Tell me about keeping groups

katieandiggy

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Hi all,

I’ve been on this forum for a year now and I’ve learnt soooo much. I recently joined a UK rehoming forum and there are so many tortoises looking for a home it’s unreal.
I decided (pending advice) on taking on a group of Russians. I already keep a young Russian and he/she would be kept separately of the group. I have a large outdoor space of about 20ft by 8ft that is in the process of being secured. I plan for them to live out during the day and to live in a heated outdoor house at night. Ideally I’d like to take on 4 or 5.

I just would like to know about group dynamics.

Ratio of male/female?

Can I just keep a group of females without a male?

Do they have to had grown up together to be able to get on?

Can females be introduced to each other at a later age? I.e 5 years plus.

Any advice welcome, I really hope I can take on a few of these Russians. In the Uk they are the cheapest probably most popular tortoise but so many end up being unwanted.
 

ascott

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Hi all,

I’ve been on this forum for a year now and I’ve learnt soooo much. I recently joined a UK rehoming forum and there are so many tortoises looking for a home it’s unreal.
I decided (pending advice) on taking on a group of Russians. I already keep a young Russian and he/she would be kept separately of the group. I have a large outdoor space of about 20ft by 8ft that is in the process of being secured. I plan for them to live out during the day and to live in a heated outdoor house at night. Ideally I’d like to take on 4 or 5.

I just would like to know about group dynamics.

Ratio of male/female?

Can I just keep a group of females without a male?

Do they have to had grown up together to be able to get on?

Can females be introduced to each other at a later age? I.e 5 years plus.

Any advice welcome, I really hope I can take on a few of these Russians. In the Uk they are the cheapest probably most popular tortoise but so many end up being unwanted.

The first thing I would advise with any species of tortoise when considering housing multiples is to have adequate space to individually house them in the event none get along and bite and flip each other....

Yes, females can be kept without a male and will likely appreciate that. Females can and do fight amongst themselves with or without a male. Also, why would you want a male in with females ? I mean the outcome is lots of little tortoise that will each require their own spaces and so on...
 

katieandiggy

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The first thing I would advise with any species of tortoise when considering housing multiples is to have adequate space to individually house them in the event none get along and bite and flip each other....

Yes, females can be kept without a male and will likely appreciate that. Females can and do fight amongst themselves with or without a male. Also, why would you want a male in with females ? I mean the outcome is lots of little tortoise that will each require their own spaces and so on...

Good point ascott. I asked because there are already some established groups that contain a male, but your right, ideally I do not want any males.

Is it possible to introduce females to each other later in life? There are several individual females for rehoming. I guess there is the chance they won’t get on.
 

ascott

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Good point ascott. I asked because there are already some established groups that contain a male, but your right, ideally I do not want any males.

Is it possible to introduce females to each other later in life? There are several individual females for rehoming. I guess there is the chance they won’t get on.

I would quarantine any new tortoise for a year...this is a good amount of time for you to get to be aware of a "normal" behavior for any new tortoise as well as gives you time to know eating/resting/exercise habits for an individual tortoise. Knowing that info will be invaluable when you do begin to introduce a new tort to another...this will allow you to immediately see what the behavior is of each and will allow you to act before things can go wrong. Stress is a huge issue for tortoise health, so the less forced constant stress is desirable...in the wild a tort can flee the area if an encounter is bad with another tortoise...in a forced captive area then the level of stress is high with not way to escape one another....
 

katieandiggy

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I would quarantine any new tortoise for a year...this is a good amount of time for you to get to be aware of a "normal" behavior for any new tortoise as well as gives you time to know eating/resting/exercise habits for an individual tortoise. Knowing that info will be invaluable when you do begin to introduce a new tort to another...this will allow you to immediately see what the behavior is of each and will allow you to act before things can go wrong. Stress is a huge issue for tortoise health, so the less forced constant stress is desirable...in the wild a tort can flee the area if an encounter is bad with another tortoise...in a forced captive area then the level of stress is high with not way to escape one another....

I completely agree. The last thing I want is to stress them out. I will think long and hard about this.
 

Yvonne G

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I have a group consisting of one male and three females (russians). Their yard is appx. 40'x16' but it's pie-shaped, so hard for me to measure exactly. It is wildly overgrown so at ground level they can't see more than a few inches in front of their faces. There is a cement border along the fence so they can't dig out, and the fence is too tall for them to climb over. In the morning when the sun hits the fence you can see all of them lined up along the fence together taking the sun. I've never seen any fighting and they all seem to get along together fine, each going his or her own way.

In my opinion, if you get a group of Russians all at the same time and put them into your new tortoise yard, you shouldn't see any fighting for territory, as it's new to all of them and none has been there long enough to establish that the territory belongs to him. Just be sure to have plenty of sight barriers and plenty of space, and only one male per group.
 

katieandiggy

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I have a group consisting of one male and three females (russians). Their yard is appx. 40'x16' but it's pie-shaped, so hard for me to measure exactly. It is wildly overgrown so at ground level they can't see more than a few inches in front of their faces. There is a cement border along the fence so they can't dig out, and the fence is too tall for them to climb over. In the morning when the sun hits the fence you can see all of them lined up along the fence together taking the sun. I've never seen any fighting and they all seem to get along together fine, each going his or her own way.

In my opinion, if you get a group of Russians all at the same time and put them into your new tortoise yard, you shouldn't see any fighting for territory, as it's new to all of them and none has been there long enough to establish that the territory belongs to him. Just be sure to have plenty of sight barriers and plenty of space, and only one male per group.

Thanks Yvonne. We are just starting to build the barrier, I was going to line the bottom with wire so they can’t dig out. I’ve lots of plants in pots that I’m going to move to the tortoise enclosure so I hope, like yours it’s quite bushy, I’m looking online for inspiration.
 

Yvonne G

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Thanks Yvonne. We are just starting to build the barrier, I was going to line the bottom with wire so they can’t dig out. I’ve lots of plants in pots that I’m going to move to the tortoise enclosure so I hope, like yours it’s quite bushy, I’m looking online for inspiration.
When I first moved here 20+ years ago I dug down a few inches all around the perimeter fence and placed a folded-in-half, 'L' shaped chicken wire all along the inside of the fence. It was a big waste of time, labor and material. They never ever tried to dig under the fence. It has been my experience that if they can't see daylight under the fence they won't try to dig out. BUT, if they CAN see daylight under the fence, that's where they're gonna' dig.
 

katieandiggy

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When I first moved here 20+ years ago I dug down a few inches all around the perimeter fence and placed a folded-in-half, 'L' shaped chicken wire all along the inside of the fence. It was a big waste of time, labor and material. They never ever tried to dig under the fence. It has been my experience that if they can't see daylight under the fence they won't try to dig out. BUT, if they CAN see daylight under the fence, that's where they're gonna' dig.

Wow that’s interesting. They definitely won’t be able to see daylight under it as it will be deep with soil.
 

RosemaryDW

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It has been my experience that if they can't see daylight under the fence they won't try to dig out. BUT, if they CAN see daylight under the fence, that's where they're gonna' dig.

Yup. If they can see out, they will try to get out. My Russian spends hours in the summer trying to make it out of the single pin hole of light that gets through our fence. She’s wild caught and knows there is more territory on the outside she could conquer.
 

Texas Scott

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I've been keeping 5 females together outdoors for some time now for about 2 years. They have been doing great in a large spacious enclosure. I tried to introduce a male and within 2 minutes he walked up to a female and she bit scales right off his front legs!
 

Yvonne G

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I've been keeping 5 females together outdoors for some time now for about 2 years. They have been doing great in a large spacious enclosure. I tried to introduce a male and within 2 minutes he walked up to a female and she bit scales right off his front legs!
It's usually the other way around. I've seen females with no leg scales or EYELIDS!!
 

Ben02

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When I first moved here 20+ years ago I dug down a few inches all around the perimeter fence and placed a folded-in-half, 'L' shaped chicken wire all along the inside of the fence. It was a big waste of time, labor and material. They never ever tried to dig under the fence. It has been my experience that if they can't see daylight under the fence they won't try to dig out. BUT, if they CAN see daylight under the fence, that's where they're gonna' dig.
I wouldbe worried about animals digging in as-well
 

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