Aggressive female Russian Tort

[fgately]

I have a one male and two female Russian Torts. The male sort of roams around mostly alone. The two females usually stay pretty close and usually sleep in the same hide box together. Today I walked up and noticed the females sunning themselves right next to each other on the concrete. Both of my females eat like little pigs by the way! Anyway, I noticed the larger female head bobbing the smaller female, and then she proceeded to nip at her several times. The smaller female just pulled into her shell and seemed to tolerate the biting. I have never seen this behaviour before.

What is going on here?

 

[Fernando]

Females can sometimes act and do the mating rituals much like males. Also, was the smaller female dropped off after?

Oh one other possibility is that she might be prego and acting territorial to the female.

 

[kimber_lee_314]

Mine do this from time to time. I usually let them work out their issues unless someone is getting hurt.

 

[ascott]

Females can be aggressive with one another...I noticed that you mentioned one being larger/smaller...I would be cautious on mental bullying as well as outright bullying before one gets hurt....good luck

 

[dmmj]

it is dominance display, females often show who is boss, the one in charge.

 

[GBtortoises]

Female Russians are very rarely the dominate animal when a male is present in the group. It could be that you male is not a male; he could be to small (young) or the female is ready to be bred. They will often act like a male and become dominate if the male is not playing the role or there is not a male present in a group of females. This female acting like a male will often trigger the male to defend his turf whereby he will usually mount and attempt to breed the aggressive female to regain his dominance. She may have a nesting spot picked out and is trying to keep others away. I have never seen my Russians do that, only a couple of my Eastern Hermann's females. Even with aggressive acting females Russians most of the time they will head bob and mount others but there isn't often much nipping going on between the females.

 

[fgately]

I do have a male and the two females. The male usually keeps to himself and the females are ususally in close proximity to one another. The male doesn't seem very aggressive or assertive with the females. He definately has the longer tail and is smaller. The females have grown lots this year and have very distinct growth bands. They seemed to have become very thick (plastron to carapace space) as well. The male eats just fine but has very little in the ways of growth bands so it seems like he hasn't growm very much. Also, they currently have the full run of my entire backyard, so it is pretty easy to stay away from each other if they want. I am building an enclosure right now, so they will be closer all the time soon.

 

[GBtortoises]

Nothing personal but it sounds like your male is a dud! Very, very rarely does it happen, but it does, that a male shows no interest in females. Conversly, rarely there are some females that do not produce eggs or never bury eggs. Under normal circumstances, after their ownindividual security and survival, the next most important thing on their agenda is continuation of the species. And really, self survival and species continuation are the only things on their agenda!

If you wanted to take on another tortoise, I would consider introducing another male to the group. Doing so would very likely change the whole dynamics of the situation. With an aggressive dominant male, the female would likely go back to her role allowing him to take charge of the group and one of two things will happen with the current male. He will either step up and defend his turf against the new male, or from the sounds of it, probably become the submissive male. This would all be fine as long as they have a large enough area to escape from aggression with various hiding areas.

 

[Fernando]

Female Russians are very rarely the dominate animal when a male is present in the group. It could be that you male is not a male; he could be to small (young) or the female is ready to be bred. They will often act like a male and become dominate if the male is not playing the role or there is not a male present in a group of females. This female acting like a male will often trigger the male to defend his turf whereby he will usually mount and attempt to breed the aggressive female to regain his dominance. She may have a nesting spot picked out and is trying to keep others away. I have never seen my Russians do that, only a couple of my Eastern Hermann's females. Even with aggressive acting females Russians most of the time they will head bob and mount others but there isn't often much nipping going on between the females.

I have a video posted here of that exact example.

 

[fgately]

Nothing personal but it sounds like your male is a dud!

Thanks GB.

I was sort of thinking the same thing. Boris (such a commonly chosen name for male Russians) is pretty blah. My two females are very active and have grown quite a bit this year. Boris mainly stays in one main area of the yard and actually doesn't look like he has grown at all. He was the biggest of the three when I got them last year, but he now is the puny one. He doesn't appear to be sick or anything and does eat well. The females actually seem to like being around people as I often notice them coming up to investigate. After they check things out they often just find a place to hang out near us if we are in the backyard. Very cool little critters. I will miss seeing them roam free in my yard.

The enclosure I am building is 3 feet by 12 feet long. I am going to make some caves and hiding places out of mortar and poultry wire so they can get out of the sun and have a place to go at night. Do you think this enclosure is big enough to introduce another male?

 

[dmmj]

I got a male russian that would love to meet your females.

 

[fgately]

I got a male russian that would love to meet your females.

Hi dmmj,

my females are pretty active and curious, so we should really get them together! We live just a couple miles from each other so this is definately very doable.

Do you have any females, and have you ever sucessfully bred them?

 

[dmmj]

I have one female but she is still to small to breed. I have a very randy male russian and another that I am not sure if it is a male or female though I am leaning towards male right now. I am trying to set up a breeding colony right now.