Tortoise Behavior

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Crumb da dumdum

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I have always been a mammal person having owned dogs and rabbits most of my life. I received a Sulcata hatchling as a birthday present over 4 years ago. I took owning a reptile very seriously. Having always had endotherms, I found myself poking and prodding poor Olive to make sure she was alive while she basked. I obviously had a lot of learning to do! Here I am now and she is almost 5 years old. She is just under 20 pounds (her visit to the vet a few months ago put her at 17 pounds) and I just got another one. I didn't go hunting for Helga, she was an owner dump at the vet clinic. They knew someone who knew someone who knew I had one and now I have 2. They are about the same size (Helga is 15 pounds) and both females. My vet checked Helga out (conveniently, two of my vets actually own Sulcatas!) She had no upper respiratory concerns and seemed pretty healthy. So I took her home and put her in Olive's box. Olive was not too thrilled about her shelled intruder. She is used to the cats and dogs, but another tortoise? She bulled around her box with her head in her shell pushing Helga around. I gave them some food and let them be for the night checking in on them frequently. The next morning I put them both outside in the yard for free roaming and grass eating. They were great together. Olive has her favorite spots to relax in (under the deck in her enormous hole and behind the tree in the cool damp shade) and that day she was always relaxing with Helga. They even both hung out at the bottom of the steps together which Olive has never done! They went out the next few days but not yesterday. My long work day would have put them out when it was dark and in the 50s and when I got home it was was dark and in the 60s. So, they didn't go out yesterday. When I woke up this morning and went to go check on the two of them, Helga had been flipped and pooped while on her side. I am sure she was stressed. I have no idea how long she had been flipped for - although the poop was very fresh. I offered them some romaine mixed with dried orchard grass and Olive went to town and Helga just walked away. I don't know Helga all that well, so I am not sure if she just isn't as food motivated as Olive, if she is still stressed about being flipped, or if there is something bigger going on here. I need some advice! Is this normal Sulcata behavior? Should I call my vet and bring her back in to make sure she is OK? Olive is an eating machine, the way you read online! She will do almost anything for a bite of tomato or strawberry (no worries, she only gets those occasionally). I offered a corn on the cob to the girls a few days ago and Helga seemed like she didn't know what to do with it. Olive finished hers and started chowing down on Helga's before she had 3 bites in. Is this part of her adjusting? Is it normal for Olive to be so 'pushy' with Helga? Any information and suggestions would be appreciated. I posted a picture of the girls in my intro.
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Crumb da dum dum:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know your name and where you are?

Thanks for giving us such a nice update on your tortoises and tortoise-keeping.

Your first order of business is to make a heated house of some sort outside. It does neither tortoise any good to be confined in a small area. They each need their space. If your winters are too cold for a heated house, then a bigger indoor space, the basement, in the garage, or even a whole bedroom.

Olive doesn't want Helga in her sleeping box and she was trying to make her understand she needs to get out. But poor Helga couldn't get away. She was stuck there. They did ok together outside because its a big area and they each could (if they wanted to) get away from the other.

Can we see pictures of the girls?
 

pdrobber

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welcome. you will get lots of advice here. It sounds like Olive may be trying to tell Helga who's the boss and that it's her house...
 

dmarcus

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I agree, Olive likes her space and Helga is an intruder when they are confined togther in a small area. Unless you give them more room inside or build something outside this will continue...
 

Crumb da dumdum

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My goal is to build them an outside heated enclosure so they can free choice go in and out depending on the weather. Kansas City gets pretty cold in the winter and they will probably be locked in at that time. However, I am a year or two from that point (right now we simply rent our home). I have them in the basement with lamps in the one large wooden box. It is 8x4 and I have 3 heat lamps descending from the ceiling for warmth. I can't give them free choice in the basement because the landlord still has property down there (not to mention we do too). So I need a temporary fix until my husband graduates in May and we buy a house... Should I make Helga her own 8x4 box and simply keep them separated for now? I know I'm a mammal and think very differently, but they seem to enjoy each other's company outside and follow each other around and relax and cool off together, is this a territorial display she will get over? Should I separate them and only let them have 'supervised visitation' time or would that make them too stressed? Should I make a smaller area in the middle with a screening so they can see each other, smell each other but not interact for a while and then let them stay together? I would like them to be able to stay together even if it's a lot of work to get to that point.
 
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