Whoa...

So I went to Home Depot to buy some planters stuff and pots so I can plant stuff for my torts, as I was preparing the stuff I hear a faint noise coming from the tortoise tables.. I was like what the heck are they talking to each other? I look over... I could not believe what I saw. I was so blown away, I stopped what I was doing and went to get my camera. Took pictures, videos and all... this whole time I thought they were both females....

does anyone else fell dirty?

Love is in the air

Totally unexpected... I hope they get along and don't bash each other. Now I have to come up with a different name :\

They look small to actually be breeding---whats the SCL and gram weight of both? You could very well still have two girls, and one is just stating her dominance. If that's the case, I would add a bunch of plants/visual barriers to the enclosure so the smaller tort can get away from her when she needs too.

If that's not mating behavior, its bullying and you could have one tortoise growing much faster than the other soon, because the more aggressive girl will begin or continue to hog resources.

Thats some way to find out she is a he...

I am going to say, I am thinking the same thing as Meg. They look too young and if that is the case, I agree you are seeing an aggression action rather then a sexual one.

I seriously hope that's the case. Well they only did that for like .... 5 minutes and then they went back to their normal daily things. My lamp (mega ray) bulb did blow a few days ago and I just got the new power sun in today so that's the only thing I can think of that's changed. I was thinking they are too young as well... since they should be around 2 years old. Last I measured the bigger one is around 4 inches back in October and 217g. I will re-measure tomorrow when I get a ruler and weight them again.. the big one is already growing bigger than the other one but not by a huge lot and when they eat they seem to share the food fine. I just added another hide spot but I will try to see what else I can get in there. Thanks for the help guys and still giving me hope! Not that I have anything against them mating... just not ready for that

On a different note, even with bullying would it get on top like that with its mouth open and make the noise ?

Yeah they mimic the mating behavior and yes, a 217g tortoise is not sexually mature.

I would weigh them, and measure tomorrow, and see what kind of a gap you have between them, and if it seems large enough, I would even consider separating them, as living together will do harm to the smaller one.

Ok so from my last weight in march it was : Bigger greek 217g smaller greek 146g
Today Bigger greek 250g and smaller 160g

Seems like they are both gaining weight steadily so.. it seems ok? Today they are back to normal... and such and here are some pictures ~
Size wise one is around 4 1/2 and the other is around 4 inches. Now that I am looking at these pictures... they both seem to be female to me. Hm..

So Jacqui is that like tortoise rape? Could they both be females? Would they still mimic a mating behavior if they have never seen it?

So Jacqui is that like tortoise rape? Could they both be females? Would they still mimic a mating behavior if they have never seen it?

I will keep this family friendly, no I don't believe it is, it is a domination thing, like male dogs do to other male dogs.

Lol...

The one on top is definitely a female. The plastron would be curved in if it was a male. Also, the tails are a good indicator of sex and both of those animals have very small tails which would reinforce that they are both females. It is just a dominance thing and with that much of a size difference you definitely need to separate them.

Just to add, we have a female, for sure female, that does that sometimes to other females. I never fiqured out why!

It's amazing how many female tortoises play that dominant role, even to the point of making those mating sounds along with that mouth wide open like the picture showed. If I wasn't 100% positive (proven breeder) that one of my females were female, I would strongly believe she was male. Either way, they are sure cute and you are lucky to have them! I bet that was a shock!

Haha yeah no kidding... I feel so much better knowing I won't have to worry about any future problems. Since that incident they went back to their normal selves. *whew*

If you do in fact have two female Greeks, it's doubtful that you'll every have serious problems with them co-habitating. The dominate female may occasionally mount and even ram the other but with no where near the intensity or consistency that a male would. Female Testudo very rarely cause any harm to each other. Males will bite, ram intensively and constantly mount females and other males. Female dominance is often seasonal, whereas male dominance extends outside of the breeding season because it is territorial as well as breeding related
Testudo sexual maturity is based primarily on physical size and to some extent age plays a factor.