Greek Tortoise mating

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Handsome Van

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I've recently bought a 6 year old male Greek and he's been in the back yard with 1 year old Sulcatas. I supervise them so that they don't fight but I've noticed that my Greek bumps his shell against any other tortoise close to him in a head butting fashion. Today he got on top of one and had his tail curled up under the shell of the Sulcata. Was he trying to mate? Do tortoises know if another is female? I really don't know what he was up to but I do know the Sulcata is not old enough to mate.
 

GBtortoises

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First of all it's not a good idea to introduce a newly acquired tortoise to existing tortoises without at least a 90 day quarantine period to ensure that your new tortoise is healthy (disease, protozoa, bacteria) and accilimates well enough to it's new surroundings, is eating and drinking well and so on. Second, Greeks and Sulcata have some different captive care requirements and keeping the two species together may likely mean a sacrifice of one or both of some of their requirements.
What your tortoise is doing is attempting to either mate with or dominate (or both) it's new cage mates. Your Sulcata could be a male or female, it may be too young to know yet. Generally young, inmature tortoises of any species are not yet aggressive or territorial. If it's not aggressive and doesn't assert itself in it's own territory it will almost always be dominated by another tortoise if that tortoise is mature. In this case it's a Greek tortoise. A species whose males are very aggressive and territorial. The constant aggression can lead to high levels of stress, possible lack of eating and activity, declined health and even injury. They really should not be kept together.
 

Handsome Van

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They are housed separately. I had just let them out in the large side yard to get exercise while I watched them. Otherwise they are not together and live in a different habitat. I will keep them away from each other from now on. I just thought this behavior was interesting. Thank you for your response. :)
 
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