what is going on?

[robertaminder]

ok i have just made a new enclosure for my 2 Russian tortoises and they were doin fine. The 5 year old was looking around so the 2-3 year old(not sure how old it is) went to eat(food sharing slate tile), after a while the 5 year old came up to the younger one and started bobbing his head and the younger one started to cower down, then it pooped out of fear i guess.


what happened is the older one being a bully?
is that a mating call?
or what?

 

[robertaminder]

oh yea i forgot to mention the 5year old is a male and i am not to sure about the younger one

 

[Yvonne G]

That is breeding behavior, but it is also a dominance thing. Females do it to other females and bigger torts do it to smaller torts. As long as the smaller one "gives in" there shouldn't be a problem. But if the smaller one doesn't allow the bigger one to be top dog, you might have to separate them.

Yvonne

 

[Crazy1]

Yep, breeding behavior is very similar to aggressive or dominance behavior. Head bobbing, ramming, mounting and biting are behaviors of both. I would, like Yvonne stated, keep a close eye on them and separate if things get to be a problem or it seems one is stressing the other out, at least until you are sure what sex they are. Even if they are a pair you may have to separate them to give the female a rest from time to time.

 

[robertaminder]

WOW thanks....... I'm glad I made the cage big enough to put a seperator in it if it gets out of hand.....I'm not sure but I think the little one is male and I know for sure the larger one is male the tail is off to the side.