We recently acquired two giant leopard tortoises and a burmese black mountain tortoise. They are all babies and all about the same size (3-4"). We are looking at the Waterland medium land enclosure (70"L x 32"W x 14"H). Can these two species be housed in this enclosure together? It would only be while they were small. We know that all three will eventually outgrow this enclosure. Any info is greatly appreciated.

I always tell people to never house two different species together. Never never never. In all honesty with those two they have similar temp and humidity requirements and I'd do it. :cheers:

I am with Sara on this one. Put them together and monitor them closely for about an hour. I definitely would not leave food in with them all day. Offer them food, and monitor while the food is in there, to make sure noone is fighting, or noone if biting other body parts. If feeding becomes a problem, offer the 2 species different food bowls out of sight from one another. That should help.

I just recently did this myself. I introduced a Columbian Red Foot into my enclosure with my 2 Aldabras. Even though the Aldabras are about 8-10 times the size of the RF, they seem to co-habitate very well. Believe it or not, Aldabras are a bit of a shy species, and they are slightly run over by the RF. It's not too bad.

The Key is watch them over the course of a week closely, and that will tell you definitively if they will be compatible. As Sara said, the first step is similar husbandry requirements, and those guys are close, otherwise I would say no way.

Good luck,

LOL Tim! My aldabras are the same, very shy. The male is a little more outgoing then the female, but both are reserved. Except when the food is going in, then all bets are off! :lol:

Sara,
I do not know the sex of my two, but based on one being much more shy than the other, I believe that I have a pair. Time will tell. Mine definitely get amped up when food comes around as well, but watch out, because the Red Foor will control the food for a time. However, he is small enough that once he is done eating, there is plenty left for the Aldabras.

On another note, I did fix that problem a bit, as when I feed the Mazuri now, the RF gets his own little pile of cat food (out of line of site). I have read a care sheet for RFs that I really like that firmly believes that RFs need an animal protein diet, and there is very little in the Mazuri. Cat food is a good source for it. That still doesn't solve the RF controlling the fruit and veggy feeding day though.

I feed the red foots more like a box turtle then the rest of the torts. That's a good way to do it with what you are doing, and I can totally see it dominating the dish anyway!