Boy or Girl

[SullyChapman]

Hi, This is my sisters tortoise, she had 2 of them at the same age. Can you possibly tell me if this one in the photo is a Male or Female? her other tortoise is a Boy as she has seen its penis although she noticed this morning that the other one was mounting this one (in the photo). shes worried that they are both male tortoises and the other one is trying to show its dominance therefore she will need to seperate them. Thanks in advance!

 

[zovick]

Hi, This is my sisters tortoise, she had 2 of them at the same age. Can you possibly tell me if this one in the photo is a Male or Female? her other tortoise is a Boy as she has seen its penis although she noticed this morning that the other one was mounting this one (in the photo). shes worried that they are both male tortoises and the other one is trying to show its dominance therefore she will need to seperate them. Thanks in advance!


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This one appears to be a female from what I can see of the tail. If you can post a photo of the other tortoise, it will be helpful in making sure I am correct.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

I also would say female.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

This tortoise is female, but either way would 100% recommend separating them!
tortoise of any species shouldn’t be housed in pairs under any circumstances, they’re incredibly territorial, behaviours that look cute to us really aren’t, following one another and sleeping huddled up is all bullying the the tortoise world, you’ll eventually see more extreme signs of aggression. Anyone who tells you pairs are fine, have no idea what they’re talking about, breeders unfortunately sell pairs too often.
Small groups are ok when there’s lots of land and the correct male to female ratio, this isn’t because they necessarily prefer the company, but because it doesn’t allow dominant behaviour to escalate into further aggression, a tortoise may well start following one tortoise, see another and start following them instead, that’s just one example. By nature tortoises are incredibly solitary animals, they only seek out to mate, then live primarily on their own. Have some species been documented hanging out in groups seemingly unbothered? Absolutely, but again this doesn’t mean they’re seeking out the company, rather than they are seeking out the environment in a particular hang out spot. Again this is group dynamics, not a pair. Pairs are completely unnatural, one will always be trying to compete for dominance, even if not to the naked eye, babies often stunt one another’s growth, or cause failure to thrive, this is often picked up too late, when you think everything is going fine, suddenly it isn’t. My point is, it’s not worth the risk to either tortoise, even if you don’t see out right aggression, this is an incredibly stressful housing situation, the stress is sometimes not easy to pick up on

They’ll both need their own separate enclosures, not sure if they’re marginated? Care still applies here, this housing thread is for the indoor side of things, it covers correct equipment(uvb, heating bulbs, lighting etc, definitely double check bulb types, folks unfortunately sold the wrong ones often), correct levels, appropriately maintaining the humidity, safe substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything, and the tortoise table link

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org

This includes lots of inspiration for an adult set up both indoors and out! The indoor bit has some good ideas to tackle indoor space whilst still providing the needed roaming room! Check comments too, I’m always adding to it, I have a huge back log I need to add, there’s some great examples of splitting enclosures in two

Enclosure inspiration

Howdy folks! Hope everyone is well! As you all know, I’m a big fan of making threads that cater more towards visual learners like myself, I’ve really been wanting to create a thread full of adult enclosure inspiration for a while now, I’ve managed to find some great references over time! I do...

tortoiseforum.org

Now that housing thread discusses an open top set up, which is fine for adult tortoises, but I will say, knowing how cold our uk winters get, for those who don’t brumate their temperate species(not sure if she does or not), they can really struggle keeping their temperates where needed, a cover can come in really handy for maintaining your heat, the most efficient closed set ups are melamine/pvc vivs. A place called Southdown aquatics actually does custom sized vivs in the uk

Visual inspiration

Hi guys! I’ve had some lovely messages complimenting me on my care sheets I made for all the visuals they include! That makes me so happy because as a visual learner myself, that was my goal🥰 I’ve recently had some requests for some more visual inspiration for set ups that can house babies/...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, this one here is good to go over and keep on hand, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope this all helps

 

[MaNaAk]

Hi, This is my sisters tortoise, she had 2 of them at the same age. Can you possibly tell me if this one in the photo is a Male or Female? her other tortoise is a Boy as she has seen its penis although she noticed this morning that the other one was mounting this one (in the photo). shes worried that they are both male tortoises and the other one is trying to show its dominance therefore she will need to seperate them. Thanks in advance!


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Another beautiful lady