TEAMWORK

[Russianuncletwo]

As much as I am tying to keep my male and female separate to live their own lives and indulge behavior as the solitary creatures they basically are, I have noticed teamwork when they are together. When a tremendous amount of contractor noise/vibration the other day was present when they were both in a same enclosure, they found each other to dig like mad at the edge, next to each other, shell to shell, as if two would make a better burrow (or did one start and the other followed?) This happened recently (and I watched the whole evolvement from afar) when for once I had them both in the huge soak tub together. As I left them in there longer then normal, they both eventually, after doing their thing, did the same thing at the same time-huddled together, shell-to-shell, and tried to burrow out. My male also uses my female as a scout. If female walks over to look what noise is coming, male will turn his neck to the same direction to see what she's looking at. They pretty much have little use for each other unless there is a goal-then there is teamwork. It reminds me a little of when my male is let out of the two enclosures to explore (under my near supervision indoors/my total supervision outdoors.) Whenever I rescue him from an "oops", he just seems so relaxed and "near" like maybe I'm convenient to have around! Solitary until keeper or nearby tort can be utilized!
(I know this forum has a few avid, very loud "segregationists", but after seeing this phenomenon, on many occasions, I am lifting "Jim Crow" laws and allowing the torts to interact...)

 

[dmmj]

so your male makes no attempt to mate with a female?

 

[dmmj]

and many of us are Milton separatist regarding tortoises because we have seen the damage and death resulting from overzealous males that's all we're not trying to be mean

 

[Russianuncletwo]

No attempt on mating. This breed sometimes needs to be separated to resume a mating interest when breeding is desired by breeders, particularly off season I am told. Believe me I more paranoid than all of you and keeping an eye on everything I can. I'm glad you mentioned about not trying to be mean. I pretty much understand but there are members that get intimidated and then are afraid to ask important questions out of fear of being bullied here. I like seeing members firm but not barating. Meanwhile for the record I still believe people should only have one tortoise. At least one per enclosure as two together too often cannot make one keep track of eating' pooping, etc.

 

[Tom]

No attempt on mating. This breed sometimes needs to be separated to resume a mating interest when breeding is desired by breeders, particularly off season I am told. Believe me I more paranoid than all of you and keeping an eye on everything I can. I'm glad you mentioned about not trying to be mean. I pretty much understand but there are members that get intimidated and then are afraid to ask important questions out of fear of being bullied here. I like seeing members firm but not barating. Meanwhile for the record I still believe people should only have one tortoise. At least one per enclosure as two together too often cannot make one keep track of eating' pooping, etc.

We are not mean here and we do not berate. Sorry if you perceive it that way.

Our interest is in helping people take better care of their animals. There are as many strategies for this as there are people here, if not more.

There is no reason tortoises can't be housed in appropriate groups.

 

[Russianuncletwo]

It's mainly others (members) that have felt bullied, but anyway...thanks, also on behalf of the many here, for your cordial reply. By the way, I forgot to mention one of the big positives (and they're not many yet) when my two are together-it's "monkey see, monkey do". My new Jadely seems to have gotten Luna to finally after all these years get into eating plantain weeds and their stamens when outdoors.