Interested in getting a female for my male Russian tortoise

[rockyMTNtortoise]

Anyone have any advice or suggestions for getting a female Russian tortoise for my male Russian tortoise?

 

[GBtortoises]

Yes, get two, at least! Seriously, keeping "pairs" of Testudo species, especially Russians is usually asking for more trouble. Males of the genus and again, especially Russians can be extremely aggressive towards other males and females. In captivity due to smaller more confined spaces the submissive male or female can be seriously physically injured and stressed to the point of constant hiding, not eating and so on. If you decide to only get one female for your male chances are very good that you may have to keep them seperated most of the time. If you decide on two or more females for your male this will take the aggressive advances off any one female and place them on both, occasionally giving one of them a break. But this won't stop the aggression. With more tortoises a larger enclosure will be needed also. Any enclosure should also contain enough visual barriers and hiding areas to give more submissive tortoises a break from an agressor.

 

[pdrobber]

I think I've heard on here before that they really are solitary animals, don't live in groups naturally so they don't seek companionship from another tortoise. however, if YOU would like to have another tortoise and you have a male then yes a female would be advised, but be prepared to quarantine the new one before introducing them and for them to possibly not get along and needing a second enclosure. Another suggestion that's made is to have more females than males so as to have the male's mating behaviors balanced between the two or more females and not stressing out just one...

 

[Laura]

yep. all of the above.