"Friendly" box turtle

[herpgirl24]

Need a little advice...

My three toed box turtle, Taz, has decided living alone is not the way he wants to go. He insists on breaking into the redfoot enclosure outside. Once he gets in he just follows them around, or curls up and sleeps next to them. When I put him back in his enclosure, he paces, digs, climbs and generally terrorizes things until he finds another way out. This behavior is exactly why his enclosure is in the middle, that way when he "breaks out" he is not really out!

I am wondering if it would be so bad to just let them stay together outside? I am looking into getting him a box turtle friend, but they are hard to come by around here.

 

[Yvonne G]

RE: "Freindly" box turtle

Terryo used to keep her box turtles and baby redfoot tortoises together. She never had a problem with it, and when she tried to separate them they were obviously unhappy about it.

We never advocate mixing species, however, sometimes it just happens. I have two lone male Florida box turtles. They continuously escape into the 3-toe enclosure, I'm assuming because there are females in there and they are two lone males. Try as I might, I can't keep them in their own pen.

I say let them stay together. That way when you DO find another box turtle, the new one can be quarantined in the existing box turtle's pen until you can put them together.

 

[lisa127]

RE: "Freindly" box turtle

If everyone is healthy, I don't see why they can't hang out together outdoors. Unless there is a huge difference in size. Even the different subspecies of eastern box turtles, I always wonder why people are against them living together. As long as it's not a breeding pair, say maybe a few females, what is the harm in 3 toeds or gulf coasts or easterns sharing an enclosure? I have a gulf coast and a 3 toed. It is suspected that my 3 toed has some gulf coast somewhere in his background as his parents look like they have some gulfie charachteristics. They also came from an area where the two subspecies overlap. If they overlap in nature, why not in captivity too? Anyway, with the redfoots and your boxie, if they aren't too different in size I say let him!

 

[Tom]

RE: "Freindly" box turtle

I vote you make it so he can't escape his pen. Many tortoises do this sort of thing, for a while , but then they settle in and accept it after a while. I had a big sulcata female like that. She used to be housed in a plain 8' dirt square. I put her into a meandering 7000 sq foot enclosure with shade and nooks and crannies a water pan, a mud hole, a heated night box, a big hill to climb, lot of yummy weeds and grass, etc... For the first few weeks all she did was look for an escape route and challenge my walls. She settled in and is now happy as a clam.

What happens if one day he decides he wants whats outside the redfoot pen? If he can pace around and get over there somehow, then your enclosures need some modification.

I also think that adding one female might not be a great idea. If he starts feeling frisky he will harass her relentlessly. You really ought to add at least 2 or 3, to divide and distract his attention. Or none at all.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

RE: "Freindly" box turtle

I vote you make it so he can't escape his pen. Many tortoises do this sort of thing, for a while , but then they settle in and accept it after a while. I had a big sulcata female like that. She used to be housed in a plain 8' dirt square. I put her into a meandering 7000 sq foot enclosure with shade and nooks and crannies a water pan, a mud hole, a heated night box, a big hill to climb, lot of yummy weeds and grass, etc... For the first few weeks all she did was look for an escape route and challenge my walls. She settled in and is now happy as a clam.

What happens if one day he decides he wants whats outside the redfoot pen? If he can pace around and get over there somehow, then your enclosures need some modification.

I also think that adding one female might not be a great idea. If he starts feeling frisky he will harass her relentlessly. You really ought to add at least 2 or 3, to divide and distract his attention. Or none at all.

Tom is 100% right on this point...male tortoises (and box turtles can be included here) are relentless "horn dogs", so putting a single female in an enclosure with a male is to give her a VERY stressful life, and possibly an unpleasent death.

2, 3, or more females, or solitary bachlorhood, is the way to go here..

 

[herpgirl24]

RE: "Freindly" box turtle

The enclosure is not 100% finished, which is why he keeps getting over. The weather has been up and down so they have only been out sporadically. Once I finish it, he will be unable to break out!

If I do allow them to live together, then I could take the divider out and double their space. I would never consider it indoors, but it is such a huge space out there.

 

[Darth Adamus]

RE: "Freindly" box turtle

I read a male will try and get out if a female is around. Like many other species the males only think about sex. Find a couple chicks he can make a herum out of because when they mate the male bites the female's legs and if he only has one female then he will be all over her like white on rice.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

RE: "Freindly" box turtle

I read a male will try and get out if a female is around. Like many other species the males only think about sex. Find a couple chicks he can make a herum out of because when they mate the male bites the female's legs and if he only has one female then he will be all over her like white on rice.

Agreed...2 females to 1 male is the least number...no idea what would be too many females to 1 male, because nobody has ever like kept that many (Ptolemy gives all three of my Gurlz his attention, and would likely share his Bountiful Love with 10X that number, given the chance...

Might need Viagra, might not!

Back to the original question: most folks advise against having two different species share an enclosure, but there are folks who do it w/ no problems...use your best judgment.