Planning to breed Spur thighs one day:?:

[NickyF]

My daughter and I have just bought two beautiful 3yr old spur thighed tortoises (Cleo and Roy). Our plan is one day in the future, I guess about 4/5 years to try to breed them but need to plan ahead. My daughter will be taking 'Roy' with her when she moves away at the end of the summer so our plan was to both buy a second tortoise to keep them company and to bring on for breeding when old enough.
Our problem is twofold!
1. uncertainty with sexing 3 yr olds and younger
2. can tortoises live happily together or will the males fight if we end up with more than one male

What age can we be sure of correct sexing?
If we were able to have a male and female each, would this be the best option?

We would be so grateful for advice as we are very excited but seem to be going round in circles trying to make the most sensible plan.

[egyptiandan64]

Sexing all depends on the size of the tortoise and not the age. At around 4 inches SCL Spur-thighs are sexable 90% of the time. Your best off to wait to see what sex the 2 you have are before you get another tortoise. Also best to have either you or your daughter have 1 male and someone else have 2 or more females. Than you'd just bring them together for breeding and the male can go home afterwards and not be around for him to bother the females constantly. Yes male Spur-thighs tend to fight with each other when kept together.

Danny

[NickyF]

Thanks for that, Danny!

[Pussygalore]

I had a pair of breeding Ibera and the male only went with the female for breeding any longer and he was constantly pestering her, he was also inclined to chase anyone in with him and was well able to bite toes or fingers, I think it was because he was a stud male. As adults they were both good sizes weighing around 2500grams, they had heated outside houses and were hibernated for around 20 weeks, I had an average of 20 hatchlings each year from the female in three batches of eggs.