Quarantine = done (a little early)

It has only been 6 weeks, but I just couldn't stand it any more. Jill and Mila lived with their old owner for 4 years, and were not in any contact with other tortoises during that time. They have been de-wormed (just to be on the safe side), and are acting and looking so healthy. Plus, Roz was bullying Timmy quite a bit, so I kept having to take him out of the enclosure. Hoping that the addition of 2 more females would help, I decided to move them in with Timmy and Roz now.

My very own 'bale' of tortoises. Roz, the male, is being a pillow.
Look how big Timmy is in comparison to the other two females!

Having 4 tortoises (3 females, 1 male) in the tort fort has done WONDERS. Seriously, it has been heavenly! All 4 of them bask together (rather than Roz chasing Timmy away), and rather than mating with Timmy 10+ times per day, Roz mates with the two bigger females maybe 1x per day, and he doesn't bother little Jill at all yet. Timmy is coming out more, basking and eating more, and I am overall very happy with my decision.

I took a ton more pics, and will share them with you as soon as I have time!

Short video of Roz bobbing his head at Timmy

A Russian tortoise male bobs his head at a female as part of the courting behavior. Roz looks so funny when he does this. 

I like to imagine this is tortoise language for "How ya doin'?"

Timmy and Roz update

Timmy, our 'big' female Russian tortoise has been pretty heavily courted this past week. Roz just would not leave her alone. Although they have a large tort fort with lots of sight barriers and hiding opportunities, I decided to move Roz into a rubbermaid for a 'time out' for a few hours at a time to give Timmy some breathing room. 

Timmy is pretending to be camera shy.

In nature, Testudo horsfieldii tortoises only happen upon one another rarely, and mating can be quite violent. Timmy and Roz usually get along very well, basking together, eating together, snoozing together... but Roz has pursued her much more aggressively since we moved them into the larger tort table. 

Roz biting Timmy's front legs, to make her submit and let him mate her

I can't wait for the quarantine of Mila and Jill to be over, so they can move in with the others, hopefully distracting Roz a little, or rather, dividing his attention among the 3 females! 

Timmy basking, with Roz nearby

In the meantime, Timmy is holding her own pretty well - she is quite a bit larger than Roz, and either walks away, ignores him, or bulldozes him. I'm making sure she gets enough food and doesn't get stressed.

Roz is actually a real sweetie, most of the time!

Roz must think that he is quite the little stud. I do hope that we'll get some tortoise eggs this year from Timmy, and possibly even from Mila (Jill is still too young)...  I also look forward to letting the torts spend more time outside once the weather gets warmer!