Aggresive young red foot

[RonHays]

We bought a young 4" RF this past saturday at a local pet store, and put it on our tortoise table with our other 2 RF's. It immediately walked all around the whole habitat exploring. The young RF ended up on the basking end where our larger 8" RF was hanging out. The 2 went face to face checking each other out. After a couple of minutes, the new young RF reached out and bit the larger tortoise on the face. Needless to say, the larger RF did not like that at all. She went into her shell for a couple of minutes while the younger one tried to climb on her back. The older one did not go for that, and started backing up and shaking her rear end so that the younger one couldn't climb on her back. I thought it was hilarious! I just hope they can get along ok later.

 

[allegraf]

It sounds like that little one has napoleonic syndrome. They probably will fight a few more times until the dominance is established. Make sure no one gets hurt though. Those buggers can bite really hard and cause serious damage.

Allegra

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Ron:

We always recommend a quarantine period when getting new tortoises. It would be good to set new tortoises up in their own habitat for at least a month to be sure you're not bring any illness into your existing herd.

 

[RonHays]

Hi Ron:

We always recommend a quarantine period when getting new tortoises. It would be good to set new tortoises up in their own habitat for at least a month to be sure you're not bring any illness into your existing herd.

Thank you. This is why me and my wife Sharon joined this forum. We could use all the advice we can get. We've only been owners of RF's for a year.

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I have pics of our Red Foots and their habitat on their facebook page. Check them out and tell us what you think. Thanks.

http://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=178795595466412&fbb=r4c6f9a69&refid=17

 

[Madkins007]

Is the little male a 'Cherry-head' by chance? (http://www.tortoiselibrary.com/cherryhead.html)

Cherry's are known to be aggressive, especially in smallish enclosures. If it is, you MAY need to separate it (just giving a possible heads-up.)

 

[RonHays]

Is the little male a 'Cherry-head' by chance? (http://www.tortoiselibrary.com/cherryhead.html)

Cherry's are known to be aggressive, especially in smallish enclosures. If it is, you MAY need to separate it (just giving a possible heads-up.)

I don't think he\she is a cherry head. We bought her at petsmart and they had it classified as just a red foot. My wife has pics of it and our other RF's on the photo sub forum. Its titled "gladys, ginger, and itty bitty". Itty bitty is the one I'm referring to.

 

[Madkins007]

I cannot really tell if Itty is a Cherry-head from that photo. Is the plastron mostly light or dark?

 

[RonHays]

I'm not entirely sure. But her colors and markings are identical to the other 2 torts.