the other male barely missing some veins. Cleaned and sutured he's fine. This species if kept in a suitable environment can display extremely aggressive behavior. It's not all the time though. Like stated above, I noticed over the 12 years in keeping them that it's purely based off season changing. Where this species comes from they have dry and wet seasons only. Typically breeding is always taking place when a male finds a female in the wild. But it really kicks off when dry season going into wet season.

 

[KiwiLychee]

Thanks everyone for your replies! It was actually my fathers idea of getting an additional little one and has done a ton of research on breeding tortoises. What he, and admittedly I, failed to do was search up if two Yellow Foots would even be okay together (currently kicking myself in the butt for this). Anyway they are currently living in separate enclosures.

I did briefly introduce Kiwi to Lychee. Kiwi was very curious as to what Lychee was and kept on, what appears to be, sniffing the little one and following it around. Lychee on the other hand was uninterested in Kiwi and would walk away from him haha. It was like a 3 minute meet and greet and then I separated them.

Thank you again for your replies! I really do appreciate it and I look forward to talking to everyone again in this Forum!

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Welcome to the Forum.
Would love to see pictures if possible.
Looks like aggressive behaviour already.
Glad you found this forum!

 

[jockma]

Following is a form of intimidation, it's one of the many ways they bully and harass one another. It's good they're separate.

Don't worry about it, tons of folks pair torts up without realizing it's dangerous. It's hard to imagine they could be so aggressive.