Sheldon, is 5 year old russian tort, roughly 6inches from top carapace near his head to the bottom where his tail is. His mate Shelby, is is the same age but much much bigger, twice his size. I got them together a little over 4 yrs ago as a "pair" .. year after year he shows absolutely no interest in her, none. I've even tried separating them for a significant period of time. I separated them last November and reintroduced them last week. I introduced him into her territory. He's been showing some aggression laying claim over one of the hide outs but lately hasn't wanted her anywhere near him. Opens his mouth as a threat and has even rammed her to get away. None of the aggression I'm seeing is mating related. I'm more educated with Hermanns torts. All my male hermanns have wanted to mate from an extremely young age. Is Sheldon too young? Am I doing something wrong? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Why is my male russian tort showing zero interest in mating year after year?
- Thread starter Meesh
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Are you sure that Sheldon is truly a male rather than a female?
also 6" is big for a Russian male. Are you *trying* to breed them?
Do you want to post pictures of the tail/underside/backside for people to advise?
Do you want to post pictures of the tail/underside/backside for people to advise?
100%.. hes been "excited" for lack of a better word.. & i saw his alien looking male part. The difference between the 2 is his tail is abt 2inches long, it curls all the way around to his back leg. & her, she's much larger than him but her tail is abt a half inch. She has a tiny short little fat stub. she also has the spikes on her rear legs between the tail and legs. He doesn't. Which doesn't mean much I just heard it's common in female russian. Maybe he just doesn't like her lol I can't figure it out
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The quality isn't great , they weren't happy abt it
Pics look female to me. Please can you try to get a better tail pic? They are not shy in coming forward so something is not right 😋
I've seen his "male genital" so whether hes male or not isnt in question for me, i alr know.. I'm trying to figure out why he's not interested in her. It's just her.
I wonder if she could be bullying him. They don't do well in pairs, and while I think normally its the male that bothers the female, I don't know that it HAS to be that way...
The top pic I posted is her. The bottom is him.. ya she can be quite a bully, she throws her size and weight around. They're chill together for the most part but I think you're right I think I should just remove him. I don't want to stress either. She's fine it's him that I'd be worried abt. I did want to get some fertile eggs from her just once but it's not worth either becoming stressed
I forgot to post, the top pic is her. That one is female. The bottom one with the longer tail is him. I forgot to mention that
Females can also evert tissue when they prolapse. Its quite common and can look very similar to a male erection. Did you identify the odd shaped "mushroom" head of the male penis?
Second thing, yes 5 years old is too young. I've seen some full size males do nothing until they were 10-12 years old, and then all of a sudden, BOOM! Trying to breed everything that moves and some things that don't move. Along with this, some people do everything "right", and Russians just let the years pass with no interest in reproducing. Other people seemingly do everything "wrong" and get vigorous breeding activity immediately. More than any other species, we see this with Russians.
Third thing, are you brumating the both of them over winter? If not, it greatly affects the reproduction hormones and makes things much less predictable.
Fourth thing, living together as a pair causes terrible stress. The stress hormones can overpower and subdue the breeding hormones. You can see this quite simply in humans. When you are afraid for your life and there is an intruder in your house that intends to do you harm, do you feel frisky? They don't either.
Fifth and final thing: There are several subspecies of Russian tortoises, and even more locale specific variants from all over their enormous range. Often when someone has two different ones, there is no breeding. @HoosierTort or @TeamZissou are both good at IDing the different subspecies. I am not.
I had no idea about this!
The amount of info out into world about tortoises is infinite and unknowable. There is so much we simply do not know. This is why I literally laugh when someone gets mad because they don't like what I am telling them and call me a "know-it-all". That couldn't be more opposite of the truth. I have learned a few things over a few decades, but no one knows it all. I most certainly do not, and I'm fortunate to be corrected and educated by people who know more than me.
But yes, many a prospective Russian breeder has been sadly disappointed and confounded by failure, while others with easy success shrug and exclaim that they don't know what the problem is.
I assure you, tortoise penises are a frequent topic of conversation here...
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