pterry
New Member
I know the obvious answers of "as soon as they start fighting", and "you shouldn't house more than one tortoise to begin with", but hear me out here.
I have two tortoises, one I had from 3 months old from a pet shop, now about 8 years old, and one more recent one I got from a rehoming situation, their documents list them as about 6 years old. I ended up popping them together as a last minute resort due to me being the literal only person this other person knew who had a tortoise, so it was less of a thought out plan and more of a necessary housing situation at the time.
But here's the thing; they get on great. My original tortoise has always been around other animals as I also rehab a lot of wild animals (mostly birds) and the majority of which always find their way under his basking lamps at some point or another, as does my cat, so he's an extremely chill tortoise. I also know for a fact he is male because a couple of years ago he had a *cough cough* prepubescent period where he wouldn't stop humping his decor for a while. Funnily enough it only lasted a couple of months and he hasn't done so since for a solid 2 years.
The newer tortoise I've had for over 6 months now. The person who gave him to me said they were a girl, but I'm honestly convinced he's a lad. Has a very concaved belly and such. Their papers list them as a 2016 hatchling, so they're about 6 now, which was when my tortoise reached his horny time. Not seeing any sort of frisky behaviour with this one though.
Obviously, both of them being male, I'm expecting something to happen eventually. You see all those videos of tortoises chasing balls and dogs and ankles across the garden to headbutt because its their territory and all that, but neither of mine have ever shown any aggression towards anything. I don't know if it's because they're too young still, or if I just lucked out with two very polite little torts.
They're not being bred, no females will ever come into the mix to set anything off. I never had any intention for a second tort either, this one was just fortunately so nice that I didn't need to immediately rehome him upon being given by a friend. So the question is, is there an estimated age period where they do start fighting, or have others had luck in which their torts have actually been able to live fine together without problems?
Probably gonna get a lot of angry people commenting, but hey ho.
I have two tortoises, one I had from 3 months old from a pet shop, now about 8 years old, and one more recent one I got from a rehoming situation, their documents list them as about 6 years old. I ended up popping them together as a last minute resort due to me being the literal only person this other person knew who had a tortoise, so it was less of a thought out plan and more of a necessary housing situation at the time.
But here's the thing; they get on great. My original tortoise has always been around other animals as I also rehab a lot of wild animals (mostly birds) and the majority of which always find their way under his basking lamps at some point or another, as does my cat, so he's an extremely chill tortoise. I also know for a fact he is male because a couple of years ago he had a *cough cough* prepubescent period where he wouldn't stop humping his decor for a while. Funnily enough it only lasted a couple of months and he hasn't done so since for a solid 2 years.
The newer tortoise I've had for over 6 months now. The person who gave him to me said they were a girl, but I'm honestly convinced he's a lad. Has a very concaved belly and such. Their papers list them as a 2016 hatchling, so they're about 6 now, which was when my tortoise reached his horny time. Not seeing any sort of frisky behaviour with this one though.
Obviously, both of them being male, I'm expecting something to happen eventually. You see all those videos of tortoises chasing balls and dogs and ankles across the garden to headbutt because its their territory and all that, but neither of mine have ever shown any aggression towards anything. I don't know if it's because they're too young still, or if I just lucked out with two very polite little torts.
They're not being bred, no females will ever come into the mix to set anything off. I never had any intention for a second tort either, this one was just fortunately so nice that I didn't need to immediately rehome him upon being given by a friend. So the question is, is there an estimated age period where they do start fighting, or have others had luck in which their torts have actually been able to live fine together without problems?
Probably gonna get a lot of angry people commenting, but hey ho.
