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Old 25-02-2018, 03:19 PM   #1
jamiemiller0
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Default Aggressive male

Hi all,

I've had my two Hermanns for 5 1/2 years and I've never had any problems with them. However from how they're grown it's now obvious that one is a male and one is a female, and over the last few months the male has started to behave quite aggressively towards the female. He will often bite her back legs and climb on top of her (I assume he is trying to mate). He is quite a bit bigger than her so it obviously isn't the best experience for her.

Has anyone else had this happen before and is there anything I can try to improve the situation? I don't really have the space to give them separate enclosures at the moment.

Also they are 6 and 5 respectively so should I be worried about them reproducing? I have always over-wintered them which I have read reduces fertility, however as they are my first tortoises I do not have any direct experience with this.

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!
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Old 26-02-2018, 03:23 PM   #2
tortydat
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jamiemiller0 View Post
Hi all,

I've had my two Hermanns for 5 1/2 years and I've never had any problems with them. However from how they're grown it's now obvious that one is a male and one is a female, and over the last few months the male has started to behave quite aggressively towards the female. He will often bite her back legs and climb on top of her (I assume he is trying to mate). He is quite a bit bigger than her so it obviously isn't the best experience for her.

Has anyone else had this happen before and is there anything I can try to improve the situation? I don't really have the space to give them separate enclosures at the moment.

Also they are 6 and 5 respectively so should I be worried about them reproducing? I have always over-wintered them which I have read reduces fertility, however as they are my first tortoises I do not have any direct experience with this.

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!
Sadly the only answer is going to be to separate them as your female will get increasingly stressed by the male's constant attention. They will still be fertile even with being kept up over the winter and it is not age that determines whether they will breed or not but size. What size are they?
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Old 26-02-2018, 03:56 PM   #3
Gordon
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We really need a picture of the underside tail end and then we can advise better you could have two females or even two males they will both show the same behaviour as a male and female as they reach breeding age/size.
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Old 26-02-2018, 09:13 PM   #4
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I know you say you don't have room for an extra table. So have you thought about bunks?
You can either convert a child's bed, or as I did, I made my own. I am sure we could give you lots of ideas if you needed them.
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Old 26-02-2018, 10:41 PM   #5
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I had the same problem with my two, it turns out I had two boys so I had split them up.
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Old 27-02-2018, 09:46 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jamiemiller0 View Post
Hi all,

I've had my two Hermanns for 5 1/2 years and I've never had any problems with them. However from how they're grown it's now obvious that one is a male and one is a female, and over the last few months the male has started to behave quite aggressively towards the female. He will often bite her back legs and climb on top of her (I assume he is trying to mate). He is quite a bit bigger than her so it obviously isn't the best experience for her.

Has anyone else had this happen before and is there anything I can try to improve the situation? I don't really have the space to give them separate enclosures at the moment.

Also they are 6 and 5 respectively so should I be worried about them reproducing? I have always over-wintered them which I have read reduces fertility, however as they are my first tortoises I do not have any direct experience with this.

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!
Are you sure they are male and female?
As two males can act exactly the same.
Two males can fight until one is alpha male, and given enough space (a lot) they can get on, with the odd spat.
But male and female, the male will be relentless all the time. But again given enough space it lessens.
One good reason for hibernation, as they are only then kept in smaller enclosures. Once outside things do calm down.
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Old 01-03-2018, 04:16 PM   #7
jamiemiller0
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Hi all, thanks for your replies!

In terms of size the male is currently 428g and female is 343g (they both have a healthy jackson ratio around 0.2). Having looked at photos of males and females it definitely looks like I have one of each (the tail is much longer on the male and he likes to wave it around!).

The bunk suggestion sounds like an excellent plan - do you have any examples I could have a look at?

Thanks again!
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Old 10-03-2018, 06:53 PM   #8
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Hi there. Just wanted to chip in about fertility and over wintering. There may be some reduction but lots of keepers find they get fertile eggs regardless. And some question if there is any reduction. Splitting them is the way to go and bunks are great, just make sure to allow enough height for hanging lamps and air circulation. Good luck with it!
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