do tortoises like to be alone or need a friend ?

[jazzywoo]

just wondering do tortoises like to live alone or in pairs talyor seems to be very quiet she spends alot of time in her house and i was wondering could she be lonley
jazzy does spend alot of time with her talking to her stroking her etc so its not like she is ignored taylor did spend time wandering around when we first go her but this past 2 weeks shes not out as much

 

[dmmj]

the majority of tortoises and turtles do just fine all by themselves, most prefer to be alone, becuase then there is no competition for food, primo basking spots and others. Now some species seem to tolerate others of their kind ie : RES, redfoots, seem to do ok in a colony situation. They usually only like ot be together when it is mating time, then they leave. the problem is that when you get 2 or more sexually mature males they tend to fight each other. You can of course do whatever you like just explaining the basic reasons behind it.

 

[kimber_lee_314]

You will get a variety of opinions on this. They live alone in the wild, so it's not necessary. My personal belief is that in captivity they do better with a friend. Many people will disagree with this though. If you like having just one - then your little one will be fine. Hope this was somewhat helpful for you!

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I was taught that tortoises look upon another tortoise as competition for the food. I have 8 small tortoises right now and I noticed bullying going on so I separated them and the growth is widely different but now all are eating where as before the 2 biggest would chase away the smaller and so the smaller would go back into the hide and ate just enough to live, but now that they are separated all are eating AND growing. So the moral of this story is if you have more then one tort watch and make sure nobody is getting bullied...and there can be mental bullying too so you have to watch and make sure all are eating equally...

 

[Tom]

I agree with everybody above. In the wild they are solitary, but they can be housed together in a captive situation, if its done carefully. One thing nobody has mentioned yet is that it is NOT a good idea to mix different species. Just one more opinion for you.

 

[N2TORTS]

My RedFoots/Cherrys live as a " herd" .. I belive they are not solitary animals. I have seen very few times where they seek out “personal space” ..unless a female looking for nesting sites. Mine on a regualar basis all have free will to sleep where they want , even with different heated spots , but almost always tend to be “ together” especially at night time .

Happy tort ~N
JD~

 

[Tom]

My RedFoots/Cherrys live as a " herd" .. I belive they are not solitary animals. I have seen very few times where they seek out “personal space” ..unless a female looking for nesting sites. Mine on a regualar basis all have free will to sleep where they want , even with different heated spots , but almost always tend to be “ together” especially at night time .

I always kept my redfoots alone, but that was a long time ago. I wonder if you turned your herd loose on a heavily planted tropical island somewhere, something around a mile square or more, you know, lots of space, if they'd stay together or spread out and disperse. It would be a pretty neat experiment. I know what my sulcatas would do. Delores would run and hide, far away from the boys and the boys would just follow each other around battling all day.

 

[N2TORTS]

My RedFoots/Cherrys live as a " herd" .. I belive they are not solitary animals. I have seen very few times where they seek out “personal space” ..unless a female looking for nesting sites. Mine on a regualar basis all have free will to sleep where they want , even with different heated spots , but almost always tend to be “ together” especially at night time .

I always kept my redfoots alone, but that was a long time ago. I wonder if you turned your herd loose on a heavily planted tropical island somewhere, something around a mile square or more, you know, lots of space, if they'd stay together or spread out and disperse. It would be a pretty neat experiment. I know what my sulcatas would do. Delores would run and hide, far away from the boys and the boys would just follow each other around battling all day.

yes it would be interesting and a great experiment. "time " too....but here is one theory , being slow moving animals being in groups would be much less targeted out for an easy meal. In sense you have better odds. Also ,breeding infrastructure needs competing males to stimulate reproduction and fertile eggs. So yes Iam sure the greater the space they may isolate one area , but I think they do keep track and have “ heads” of the group. At least in captivity ……