The Tortoise Table

Hi,
My name is Diego and I'm a Testudo Hermanni owner. I've gotten three tartoises, 1 male and two females, for a while now, at least 15 years. I'v always been keen on tartoise, they're my favourite animal ever, but I've always let them live in my garden (70m2) peacefully without any effort. I was sure they could eat at least three kind of different plants and drink whenever they wanted, because of the garden automatic irrigation. But now that I'm getting more and more information, I'm facing my total ignorance about tartoise and I would really love to learn how to improve their enviroment and their health. I just want the best for them.
In this last period, I'm spending a lot of time in the garden studying, so I'm witnessing things I didnt know before such as the courtship and the reproducing part. And this is exactly why I'm writing this message. I've stopped the courtships every time I could in the past few weeks, because even if I knew it was natural I couldn't stand the violence of the act. The male was constantly trying to harm the female legs, following her everywhere, she couldn't react properly etc... So I wanted to know should I be really worried about this as I've got just one male and two females and everyone suggest 1 male per 5-6 females or as it's a big garden and they've been living like this for years it's not a big deal? Am I being too paranoid?

Hi Diego and welcome to The Tortoise Table.

How wonderful to have such a huge enclosure for your Hermanni tortoises -- it must be like paradise for them! I would love to see a photo of your enclosure and your tortoises (we never get tired of looking at photos of tortoises).

Regarding their diet, they might well be eating more plants than the three that you said you know they eat, and I'll bet that in such a huge enclosure there are a wider variety that they can eat. If they have been living happily with you for 15 years and are healthy then I think you are probably already providing them with a good environment. However, in their native habitats tortoises eat hundreds of different varieties of plants, so that no one plant makes up the majority of their diet, and we try to aim for a wide variety of plants for them.

I was wondering what country you live in, because there might be native plants that are good for them and will grow well in your garden that we could recommend. You can look up any plant on our website database: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/index.php , and always click on 'See More' to get the full entries for your results (I know you've already been corresponding with Lin regarding some particular plants, and if a plant isn't on our database then you can always contact us and we will look it up for you).

Also, you can use the filter tool on our website database to produce list of plants that are good to feed to tortoises, and to do this just go to this page on our website: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/pla ... -database/ and then scroll down to the section called 'How to Use the Traffic Light Filters'.

Regarding the male constantly harrassing one of your females, yes this is a common problem. We always advise never to have just one female and one male, and say that it is better to have two or more females to one male, so that one of the females can get a bit of rest while the other female is being bothered. I don't think you need 5 or 6 females to one male, and if you have lots of places for the females to hide (as I am sure you do in that big garden), and they have been living happily for a long time there, then I think that it is probably fine to leave them like that. If you got another female she would have to be isolated for several months anyway, to ensure that she isn't bringing any disease in that could be transmitted to your tortoises, and really such a big garden should be fine for the three that you have now.

I know it is really horrible to watch the violent way that the male courts the female, but as long as he doesn't draw blood, you can just look away and leave them to it. You might also want to look to see if your female starts to dig a nest with her back legs and lay eggs, as this could well be the product of the courtship! Does the male bother both of your females, or is he only attacking one of them?

I am sorry for such a long post, but I wanted to try and cover everything you asked about. I could send you a care sheet for Testudo hermanni -- it is sort of aimed at people keeping tortoises in the UK or a country with a similar climate, but much of the information is relevant to tortoises kept anywhere. There is also a very good website called Hermanni Haven. It's based in the USA, but the chap who runs it is the leading expert on Hermanni tortoises, and you can learn all about the various sub-species of Hermanni there, and if you send him photos of your tortoises he can probably tell you which sub-species they are, if you don't already know https://www.hermannihaven.com/

Also, just a tip for posting -- when you are writing your post, below the box you are writing in there is a list of boxes you can tick, and if you tick 'Notify me when a reply is posted', then you will get a message telling you each time someone posts a response to your post.

Nina

d.carta10 wrote:
> Hi,
> My name is Diego and I'm a Testudo Hermanni owner. I've gotten three
> tartoises, 1 male and two females, for a while now, at least 15 years. I'v
> always been keen on tartoise, they're my favourite animal ever, but I've
> always let them live in my garden (70m2) peacefully without any effort. I
> was sure they could eat at least three kind of different plants and drink
> whenever they wanted, because of the garden automatic irrigation. But now
> that I'm getting more and more information, I'm facing my total ignorance
> about tartoise and I would really love to learn how to improve their
> enviroment and their health. I just want the best for them.
> In this last period, I'm spending a lot of time in the garden studying, so
> I'm witnessing things I didnt know before such as the courtship and the
> reproducing part. And this is exactly why I'm writing this message. I've
> stopped the courtships every time I could in the past few weeks, because
> even if I knew it was natural I couldn't stand the violence of the act. The
> male was constantly trying to harm the female legs, following her
> everywhere, she couldn't react properly etc... So I wanted to know should I
> be really worried about this as I've got just one male and two females and
> everyone suggest 1 male per 5-6 females or as it's a big garden and they've
> been living like this for years it's not a big deal? Am I being too
> paranoid?
Hello! I am glad that you are concerned about the care and well-being of your turtles, and I completely understand your concerns. Keeping and caring for turtles, especially Testudo Hermanni (Hermann's turtles), requires special attention to ensure a good living environment for them and to avoid unwanted problems, especially during the breeding period.