Tortoise seperation...

[PenguinMan]

So summertime this year we separated our torts who just turned 1 year old last week. Jelly appeared to be bullying PeanutButter. But since separation PeanutButter keeps pushing through the smallest gap (im guessing on its side) to get into Jellys part of the enclosure. This is just strange as if anything you'd expect it the other way around. The are both twin siblings any ideas on this behaviour? Should i keep putting them back into their seperate enclosures or leave them be?

 

[JoesMum]

You need to build stronger barriers and keep them separated properly.

The bully knows there's more space to be had and wants to oust the other tortoise.

They will not be OK together.

Gender, being siblings, etc plays no part in tortoise bullying. They are not social creatures. Another tortoise, related or not, is competition for food and space - nothing more.

 

[Tom]

Tortoises hatch in the wild and get used to their surrounding. They learn every nook and crannie or their area, and they don't leave their little known territory for the rest of their lives.

When we move them, they want to go "home". It can takes months in some cases for them to accept a new area as "home".

They need to be separated. The person selling them should not have sold you a pair if they knew you intended to house them together.

 

[Gillian M]

A very warm welcome to the forum!

Please keep your torts separated: these cute animals do NOT want/need/like company. If it is imposed on them, bullying begins.

Any pics of your torts?

 

[PenguinMan]

You need to build stronger barriers and keep them separated properly.

The bully knows there's more space to be had and wants to oust the other tortoise.

They will not be OK together.

Gender, being siblings, etc plays no part in tortoise bullying. They are not social creatures. Another tortoise, related or not, is competition for food and space - nothing more.

The one that was being bullied was the one trying to get into the other part of the enclosure

 

[PenguinMan]

I have put them back inside their own enclosures and placed a more solid blockade down where one of them keeps getting in through