Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, something is terribly wrong. I have a sulcata that is about fist size. Not very big. Last night, I added a tortoise to the pen. Not really unusual. I mean, people keep more than one tort in a tortoise table.

The bigger, older tortoise has been living alone for a while, since it was a baby. I was eager to introduce him/her to the new friend this morning.

The other new one had just come home from a pet store. And is used to being in the same enclosure as a 20 other torts there. So it just went about grazing and eating as normal.

The old tort was very curious. Went over there and started sniffing the new tort. I was like "awwww...how cute". Then, he started trying to EAT the new tortoise!!!! It wasn't aggression or shell bumping or anything like that. He seemed to sniff him, examine him, and genuinely think the new tort is food!

This is ridiculous. I have never heard of anything like this.

Please help!

And then the big one went away so I thought it was a first meeting thing, but whenever they cross paths, the darn thing tries to eat its shell!!! I mean, its really isn't aggressiveness its like he sniffs him like he usually sniffs his food to check it out, then "Ok! edible!" and tries to bite it!

I am so angry about this. Please help me.

Everything I have read they are solitary animales and do not need friends. In the wild they are solitary, I would seperate right away.

I have temporarily separted them. However, they are going to be back together somehow when I figure this out. Sure they may be solitary in nature, but you search any care sheet, zoo pictures, enclosure setups, tortoise tables, pens building sites. People keep multiple tortoises together.

If you look up some info on field studies you can see that they often do live in very close proximity to eachother. It is a commmon misconception that reptiles are solitary

Now just a thought, but when my tortoise sees something he hasn't ever seen before he always tries first to eat it. Dirt, rocks, my cat, me, what have you. Is he hurting the other tortoise at all when he tries to eat his shell? You could start with supervised intro meetings between them daily just so you can prevent anything bad from happening. He is probably just trying to figure out what this THING is. He doesn't know what a tortoise looks like and he's curious to what this new THING is. I wonder if in time he'll figure out "oh this isn't food". Then that will be that.

Now to quickly mention. I don't know if you quarantined this new tort or not. Too late now. But you really should have if you didn't. #1 thing to do with ANY new animal.

THanks. That's the same advice I got from another forum, that it wasn't aggression, but curiousity. He stopped the biting the next day and they just ignore each other now.

The animal was not quarantined, but he was dewormed just before arrival in my home from the previous keeper and was checked with a clean bill of health. I thought it would be ok because I always thought that quarantine was for health issues not aggression. Maybe I'm wrong. But regardless, they are not biting now.

You must have the two subspecies together! It happens every time,their very canableistic!Ask EJ hes the one that told me. te he he. joe6pax