tortoise species
Is Mixing tortoise species a good idea?
If you are thinking of mixing tortoise species in the same tortoise enclosure you may want to think again?
It is never a good idea to mix and match tortoise species or ages of tortoises. This can cause a number of problems. Never mix adult and baby tortoises. The adult tortoise will not understand that you have a baby tortoise in with it. The tortoise will just view it as a smaller tortoise and may harm it by climbing over it or perhaps just taking all the food before the baby tortoise has a chance to eat!
Mixing Generations of Tortoises?
If one of your tortoises is ill and you are unaware of this it may pass on the disease or parasite to the healthy tortoise. Therefore don’t introduce a new tortoise straight into an established tortoise enclosure. You must keep your new tortoises in quarantine for a few weeks to see that it is not unwell. Once you are sure your new tortoise is healthy you can start to introduce it to the more established enclosure. However, you must supervise this to ensure there is no a problem when introducing the new tortoise to the older one. It is also unadvisable to mix species of tortoise in one tortoise house or enclosure.
Different Types of Tortoise – Living together
This is a primary mistake that many people make. Never mix species of tortoise in the same enclosure. If you decide to care for tortoises it is important you separate different types of tortoise. Tortoises of different species may pass on parasites or diseases that the other species may not be immune to. There are also more extrovert types of tortoise who may ‘bully’ the less extrovert tortoise. So it is very important that each must type of tortoise has their own separate enclosure. This means if you decide to care for many tortoises you will needs a large area for the tortoise enclosures! Plus of course added time available to make sure the tortoise houses are clean and free of disease. This is a major commitment.
In Conclusion
The best plan when keeping various species of tortoise together is to ensure they are all healthy and have their own specific tortoise enclosure to live in. Caring for more than one species of tortoise is a major undertaking. It will take a substantial amount of your time and a relatively large expenditure to provide a healthy environment for your tortoises to live in.
