# Female Sulcata..



## Tony the tank (Oct 14, 2011)

I'm looking to adopt or buy a Female Sulcata..I don't want her for breeding but as a companion for Tony...She needs to be about 30+lbs...

If anyone knows of one..Keep me in your thoughts..

Thank you


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## Tom (Oct 14, 2011)

Everybody wants females. 
Just Know that if you put a single female in with a male, he will harass her constantly. Not a good situation. It will likely lead to her getting sick and or dying. They are perfectly happy all alone, but if you want him to have companionship you should get at least two or more females. Also, if you put a male and female together, you will soon have a baby making factory. Get your incubators and baby enclosures and supplies ready ahead of time, and then start looking for an outlet for all your dozens of hatchlings.


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## Tony the tank (Oct 15, 2011)

Tom.. Is the harassing a for sure thing?..over the summer my buddy brought over his female and all Tony did once was circle her and sniff... After that they pretty much were normal except for the fact that they would seek shade together..I saw no biting or ramming..


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## jackrat (Oct 15, 2011)

Have you tried the Long Island Rescue?


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## Tony the tank (Oct 15, 2011)

Jackrat..I haven't tried long island rescue..since there site says they prefer to adopt out to the south..and I'm on the north east..Which is to bad because I know I can give them a good home..


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## reneereichert (Oct 15, 2011)

Long Island Rescue will not adopt out a female to someone who already has a male. 

I looked about 6 months 3 times a day to find my two females, Good luck!


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## Tom (Oct 15, 2011)

Tony the tank said:


> Tom.. Is the harassing a for sure thing?..over the summer my buddy brought over his female and all Tony did once was circle her and sniff... After that they pretty much were normal except for the fact that they would seek shade together..I saw no biting or ramming..



It is not a 100% guarantee that every single time it will happen, but I have never seen it NOT happen. There is always some exception somewhere to every generality, but it is very unlikely that a mature male sulcata will not harass and intimidate a lone female. A lot. I've said it a million times, pairs seldom work out. Really not with any species, but especially not with sulcatas.

Its also unlikely that you won't start getting a sh*t ton of eggs. All your incubators will be full, and then you'll see that female out there digging away with her butt in the ground.

I'm just trying to be the voice of reason, BEFORE you do something you might later regret. Everybody wants another tortoise. Hell, I want dozens more, but sometimes we discover in our 20/20 hindsight that it would have been better to leave well enough alone. I just want you to have ALL the info, good and potentially bad, so that you can make the right choice for YOUR situation.


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## Tony the tank (Oct 15, 2011)

Tom.. I have a female now... She's about 11" ..he doesn't harass her.. He will sniff her every now and then and then ignore her... I keep her separate most of the time as he doesn't seem to see her as another tortoise... As he paces the enclosure if she is in his way he will just climb over her like a log ..so she has a separate part of the enclosure which he cannot access when he is doing his pacing but most of the time they ignore each other.. I think she is to small to interact with him ....But out in the yard... He wants nothing to do with her... They come face to face and he walks around her..

If I put her with tiny..he tries to bite her shell and legs....But tony just ignores her which I find strange...Can you explain this??


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## Tom (Oct 15, 2011)

Out in the yard at those times, he's just pre-occupied with walking around and not interested in messing with her. Most of the time juveniles get along with out too much trouble. As soon as she matures and starts to smell like a ripe and ready female, things will change. Watch out when she get around 15-17". I have a four year old female living with my adults right now. She dodges the male pretty well, but the females all coexist with out issue. With five torts in there, there is enough movement and interaction that no one tort is ever singled out for harassment. They all feel the safety in numbers thing to a degree.

Sorry. I need to get to know your torts better. All I know about is Tony. How many do you have and what sizes and ages? Who is Tiny?


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## Tony the tank (Oct 15, 2011)

Tom said:


> Out in the yard at those times, he's just pre-occupied with walking around and not interested in messing with her. Most of the time juveniles get along with out too much trouble. As soon as she matures and starts to smell like a ripe and ready female, things will change. Watch out when she get around 15-17". I have a four year old female living with my adults right now. She dodges the male pretty well, but the females all coexist with out issue. With five torts in there, there is enough movement and interaction that no one tort is ever singled out for harassment. They all feel the safety in numbers thing to a degree.
> 
> Sorry. I need to get to know your torts better. All I know about is Tony. How many do you have and what sizes and ages? Who is Tiny?



Tony is 9yrs old and 50lbs.. Very sociable and extremely active...The female is 4yrs old spends all her time eating and basking..

Tiny was a recent adoption..was under the belief he was a female..Tiny is 10yrs old and about 60lbs..He is very laid back.. Not very active..Eats and goes back to his hide(just getting over a URI)... He does try to bite the female shell after sniffing her... The two males do fight every now and then when they meet head on.. They are getting better...Otherwise they don't seek each other out..They are house separately...

Thoughts??


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## Eweezyfosheezy (Oct 15, 2011)

I would say to not get a female to put with him but recently I got two female sulcatas that were with an absolutely monstrous male over 30 in. easily and he had never mounted them ever (well ever seen mounting them) and they had never laid any eggs. So there are exceptions to just males always harassing females but from all of the male sulcatas I've seen that is the only one that doesnt harass females at all.


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## Tom (Oct 15, 2011)

Personally, I would not put two adult male sulcatas together. It just serves no purpose and will eventually lead to a problem. The exception would be a very large pen and a fairly good size group of sulcatas. I've seen this work, but even then problems can occur. Daisy's father was added to a group of 6 females and three other adult males of various sizes, including one bigger than him, in a very large pen. Over a period of a few months, he killed all the other males. Killed them. They would all be getting along fine, and the guy saw no problems. No shoving, no ramming, no biting or posturing or anything. He saw nothing, but peaceful coexistence. Then one day he comes home form work and finds one dead, chewed up around the front legs and upside down. Daisy's father was on the other side of the enclosure, his face all covered in the other torts leg blood and you could see the scuff marks from the fight. A couple of months went by and again, no problems. Guy comes home from work and finds dead male tortoise #2. Why he didn't separate them after the first OR the second I don't know, but soon after he found the body of the third the same way. I think he thought everything was over and that it would be okay now. If I ever meet the guy, I'll ask him. Interestingly, to me anyway, Daisy, my 4 year old female (offspring of the killer male above) is the most aggressive sulcata I've ever seen of any age or size or sex. She tries to fight and intimidate any other sulcata she sees including adults that are literally 10-20 times her size. She's been living with the adults for a couple of months now and all seems okay, but I can't put her in with any other torts anywhere near her size. My two adult males started fighting when they were around 40 and 50 pounds. Prior to that, they were fine. I found the 50 pounder upside down in the summer sun, and quickly decided to separate them.

So my thoughts for you are: Keep those males separate all the time. And keep the juvenile female separate too. IF IF IF one of your males really is peaceful and you want to try keeping more than one together, I still would not try a pair, especially not a big male and a little female. There are no guarantees with any group, but there are certain things that are a lot more likely to lead to problems.


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