Violent Russian tortoise

Question
Hi Jeanie,

I did see a similar quesion about violent courtship, but the answer was basically, "it happens."

I have a young female Russian Tortoise about 4 inches, and an adult male, about 8 inches. I have had them for years now, and they have been getting it in on periodically.

Recently though I noticed the male, Stitch, biting Tortelina after. I then noticed she has some marks on her front legs.

The marks are small and I have no idea if they are really from Stitch. They may just be the different colors of her scales, but it has me worried.

Should I be concerned? Should I separate them? If it's just some playful S&M fine, but if she is in actual danger I want to do something about it.

Thank you so much for the help,
David

Answer
Hi David,

If you're measuring correctly (straight down the plastron, or bottom shell, rather than over the curve of the carapace), your female may too small to sex yet, and your male would be extremely large.  Males are rarely much over 6", and 8" would be very large even for a female.  Up to between 4" and 5", males and females both look female, so I wouldn't count on your female actually being female just yet--not that this would necessarily matter to your male.

Biting and ramming is a normal part of mating behavior; however, in the wild males and females don't live together in groups the way they often do in captivity, where it's very common for there to be unrelenting harassment of females, especially as the females grow larger.  If you have a large enclosure, you can try adding more sight breaks (logs, rocks, plants) and hide areas for your female.  The other option is to add more females (recommended ratio is at least 2 females to each male), but again, this will only work if you have enough space to house them in.  If you can't do either of these things, I would separate them.  Most of the time any injury to the female is relatively minor, but the risk of serious injury is always there, and constant harassment is stressful for the female.

Here's a link to information on breeding Russian tortoises, with photos on sexing and information about courtship behavior, nesting, and incubating eggs:  http://russiantortoise.org/breeding.htm  Hope this helped!