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Any information you can provide (books, personal experience, ect..) would be greatly appreciated.

Here's my problem:

I have 1 Male Florida Box, 1 Female Eastern Box, and 1 Female Ornate Box. I have just completed a very large indoor inclosure for the three of them. The inclosure is roughly 6foot by 5 foot. They have all had thier own pins prior to this time. Whenever I put them all together, the two females do fine, but the male is overly aggressive. The Florida Box tried to bite the head of either of the two females. He will spend an hour trying to charge after them. Is this normal behavior? Do they simply need to grow accomstomed to each other? Should I keep intervening or just let them "do thier thing"?

Right now I have him back in his own pin. The two females seem to be just fine. I cannot keep this Florida Box, however, unless he decides to get along. It just isn't right for him.

Please help.

Boxies seem to really need space or this aggressive behavior can be a problem. If you have a frisky male, chances are it will stay frisky. It can also be that it sees a different animal and does not recognize it as one of it's own. It can be the other way, also, in that it might recognize her as one of his own and might be trying to breed. This can be a very tough thing to watch.
Ed

I don't have experience with either Floridas or Ornates, but I do agree with Ed in that box turtles in general need room.
I would suggest providing a larger enclosure (as large as possible), and plenty of cover. That is, plant material, logs, rocks and so forth, so that they are not constantly in visual range of one another. This will also help to keep them alert and interested in their surroundings.
You may encounter issues with different habitat needs as well: you didn't mention why you had to house them all together.
Stephanie

There may be nothing you can do, as EJ said, to reduce the male's tendencies but his behavior is as likely based on his idea of a courtship ritual as it is some sort of territoriality. Thirty square feet is not huge but its pretty big: your boxie pen should be filled with live plants and caves and logs and hiding spots as Steph suggested....this helps alot. Can you make undergreound caves or second story ramps to increase the space and block the turtles from viewing each other often? This helps a lot i find. Is the male being pushy and not letting the girls eat? you may have to watch for that if its NOT the case that he's just "in the mood"

That is most likely courtship behavior, and it may cool down after a while or it may not. One of the problems with having different species together is that different species have different courtship behavior and if you have a really aggressive male species with a female that is not "programmed" for that, you can have an injured female on your hands. Even if they are the same species, the female cannot get away like she would in the wild if she was not ready to mate.

It is always best, if at all possible, to have separate quarters for males and females of each species and just introduce the male into the female's pen when you believe she is receptive to mating. Otherwise the females get really stressed out from the male constantly bugging them.

You have received good advice. An overly aggressive male can hurt turtles that don't respond to his demonstrations, whether they be for courting or aggression. As the others have said, line of sight should be limited. It will help reduce aggression. Also make areas the females can hid in safely.

6 X 5 feet sounds big on paper but in the lives of turtles it is a small area for three adult turtles to get along. Can you make another pen for just the male? Perhaps below the other one, or above it? Or place a barrier within the pen to divide it? I hate for you to get rid of the turtle since you sound like a thoughtful owner Good luck!
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Tess
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Hi

After reading your post it occured to me that what you're witnessing probably has nothing to do with courtship. There are some instances where biting takes place with box turtle courtship, but not in most cases. In the past two years my group of box turtles has produced over 130 offspring and I've witnessed hundreds of mating episodes. I don't recall seeing much in the way of biting involved with the courtship.
I do not think the size of the cage is too small, but I do feel you would have an easier time dealing with a belligerent male by simply removing him. Box turtles are highly sight oriented when it comes to finding a mate and I bet he just doesn't recognize the other two turtles.
Ornate and Florida box turtles never come in contact in the wild. Also the range of the 3 toed box turtles comes in contact with only a small portion of the Florida box turtles' range. It seems likely to me that your male is acting out of territoriality towards the other two.

Good luck with your turtles

Sincerely

Carl J. Franklin
additional box turtle info available here

It may depend on the technique of individual males: I have easterns, and one male is very much a biter, others less so.
Your males may just be more suave and sophisticated.

I agree that there is individuality among the turtles no doubt. I've maintained 71 breeder adults for the past 6 years in my private collection. I have kept mixed species together, but I no longer do so as I have no desire to hybridize species. Also after I seperated them the hostile behavior stopped.

No doubt some might be more suave in their approach (like owner like turtle huh?).

Sometimes mixed species work, but I cannot recommend it for box turtles. Asides from incidents such as the agression there are also issues such as humidity that can cause health problems depending upon the origin of a specimen.

Sincerely

Carl J. Franklin
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