Tortoise fighting?

Question

My girlfriend got home from work yesterday and our female hingeback was on her back. My girlfriend thought she was dead because he legs were poking towards the sky and in the wild if a tortoise can't get off it's back, it dies in the heat of the sun. The tortoise seems fine now and started munching on food straight away. The thing is there isn't anything in the tank she could have tried getting on top of and then rolled off. There is a male tortoise in there with her, could they have had a fight and he flipped her over? Is this normal behaviour for a male to attack a female? How else could she have been flipped over.....

He has mounted her many times and they've had s*x. They don't ever seem aggresive towards each other and follow each other around.

Answer 1

The only time I saw a tortoise die stuck on its back was a baby sulcata that got stuck on his back in a water bowl. With how slow their heart rate and respiration is, they are less likely to be affected by something like that then another animal would. Though, if it happened in the wild the tortoise could die if it was unable to right itself and was in a bad location, etc..

One thing you may be doing wrong is that normally there are a few females to one male, not a pair. That could be causing some issues between them. Adding another female may help take so much attention off of her.

Answer 2

Maybe she was riding him and fell off!

Answer 3

Sounds like she is a tad exotic and was trying the reverse cow-girl position. Joking! It's not that uncommon for female animals to try and mount males and even other females. It's just left over instincts that lay dormant inside of her genes. Nothing to worry about.

Answer 4

Tortoise cannot fight that's why their body is covered with hard shell. They are only defensive.

Answer 5

1. Flipping. If you have more than one tortoise, they can flip each other or flip over each other intentionally or accidentally unless the habitat is very large. Remember, tortoises are not very social and do not usually live close to each other in the wild.

2. Hinge-backs are known to be aggressive, and it could have been an aggression move. It could also have been sheer clumsiness.

3. Being on their back is uncomfortable for tortoises, but not immediately fatal. What kills them is sunstroke, dehydration, etc. In a proper Hinge-back habitat of warm, humid temps with low light, there should not be much to stress it on its back.

Hinge-backs are tricky, but cool animals. I hope you have good care info for it. Http://www.tortoisetrust.org has some info.

Answer 6

, what you will find is more than likely to have happened is your female either tried to climb over your male or tried to go up the side of the tank, i have two females together and i have in the past watch the little one try to climb over the other tortoise, don't ask me why they try to go over rather than around i guess they are just stubborn, but i have seen her flip a few times, so i doubt your tortoises were fighting, but it was just a silly tortoise trying to climb over the other and went a bit too high up and flipped, males are usually placid with females they love their girls and normally retreat if the female gets grumpy, so i would put it down to just an accident and not fighting, sometimes it does happen, best of luck with your tortoises hope you get babies.