General Care Discussion :: Questions on Behaviors

[Sammonkie]

Hi, I have two male turtles both about 18 months. Sometimes I see them sniffing each others, especially the tails, and occasionally appearing to be biting their own arms or stretching their faces. Why are they doing these? Thank you.

[SpotsMama]

I always feel nervous when turtles living together start taking a strong interest in each other. RES are very aggressive and frequently bite other RES. Sometimes there are territorial issues and sometimes they simply gets tired of each other. I think you should keep a very close eye on them and if you see signs that they might start biting, you need to separate them before serious damage is done. A turtle can seriously injure another in just a few seconds, so don't take any chances. It's especially risky to keep two turtles of different sizes together.


One of the main signs of aggression is "fluttering". This is when a turtle stretches out his arms and wiggles his "fingers" at another turtle or some object. Turtles also flutter as part of the mating ritual, but that's probably not what's going on with your guys.

[Sammonkie]

Thanks for your input, Spotsmama. There are times I catch them fluttering but it is only when they are very hungry and get cranky or one bothers the other when he is eating. What my little guys do frequently is sticking their noses near the other 's tail, I am wondering if this is also a sign of aggression? Apparently they are quite friendly toward each other -- they go side by side close together when they sleep on the dock at night.

[SpotsMama]

I don't know that the tail sniffing is a recognized sign of aggression.

Are your males maturing? Do they ever "fan"?

[Sammonkie]

They have just started to 'fanned' and are around 3.5 inches (18 month old). They've been sniffing each other ever since they were hatching. They play, sleep, swim, and eat(each has its own eating spot) and seem to be good friends.

[SpotsMama]

Don't want to gross you out - but sometimes a turtle will bite another turtle's privates when he's fanning. Needless to say, the damage can be awful. If you think anything like that might happen you'd better think about separation. Why don't you come up with an emergency plan - how to deal with it if suddenly they start biting each other.

[Sammonkie]

Thanks for the warning, Spotsmama! Here 're my observations about my little guys:

1. if they fan, it is usually a little while after they eat.
2. they don't bite, sniff, whatsoever when they are on the dock basking.
3. they stop whatever they're doing when they hear 'No'.
4. both of them are usually basking when no one is around.

So so far, I watch them awhile after they eat and during those high-risk periods while I have to go out, I keep Trouble (Turbo can't really bite -- he can't aim well with his only eye and has a very deformed jaw.) in the play pan on the basking area until I come back.

Do you think the sniffing is a bad sign or it's just what turt's do? If it is, I may start teaching them to stop.

Do you have any suggestions on what I should do if I ever run into such emergency? Thank you.

[megcornell]

I hate to burst your plan- but you can't "teach" turtles to do anything, especially to avoid each other or stop threatening behaviors.
And, you simply can't watch them all the time. Even if you're there at high-stress feeding times, you never know when one will finally pester the other into snapping.

You really need to take a moment to consider what you're going to do when things do escalate. You'll need to separate the turtles- once they start fighting, there's no going back to co-habitating so you'll need two tanks or a new home for one guy.

I'd be worried about the deformed guy- he definitely can't defend himself, so if the other guy is aggressing at all- it doesn't have to be biting- I'd separate them.

It's better to be safe than sorry.