Is this normal behaviour ,

[Sango]

I occasionally let all my tortoises roam free around my house. Normally it's only the adult tortoise who gets to do so since the others are very small and hard to keep track of. Whenever he sees the babies he begins to follow them. At first I thought it was cute but its starting to bother me. The adult doesn't see the baby tortoises often so I thought he was just curious. I move them apart when they get quite close now . But big tort goes out of his way to find them. Yet he seems scared of them when they approach him. One of the small ones in particular bit him, but he tries to bite everything so I don't know if that's alright or not, the adult then backs off and follows me or tries to bury himself underneath me.
Is he scared? Is this aggressive ? What can I do to fix this. I want them to get along .

 

[Sarah2020]

You will no doubt get lots of feedback on this. Basically tortoise are loners and do not need friends. If your seeing negative activity they will all get stressed. Males will fight and can flip tortoise and leave them . Roaming around tge House is also not good as there will be dust and small items that they ingest and you have problems plus they are not easy to potty train so you will get endless messes! In your location I would suggest a nice outdoor enclosure with clever planting and hiding places, water, food and shade. What species do you have?

 

[Yvonne G]

It's not in a tortoise's nature to live with other tortoises. Tortoises are solitary animals and only want to fight or breed when encountering a tortoise in their territory. You're not doing the tortoises any favors by allowing them together time or by allowing them to wander the floor.

 

[Sango]

You will no doubt get lots of feedback on this. Basically tortoise are loners and do not need friends. If your seeing negative activity they will all get stressed. Males will fight and can flip tortoise and leave them . Roaming around tge House is also not good as there will be dust and small items that they ingest and you have problems plus they are not easy to potty train so you will get endless messes! In your location I would suggest a nice outdoor enclosure with clever planting and hiding places, water, food and shade. What species do you have?

Thank you
They are all yellow for tortoises.

 

[Sango]

It's not in a tortoise's nature to live with other tortoises. Tortoises are solitary animals and only want to fight or breed when encountering a tortoise in their territory. You're not doing the tortoises any favors by allowing them together time or by allowing them to wander the floor.

I see. I was hoping that he would treat them with indifference. Since that's how all the others have acted towards one another. When they are all outside they pay each other no mind so I was wondering why the change. Thanks

 

[queen koopa]

I see. I was hoping that he would treat them with indifference. Since that's how all the others have acted towards one another. When they are all outside they pay each other no mind so I was wondering why the change. Thanks

Babies always interact more indifferent with each other. They don’t have territories or the need to breed. Some keepers are successful with keeping multiple tortoise together but a ton of space is needed and correct male to female ratios.
Also tortoise do not belong roaming the floor. I think people special or amazed that their tortoise “acts” like a dog and roams the house burrowing in clothes. Try to remember they are not dogs or cats...

 

[Sango]

Babies always interact more indifferent with each other. They don’t have territories or the need to breed. Some keepers are successful with keeping multiple tortoise together but a ton of space is needed and correct male to female ratios.
Also tortoise do not belong roaming the floor. I think people special or amazed that their tortoise “acts” like a dog and roams the house burrowing in clothes. Try to remember they are not dogs or cats...

Oh I did not know that about the babies.
Specifically the behaviour of my adult tort is concerning, why does he come to me when this happens ? Is he counting on me intervening or is it something else I'm missing ?
Thank you for your advice you gave

 

[queen koopa]

Oh I did not know that about the babies.
Specifically the behaviour of my adult tort is concerning, why does he come to me when this happens ? Is he counting on me intervening or is it something else I'm missing ?
Thank you for your advice you gave

Oh I don’t know.. probably no way for you to know exactly either. How long have you had the adult? I think he may be scared of all the babies as they are normally solitary animals as Yvonne said. Maybe he knows you to be a warm hide and that will get him away from these babies! ?

 

[Sango]

Oh I don’t know.. probably no way for you to know exactly either. How long have you had the adult? I think he may be scared of all the babies as they are normally solitary animals as Yvonne said. Maybe he knows you to be a warm hide and that will get him away from these babies! ?

I've had him for a little over 2 years. When we got him he was scared of everything including the food we tried to give him. Now he seems very comfy and isn't scared of me or other people.( He's been around the our neighbours little kids too and seemed fine.)
We had the babies before him. But we didn't let them see each other . That was simple since I only had 3 babies at the time