Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Last night my girlfriend and I were at her parent’s house to have dinner and the most amazing thing happened. We were sitting on the sofa, waiting for dinner to cook, when a three-toed box turtle walked right through the front door! We had the door open to enjoy the lovely evening so our visitor didn’t knock. This was obviously someone’s escaped pet because we all live in Orange County, CA. We asked several of the neighbors if they had lost a turtle and so far none of them have claimed this very handsome adult male. We have put out fliers to get the word out and if any of you have lost this guy please let me know. I suppose after a couple of weeks if we don’t hear from anyone we’ll adopt him into household. Which brings me to my question. I have one adult male ornate boxie and after a brief internet search, and a search of this forum, I did not come across any information that said to not house two adult males together (the three-toed is currently in quarantine). However, I can imagine that housing them in the same enclosure could produce “friction.” My ornate is in a 16’ X 8’ outdoor enclosure so I may be able to rearrange some things and split the enclosure in two until I can make a new enclosure. Does anyone have any information on this subject? If they can be housed together, are there any procedures to get them acquainted?

Thanks so much for your help!
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Let me try this image thing again...
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You named him "Jesus"?

Nope. It hasn't been named because we haven't claimed him yet.

Oh, my bad. It was under his picture in Photobucket and in the file name and I just assumed (erroneously). Sorry! Nice looking turtle, BTW.

Not file name, folder name. I'm just going to shut up now.

You should always quarantine new animals before putting them in contact with your own. If the new animal is sick it will likely transmit its illness to your pet.

Contact these folks for more information:
Link

Males tend to fight each other. Of course, box turtles are individuals, too, and you might not have any problems, but I'd put money on there being problems with two males in close contact with each other. I've had some brought into rescue that had the marginal scutes over the neck worn down by the "attentions" of a more dominant male - same thing happens to lone females kept with a male, or females kept in too close of contact all the time with a male.

Katrina