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Russian feeding response question...

Nicodemus Jan 17, 2008 09:47 AM

I've only raised one baby russian before and boy is he a big boy now.
But now I have a small herd of adolescents. I was originally keeping them together in the same pen until I turned my back one day while feeding and an accident occured...a bite (stupid me...NEVER again. All in separate pens now).

Now however, it seems they're all a little more sedate now.
Am I just anthropomorphising or is it possible they are a little more social than I thought? i.e. lonely? Or maybe just a little less stressed?

Or is it more of a feeding response? They see a 'rival' nearby and thus try to eat more, and faster? I figure thats probably the reason for the bite on my littlest...Aggressiveness.

Replies (4)

bradtort Jan 17, 2008 11:10 AM

I've noticed some assertive behavior when two or more torts are feeding together. A little biting, shoving, or sitting on a pile of food.

Of course at this time of year the tortoises may be eating less because it's winter time. My 1.5 yr old russians were down for about 6 weeks but I brought them back up after a stretch of warm weather. Now they are eating everything they can. I've noticed some aggression during feeding between the two of them. One is slightly larger and tends to dominate, so I make sure the food is spread out so everyone gets a chance.

Nicodemus Jan 17, 2008 12:15 PM

yeah, I also tried to spread things out, but MAN this one guy is just EVIL. I swear he ALWAYS went for whatever the littlest ones were eating.

-ryan- Jan 23, 2008 02:34 PM

I was just wondering how severe this bite was. In my breeding group I notice quite a bit of biting (the male biting the females). The females are tough though and there has not yet been any bloodshed. Males bite females for breeding purposes. What is the size difference between your torts? In my group the male is the smallest at about 5", with the females being about 7" and 9".

Personally, I almost always see a better feeding response when the tortoises are not kept in groups. I attribute that to the fact that whenever they are together the male is busy trying to mate the females and this causes some stress on the females, so neither sex tends to eat as much, except for after the females lay their eggs (then all hell breaks loose). That's why I'm raising the russian that I hatched last year all by herself. With not other torts to bug her, she eats a ton (I literally feed her a dinner plate of food every morning, and it's gone by nightfall), and she grows at a high rate (at a year old she is nearing 5".

I think that overall the torts would do better by themselves, but I wouldn't be able to breed them that way. With the torts together they breed every day and lay eggs every couple months (summer and winter, all year round). I doubt that would happen if I kept them separately most of the time. Now I've just got to get better at finding the eggs quicker (lost over a dozen this year because I didn't know they had laid...I do have four in the incubator though).

Nicodemus Feb 10, 2008 08:18 AM

Sorry for the delayed reply...

The bite was REALLY bad. Degloved her neck in fact. The skin was just a big old flap, but no muscle damage thank goodness.

Needless to say I flipped out and ended up bringing her to the emergency room at Tufts University up here in Massachusetts. I'm glad my wife was around, I kinda lost my head and wasn't sure what to do.
Tufts didn't even sew her up. They just cleaned the area and gave me a few meds to adminsiter. Baytril, an anti-inflammatory, and an anti-fungal anti bacterial ointment for the outside.

Believe it or not she's doing great now. There is new skin over the muscle (completely covered now), its a tender thin skin of course, and the old flaps have pretty much sloughed away.
Didn't have any inections or complications or anything. I guess my daily attentions were perfect.

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