Marianna
Member
Hi,
my name is Marianna and live in Crete Greece.
3 years ago I got 3 1 year old marginated tortoises, a life long wish came true!.
As our location is very much like their natural habitat, we made them a lovely pen of about 50 m2 on sloping grounds with rocks, natural and planted shrubs and put several hiding places like terra cotta pots and roof tiles.
They hibernated from the first winter, from mid November until mid March, regardless the weather.
Their names are Matilda, Aegis and Storm. Storm because he disappeared a few days after waking up in March last year when we had hurricane winds of 12 beaufort......
we have 6 acres of land but never found him back...until 6 months later when my neighbour told me he was sure he had seen a tortoise on a bare piece of his land. We went searching and found him. He had survived on sheep droppings and a few dried weeds!!!! And had grown really well. He must have been taken by the wind. He still has some damage (crack) on his carapache where he landed but it is slowly but surely healing. You can only still feel it.
In summer here in Crete the fields are dry with only some spiny plants that my tortoises totally ignore. I feed them mulberry leaves, vine leaves, campanula, some succulents,andives and flowers from hibiscus, roses and cosmea.Their absolute favorites are the flowers of the orange trumpet vine.They are not really interested in the fruits of the prickly pear. They eat 1 or 2 per summer maybe. Although I put bowls with fresh water every day, I have only seen them drink once this year when it was about 40 degrees celsius.
In spring and autumn they have enough weeds to eat, especially dandelions are savoured first.
I have spent many many hours observating them from the beginning without interfering what so ever.
They prefer to spend the night the three of them in their summervilla. During the day they each have their preferred shady spot. They hate rain so when we recently had 3 days of heavy rain they hid in their villa where they stayed dry and did not come out until the sun began to shine again.
And then the problem suddenly started. Matilda the biggest and fastest growing is a male I am afraid, and Storm too. Long tails.... Aegis is much smaller still so no idea yet.
From the moment they came out in the sun to eat (and I was observating them again as always) Matilda started chasing Storm and bit him agressively where ever she/he could. Storm did not defend himself at all. I watched it for a while and then decided to separate Matilda from the other 2. At first I thought he might think it was spring but every time I put him back the same chasing started. Only Storm, not Aegis.
So now the pen is divided in equal parts. Storm and Aegis are (still) happy together, but Matilda who was always the most active, now hides under a pile of straw (they all like that btw) still eats well but seems a bit depressed.
We are now planning to extend their pen to about 500 m2 with even more rocks, climbing challenges, old olive trees with lots of places to hide in, big existing shrubs and a meadow. My ultimate goal is to let them roam free on our field but I want them to be at least twice the size they are now. Matilda is about 15 cm and I am surprised this dominant behaviour starts at such young age. Now my question: if all three turn out to be male would this planned enormous "playground" big enough for all of them without bothering eachother the next 3 years or so?
I don't want to give 1 or 2 away because their future will be great regarding the size of our land. Not many people can/want to offer that to them.I don't want to breed either so getting some girls is out of the question.
Can anybody shine a light on the sudden change of behaviour and size of the planned pen?
Any advice much appreciated!
Greetings from sunny Crete
my name is Marianna and live in Crete Greece.
3 years ago I got 3 1 year old marginated tortoises, a life long wish came true!.
As our location is very much like their natural habitat, we made them a lovely pen of about 50 m2 on sloping grounds with rocks, natural and planted shrubs and put several hiding places like terra cotta pots and roof tiles.
They hibernated from the first winter, from mid November until mid March, regardless the weather.
Their names are Matilda, Aegis and Storm. Storm because he disappeared a few days after waking up in March last year when we had hurricane winds of 12 beaufort......
we have 6 acres of land but never found him back...until 6 months later when my neighbour told me he was sure he had seen a tortoise on a bare piece of his land. We went searching and found him. He had survived on sheep droppings and a few dried weeds!!!! And had grown really well. He must have been taken by the wind. He still has some damage (crack) on his carapache where he landed but it is slowly but surely healing. You can only still feel it.
In summer here in Crete the fields are dry with only some spiny plants that my tortoises totally ignore. I feed them mulberry leaves, vine leaves, campanula, some succulents,andives and flowers from hibiscus, roses and cosmea.Their absolute favorites are the flowers of the orange trumpet vine.They are not really interested in the fruits of the prickly pear. They eat 1 or 2 per summer maybe. Although I put bowls with fresh water every day, I have only seen them drink once this year when it was about 40 degrees celsius.
In spring and autumn they have enough weeds to eat, especially dandelions are savoured first.
I have spent many many hours observating them from the beginning without interfering what so ever.
They prefer to spend the night the three of them in their summervilla. During the day they each have their preferred shady spot. They hate rain so when we recently had 3 days of heavy rain they hid in their villa where they stayed dry and did not come out until the sun began to shine again.
And then the problem suddenly started. Matilda the biggest and fastest growing is a male I am afraid, and Storm too. Long tails.... Aegis is much smaller still so no idea yet.
From the moment they came out in the sun to eat (and I was observating them again as always) Matilda started chasing Storm and bit him agressively where ever she/he could. Storm did not defend himself at all. I watched it for a while and then decided to separate Matilda from the other 2. At first I thought he might think it was spring but every time I put him back the same chasing started. Only Storm, not Aegis.
So now the pen is divided in equal parts. Storm and Aegis are (still) happy together, but Matilda who was always the most active, now hides under a pile of straw (they all like that btw) still eats well but seems a bit depressed.
We are now planning to extend their pen to about 500 m2 with even more rocks, climbing challenges, old olive trees with lots of places to hide in, big existing shrubs and a meadow. My ultimate goal is to let them roam free on our field but I want them to be at least twice the size they are now. Matilda is about 15 cm and I am surprised this dominant behaviour starts at such young age. Now my question: if all three turn out to be male would this planned enormous "playground" big enough for all of them without bothering eachother the next 3 years or so?
I don't want to give 1 or 2 away because their future will be great regarding the size of our land. Not many people can/want to offer that to them.I don't want to breed either so getting some girls is out of the question.
Can anybody shine a light on the sudden change of behaviour and size of the planned pen?
Any advice much appreciated!
Greetings from sunny Crete
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