Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any suggestions on curbing male on male aggression? I recently got a new male that fights dirty with my other male. There are four girls for the two boys to split and they have more than enough space. Any suggestions on helping them to get along better? In the meantime, I separated them to avoid bloodshed. Who knew the docile creatures we love can fight so dirty! Thanks

Allegra

PS
They are cherryhead torts, all breeding size.

You did not say what kind of tortoises.Your already doing what you should do.Keep them a part from each other.Most tortoises I have kept, the males will fight.The one with the biggest Gulars wins.Maybe other keepers will chime in when we find out what kind they are.It could be possable with a lot of visual barriers.I can tell you this,it can be deadly and or costly to patch up.In big tortoises when one gets a good bite and then both recoil,one will have a big chunk of the other one hanging in its mouth.Ive had one puncture a hole in the neck and rip the skin off the lower mandable.Make sure you look CLOSE for injuries,as they can be hard to see if under the head/neck area and things can get ugly.Oddly,I have seen sevearly injured tortoises (the one I described)walking around like nothing is wrong.As if there is no pain!You'ed think a infected hole in a neck would cause them to at least retreat inside the shell.At least with Manouria,both sexes will fight with any combination.If you have the room I'd split them up.I'd like to here more responces on your question though.Vic....this guy could do some damage!

Thanks for the input, Vic. The tortosie combatants are cherryhead redfoots. I am curious to see if there is a solution. I know with fish aggression, sometimes you can "confuse" the aggressive males by adding more males to the mix. That way they spread their aggression around. I don't think I want to get any more males to test that theory. Any suggestions are welcome.

Hi, I do not have much experience with this. I have only had 2 male russians at the same time. My solution was to separate them. One of the males was particularly aggressive not only to the other male but to any other tortoise in the vicinity. In fact, he managed to break down the barrier between my redfoot and his side of the outdoor enclosure and was very aggressive with her even. And she is about 8x his size!

Anyway, in my opinion I would separate.

Carole
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