# Tortoise Mating and Burrowing Question



## Joshhastwoturtles (Aug 25, 2014)

Hi! I've had a tortoise for a couple years now, and she's dug her own burrow that's pretty deep underground (at least 6 feet or so). The other day I got another tortoise. The one is a female, and the new one is a male. They met for the first time today (that I know of), and the male attempted to mate with the female. I am not sure if he succeeded as I didn't see everything that happened and don't know anything about turtle mating. My first question is: Is it normal for a male tortoise to bite on a female while mating? I saw this and was not sure how to react, so I did separate them. Also, any way to tell if a female is receptive to a male or not? 

Also, we had been keeping them separate, but the male keeps finding a way to get to the female, and get into her burrow. Today, after officially meeting, and possibly mating, my female tortoise appears to be making her burrow bigger, and is seemingly accepting the male into her burrow as well. Is this normal, and safe for the female? Or should we continue to keep them separate as far as burrows go? 

Thank you, any information you can give will be very helpful, and appreciated greatly.


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## ascott (Aug 25, 2014)

What species of tortoise are you housing...males can and will pester the female without relief, this can create a hazardous situation for the female...so two enclosures is a good idea in the event the male is non stop and stressing the female into bad health...some species are more tenacious than others...so, what species of tortoise are we speaking about?


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## Yvonne G (Aug 26, 2014)

In the wild, tortoises don't live together. They each have their own territory. Males will seek out females to breed, but they don't live together. When you have a male and female locked up together in the same yard, the male will pester the female all the time and she has no relief from him. If you really have to have a male and female in the same yard, it would be a good idea to get another female or even two more females so one isn't being bred all the time. This is very stressful for the female tortoise.

I just want to make one note for whoever else is reading this thread - it is never a good idea to add a new tortoise to an existing tortoise's yard unless you have a period of quarantine first. I like to quarantine for 6 months and during that time I take stool samples from both tortoises to the vet several times during the quarantine period.


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## turtlemanfla88 (Aug 26, 2014)

I agree with Yvonne about quarantine. I have some questions for you. Did you new tortoise live with other tortoises before you got it?. And if so how many and what types?. are the tortoises the same species?. I just got giving a pair of Russians that been together for over 15 years and I separated them now during quarantine and from now on except during breeding season I do this with all of my tortoises and now I starting to do this with my turtles now.


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