Housing Different Species of Tortoises

[FlatStanley]

I'm in the design stage of building a 2' X 6' indoor enclosure for my pancake tortoise and I will be getting an Egyptian Tortoise soon. The pancake is still a baby and the Egyptian will also be a baby. I want to temporarily divide the enclosure so there will be 2 @ 2' X 3' spaces in one enclosure. Since one is not suppose to house two different species together my question is how close to each other is too close? Many viruses and bacteria are airborne and I would hate to get them sick from being too close to each other. Should I house the Egyptian in a totally different enclosure or will they be ok next to each other?

 

[WillTort2]

To be more cautious, I've read that 6 feet of separation is one of the standard minimums.

I'm sure more experienced keepers will pipe in with direct experience.

 

[Tom]

The vet instructor at the college I attended taught us that a 6' air barrier is necessary the prevent airborne disease transmission. In other words the enclosure need to be 6' apart. There is a greater risk of disease transmission from your hands during routine cage maintenance.

If they are both captive bred babies and you have no reason to suspect disease, I would not hesitate to let them share a divided enclosure with no contact with each other or each others things. Its all about what level of risk you are comfortable with and how well you are able to assess risk. The only 100% safe way to not introduce another tortoises disease to yours is to never have any contact with any other tortoise ever. In other words, don't get a second. You can attempt lab-like sterility, but there will always be at least some level of cross contamination. I believe the prudent course is to be careful of the source of your animals, house them separately, have dedicated tools and utensils for each enclosure, wash hands between enclosures, and just be careful with poop, substrate, leftover food and handling them in general.