Tortoise Fighting

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brian4342

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Hi, I have 2 female Russians that I keep together but this morning I walked in on them fighting,
They were circling each other then one bit the other and tried to pull into her shell whilst still biting.
Tey are both young and I've had them for about 2 years and never seen them act like this.
Could it be a one off?
 

kanalomele

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Hi Brian,
Tell me more about how they are housed, temps and where you got them. Is there an estimated age? How many inches are they. It sounds like typical Russian territorial behavior. They are a tough species to house multiples of any sex combination. Females can be quite territorial and will often fight for dominance. This has nothing to do with the presence of a male. Females will often even mount other females in dominance displays.
 

brian4342

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Well there about 2 years old, I have them in a well ventilated 4ft viv (I'm in uk so it's too cold out side). And temps and uv are all the standards.
I have seen them climbing on each other before though, but I always assumed they saw each other as rocks lol
 

Jordan67

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Hi,

Have you tried putting tall obstacles in their enclosure? Usually if their line of site to the other tortoise is broken they will just forget about the other tortoise and carry on what they were doing. Can you attach a pic of your enclosure so we can see?
 

Tom

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You need to separate them. Russians usually do not do well in pairs, regardless of sexes. Make a 4x8' table with a divider in the middle and give each one half.
 

GBtortoises

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brian4342 said:
Hi, I have 2 female Russians that I keep together but this morning I walked in on them fighting,
They were circling each other then one bit the other and tried to pull into her shell whilst still biting.
Tey are both young and I've had them for about 2 years and never seen them act like this.
Could it be a one off?
How big are both (straight carapace length)?
Are you certain that you have two females?
 

kanalomele

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If they are truly 2 years old (rather than it being 2 years that youve had them) then it is unlikely they have reached any sort of sexual maturity. Which means this is a dominance behavior rather than a sexual one. They will have to be separated. The only way to truly have more than one is to give them lots and lots of space and visual barriers.
 
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