Two females or a female and male?

[TortoiseGurl]

I currently have a five year old marginated female, and we're definitely prepared for another tortoise, especially since our local reptile center is travelling to Germany to bring in more reptiles, and they said there are marginated tortoises there but they won't be bringing them to this country unless we specifically ask for one, they're going in less than a week and we don't know whether to get a male or female, we were originally going with the idea of a male so hopefully they could breed, but I heard marginated tortoises are mature for that at eight years old, and I heard males can be extremely rough with the females, I don't want that, but my want for a male solely lies on the offspring they will give.

However we think a female would be more suited since female tortoises could get on better, but there will obviously be no hatchlings.

So basically, we want hatchlings, but we also want the safety and comfort of the tortoise we already have.

Male.. or female?
Thank you very much.

 

[SamB]

Same post as here http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Two-females-or-female-and-male

Mods?

 

[Tom]

You need at least a trio. Tortoises seldom do well in pairs. One of them always suffers for it. Male or female doesnt matter much in regards to this. One of the most aggressive individual tortoises I've ever seen was a marginated.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

If you can only get one, get a female, and get a male later (or check around if anyone nearby might have a male for "stud")...two females, given enough room and food, will get along (ignore one another), but a male and a single female will have to have seperate enclosures.

Optimum would be a male and 3 or more females, if you have enough room. The more females you have, the less "attention" the male will have for each.

 

[Jacqui]

You are going to need an enclosure during quarantine any how, so why not make it a good one while your at it. Reality is, even if you do get a female, you may have problems with stress, dominance, ect.., There is never a guarantee, when you keep more then one animal within one enclosure. So unless you can have two setups, do not get another tortoise. If you have room for the two setups, then get a male. Then you will have a place for it during quarantine, a place for it if it and the female have issues and the best part is, you have the chance to get offspring even if the male only gets occasional conjugal visits. Why get another female? She will serve no purpose, since we humans believe we know tortoises do not "enjoy" company and want to be solo for life.

 

[TortoiseGurl]

Thank you very much all of you, very helpful.