First time posting here, question about greek tort

[stever254]

hello,

My name is Steve and this is my first time posting here but I have been reading for a while. I have a greek tortoise named Pablo that has been with me for about 3 years. He has turned out to be a great pet and everyone that meets him for the first time cant believe how friendly a tortoise can be. So thats my back story.
What I want to find out your opinion on is how would my buddy take to me adding another tort to the heard. He seems happy now but would he be better off having a friend? If so should it be another adult? or a hatchling? should I get another male? More than likely I would get another greek or golden greek maybe. I dont know if I just lucked out or if they are all this friendly and outgoing. If I could not find another greek I have always admired the looks of leopard torts.

thank you,
Steve
So please let me know what you think, particularly those with first hand experience that own 2 or more greeks.

 

[Meg90]

No, a cagemate is not a good idea....Tortoises are solitary animals. They only meet in the wild for breeding, or fighting purposes. Plus, adding another tort means doubling, or tripling the size of your enclosure, which isn't always easy considering the space requirements.

Also, putting a Hatchling in with an adult is not the greatest idea. They are too small and fragile, and adults don't recognize them as "babies" only as a (minor) threat to their food and territory.

From my own experience, Greek Torts are very sweet. My own (Nigel) is an awesome tort. He responds to my voice, and is pretty social.

Anyways, welcome to the forums. Its a very informative place.

Some more info about your setup would be nice...what your temps are under the basking light, what kind of bulb you are using etc. How big is your setup? Pics would be awesome. We all love seeing new members tortoises and enclosures!

Hope this helped (also, if you post a pic, someone can tell you what subspecies your Greek is, and will let you know what country he's from. He also might be a she. If you take some pics of the underside of his shell, and his tail area, someone would be able to sex him)

 

[stever254]

Thanks for replying, I am at work now but I will post again soon when i can put up pictures. I am pretty sure he is a male I take him to the vet for check ups very often( I bring him whenever I bring my dog there for haircut etc.) and the vet said the first time that he is a male because of the indentation on the bottom of his shell near the tail.

 

[Isa]

Welcome to the forum Steve

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Steve: Welcome to the forum!

Yvonne

 

[purpod]

Greetings Steve ~

Welcome to TFO ~ glad to see you came out of the shadows, lol.

One thing I would mention is that it is never a good idea to mix species in the same enclosure ~ parasites & such that have no affect on a greek may be fatal to a leopard..

Also, I have two small leopards {one is only about 7 months old, and the other is about a year and a few months old} and altho I had the older one first, after a small while of getting used to one another, they get along just fine. I, too, thought it would be nice if my snortie tortie had a bud. However, as Meg90 pointed out, you would need to double your enclosure size, as an adult would be necessary {not a hatchling}.

Anyways, that's my story and I'm sticking to it, LOL.
Enjoy & once again, Welcome.
Purpod

 

[Crazy1]

Welcome to the forum Steve. I have Greeks 11 of them. From WC adults to CB hatchlings. I keep most of them separate.
Unless you are planning on breeding I would stick with one. Meg is correct, they are solitary animals and unlike us do not socialize well with others. If Pablo is a male another male may cause fighting and they can be pretty fierce fighters and can inflict fairly bad injuries. Even if they seem OK they can be causing each other stress. I would not place a hatchling in with an adult. Ramming and biting from an adult could be fatal to a hatchling.
I would not place different species in the same enclosure. Different Torts from different areas can carry things that another tort can not fight against (parasites etc). This could be disastrous. I know there are some that do mix species however I would not suggest you take the chance.

 

[stever254]

Thank you for the replies and the warm welcome. I will opt for just sticking with one tortoise then for now. I thought adding another would be doing him a favor so I am sure glad that I asked before I did it.
Also thanks for being nice to me on my first post...
Steve

 

[purpod]

It's our pleasure ~