Adolescent Redfoot

[Anyfoot]

I went to see a lady today who wanted some help with her new enclosure. She rescued 2 redfoots, well actually she rescued 1 then had the 2nd one dropped on her. One is a 12" female, and the other is 7" male. At the moment she has them separate. The female is in about a 4x6ft and male in a 4x4ft enclosure. When the new enclosure is done it will be around 8x10ft. Every time she tries to put them together the male is so aggressive to the female. Ramming and biting her limbs really hard. To point the female hisses and tries to run for cover fast. It's obvious the big female is scared. Needless to say they are separate. The owner wants to good by these torts and willing to spend some money on creating a good enclosure and I shall help.
I was hoping to give her one of my females to even up her small herd. I could give her a male and a female I had forced on me and take this pain in the *** male she has.
I've never seen a redfoot so aggressive. Then again I've never had an adolescent male yet.

Is the reason this young male is being so aggressive because he's going through his adolescent years and will he grow out of it?

 

[JoesMum]

Interesting one.

Joe got an excess testosterone problem a few years ago (it’s documented on TFO) which resulted in him needing a hormone implant from the vet.

He was sex obsessed to the point that he stopped eating and drinking and lost a third of his bodyweight.

My vet, a real tort specialist, explained he had never had to do it to a tort before and I got the implant and blood tests free as he wrote the case up for a scientific paper. A couple of months later he ended up doing the same for another Greek who was super aggressive like your redfoot.

The implant lasted two years and then Joe needed another. After the second one, he went more than two years and, well, you know the end of Joe’s story. I often wonder whether the testosterone was actually the first sign of the tumour that took him, but was never diagnosed.

Anyway, I’ll look out my threads and find out what the implant was as it sounds like this yob needs one!

 

[JoesMum]

Here’s the last thread in the series... it links to the others for the full story of Joe and his implant
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread...gg-with-a-one-track-mind-2016-edition.141520/

My vet is Mark Rowland at Trinity Vet Centre if your vet wanted to contact him to find out more.

 

[Anyfoot]

That's a bit more tactical than I was thinking. Stick him in with my 12 adults and let him see what it's like to be at the bottom of the pecking order Don't worry I won't do it.

The last male I had forced on us was trying his luck when I eventually added him to my herd. He was going around trying to nip everyone for a few weeks. He's now settled and in his place. He's a young male too. But around 9". Maybe he was coming out of his adolescent years. Only just thought of that now. I remember seeing 2 of my females standing up to him and putting him in his place. My males just carried on as though he wasn't there.
But this little male I've seen today is a right nasty little so and so. Even when I put him back in his own enclosure he was still swiping his head sideways fast at us humans. I've noticed this is what redfoots do when feeling annoyed with something.