New guy with some Sulcata Q's

[sandaddict]

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum but not new to tortoises/turtles, however I am new to the breeding habits of tortoises and thats where my questions come in. I have what I believe to be a big male and smaller female. The male (Samson) I have had for about 4 1/2 years and has been an amazing pet. The female (Delilah) I just recently adopted a few months ago. Everything was fine for the first week or two because I have a big backyard and they were able to roam by themselves without interupting each other. Once they did find one another Samson investgated for a while and then mounted her. This would go on for a week or so. Now the problem I am having is Samson will not leave her alone, he chases her around the yard and rams her (pretty hard too) over and over again to the point where she does'nt come out as much anymore. Is this normal? I fell bad for her, he is relentless and will go as far as going to her borrow and bullying her there. Is it possible I have two males and this is the reason for the behavior? See pictures below.

Thanks,
Chris AZ

 

[dmmj]

Welcome to the forum and the world of sulcatas.
males like to mate, especially sulcatas. He will not leave her alone, ever, my best suggestion would be to but barriers in your yard, a friend of mine I know put down big logs everywhere so the male had to go around those to chase the female it worked a little but hr still mounts her every occasion he gets, more room ( harder to do I know) should work also.

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and it is possible you have 2 males also after looking at the pics the smaller one my be hard to determine gender at the moment, But I am very bad at determining sulcata genders

 

[ascott]

Some (most of them) male tortoises are complete bullies when it comes to wanting their way with the female. To the point of actually damaging the female and stressing her out. They can ram, bite and mentally harass the female-nonstop. I would give her a break and give her some time to herself....I know that people will say that is silly, but, is the undo stress worth it to force her to endure the bullying....keep in mind, the male means no harm...he means to get what he wants when he wants it....she on the other hand should be allowed a break to get what she wants--peace and quiet....just my opinion

Good luck.

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Plus, there appears to be a significant size difference here?

 

[Jacob]

Yes Separate or Put A Barrier In Between Them

 

[Maggie Cummings]

He's going to hurt her. I am not good at sexing, but I do believe in bullying being a bad thing for the smaller animal. He is big enough to hurt the smaller animal and I would separate them and give her a break.

 

[dmarcus]

Hello Chris and welcome to the forum, I will agree it will be safer to seperate them, the last thing you want is for Samson to seriously hurt Delilah..

 

[DesertGrandma]

OMG get him a ceramic tortoise or something. Poor thing, she should be able to say "no!!"

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Chris:

Welcome to the forum!!

I'm pretty sure that's a male and a female.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome.

The one on the left is definitely a male. Two questions about the one on the right. How big is the tail? Is it just a tiny little nub? 2nd: Is there ANY concavity to the plastron, like there is for the one on the left, or is it totally flat? I have a male that I was sure was a female until he was around 9 years old. Some of them aren't obvious until they are adults.

For many years I had the above male, Bert (Used to be Bertha.), his brother Scooter, who was obviously male from the time he was little, and a female, Delores, all living peacefully together. The three of them grew up together. Scooter was mounting them both from the time he was about 4 years old. Once Bert hit maturity, he and Scooter started fighting constantly. I kept finding Scooter, the bigger one, on his back. I had to separate the boys. I left Scooter and Delores together and made Bert his own enclosure. As soon as the competition was gone he turned his attention to Delores non-stop. They were in a 7000 sq. ft. enclosure that wraps around a building and had lots of nooks and crannies to hide in. Scooter would pace around searching for her all day long. Whenever he found her he would mount her. It got to a point where she would just hide in the box all day.

My solution was to add a couple more adult females to distract him. It worked for me and now everybody comes out and walks around together. Its pretty peaceful now. My other alternative was to separate them.

The point is that pairs of any sex almost never work out. They are best kept either single or in larger groups of one male and several females. Lately, I've also been contemplating keeping the males and females separate for most of the year.

 

[Laura]

yep.. seperate.. they will chase and breed and harass.. to death.
This is why there are so many sulcatas in rescue.. well. One of the reasons...

 

[melkin]

It's "that" time of year..... and I have a female Leopard who is mounting male Sulcatas (most likely dominance behavior) so it is pretty exciting at my Arizona Tortoise Ranch.

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum but not new to tortoises/turtles, however I am new to the breeding habits of tortoises and thats where my questions come in. I have what I believe to be a big male and smaller female. The male (Samson) I have had for about 4 1/2 years and has been an amazing pet. The female (Delilah) I just recently adopted a few months ago. Everything was fine for the first week or two because I have a big backyard and they were able to roam by themselves without interupting each other. Once they did find one another Samson investgated for a while and then mounted her. This would go on for a week or so. Now the problem I am having is Samson will not leave her alone, he chases her around the yard and rams her (pretty hard too) over and over again to the point where she does'nt come out as much anymore. Is this normal? I fell bad for her, he is relentless and will go as far as going to her borrow and bullying her there. Is it possible I have two males and this is the reason for the behavior? See pictures below.

Thanks,
Chris AZ

 

[sandaddict]

WOW! Thanks everyone for the replys and info. Well it sounds like I have a male and felmale on my hands which is what I thought but his behavior was throwing me off. After reading your responses it sounds like that is normal mating behavior for them. I will have to seperate them now which will be a little tricky because of the layout of my yard and I want to be able to give each of them some grass time. The male seams to be more interested in ramming her than mounting, is that normal? I have even noticed some damage to her shell (small chip). Also someone mentioned "the season", when does that start? How will I know if she is pregnant?


Tom: to answer your 2 Q's First, I'm not sure how big the smaller ones tail is but if I had to guess I would say it is small. Second, the plastron is flatter than the bigger one.

Thanks again for all your help!

Chris, AZ

 

[melkin]

Hi,
"The season" involving male/female interaction seems to go into high gear once it gets warm here in AZ and then explodes into obsessiveness during the monsoon rains.

Another observation-I have a female Leopard tort who has occasional bad-mood days and will try to turn over the much larger Sulcatas when they are eating. I interpret that as dominance display. This cranky Leopard never ever bothers the smaller ( also female) Leopard...at least for now.

Anyone else seen this from females?
Melinda