I'm happy to have found an T. kleinmanni forum... neat stuff!
I'm a proud owner of 3 Egyptian tortoises. 2 males and one female... my oldest male I've owned since 1997 and the other 2 as of 2008. My estimate of my oldest male being roughly 16/17 years of age while the other 2 are about 5/6.
I keep all 3 of my tortoises in a 3' by 5' pen that I made. I separated the one male and the pair with a wall. The two males cannot be left together as they become territorial and start showing aggressive behaviors(biting head/forearms and ramming of shells). The young male and female seem to get along well together, but I've caught the female trying to bite the head of the male when there was little food left. Possible sign of jealousy/greed or she REALLY needed more food as we're suspecting she'll be laying an egg soon. Once I give her more food, she calms down and gets along just fine with the male.
As for the pen, I tried to mimic a desert environment. I use play-sand substrate and some aquarium stones here and there. When the pen was freshly prepared, it had dunes where they would exercise going up and down. Above the pen, I have a long UVB bulb and heat lamps. I added some little cacti in the enclosure as decorative pieces... they show no interest in eating them so its fine.
As of late... I'm suspecting the female may be laying an egg or 2 sometime soon. I've caught her trying to prepare a nesting site. Very excited as this will be her first ever egg.
Enjoy videos I just made of my Egyptians...
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPOX-aEVVp8[/video]
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IiAtrya-Gw[/video]
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0kg5FI_5Y8[/video]
I'm a proud owner of 3 Egyptian tortoises. 2 males and one female... my oldest male I've owned since 1997 and the other 2 as of 2008. My estimate of my oldest male being roughly 16/17 years of age while the other 2 are about 5/6.
I keep all 3 of my tortoises in a 3' by 5' pen that I made. I separated the one male and the pair with a wall. The two males cannot be left together as they become territorial and start showing aggressive behaviors(biting head/forearms and ramming of shells). The young male and female seem to get along well together, but I've caught the female trying to bite the head of the male when there was little food left. Possible sign of jealousy/greed or she REALLY needed more food as we're suspecting she'll be laying an egg soon. Once I give her more food, she calms down and gets along just fine with the male.
As for the pen, I tried to mimic a desert environment. I use play-sand substrate and some aquarium stones here and there. When the pen was freshly prepared, it had dunes where they would exercise going up and down. Above the pen, I have a long UVB bulb and heat lamps. I added some little cacti in the enclosure as decorative pieces... they show no interest in eating them so its fine.
As of late... I'm suspecting the female may be laying an egg or 2 sometime soon. I've caught her trying to prepare a nesting site. Very excited as this will be her first ever egg.
Enjoy videos I just made of my Egyptians...
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPOX-aEVVp8[/video]
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IiAtrya-Gw[/video]
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0kg5FI_5Y8[/video]