Juvenile Leopard hitting Mother

[Hugtheground]

Hi I hope someone can help me with my young tortoise behavior. The young tortoise is few months old.. About 2-3 months ago due to a busy travel schedule I had to separate the parents from the young one. I re-introduced them back together in the large outdoor enclosure in the garden, but now the young one keeps ramming the mother and I am worried for their safety. I noticed when I moved him outside the enclosure he met a stone and rammed it too a few times..

The mother hisses slightly when he starts hitting her and she moves away but slowly and later tried to take cover under the shrubs.

Any ideas how to deal with this situation?

 

[Yvonne G]

Of course, you know, it's really impossible for us to know for sure why your tortoise is doing that, but my original thought when reading your post would be that the young tortoise is male and is asserting his dominance over the female. It would help if we saw pictures of the tortoises so we can see size comparison.

He may outgrow it, but then again, he may never stop pestering her. In that case the only solution (besides re-homing him) is separate yards.