One turtle or several? How many turtles to buy?

Immediately upon buying a turtle, there is a desire to buy a few more turtles for the company. Many fear that one turtle, like a cat or dog, will be bored at home alone. But it is not. Turtles in nature live alone, they do not have a maternal instinct, if they get bored, they find something to entertain themselves with.  We recommend that you first buy one (!) turtle, and only after a few months, after considering whether an aquarium or a large terrarium will fit into the apartment, buy more turtles. If a 20-liter aquarium is enough for a couple of kids, then for 4-5 adults of 15 cm red-ears you will need a 300-liter aquarium at least.

Below is a comparative analysis of the care of one individual and several. 

The content of one individual

• less space required, less terrarium, less cost;
• it is easier to control the behavior of the turtle, how much it eats, how much it goes to the toilet;
• no problems with quarrelsome turtles (stress, injury);
• fewer problems if you need to leave;
• the entire population will not die due to the disease of one individual.

Caring for several different-sex turtles

• you can observe the processes of finding a partner, courtship, mating, egg laying, the birth of turtles, growing up. Although this may take many years;
• animals can reproduce;
• turtles develop relationships in different ways: sometimes it’s a complete ignore, sometimes aggression, sometimes it’s something like friendship and mutual assistance
• the activity of one turtle causes the second to enter into a competitive struggle and become also active, or one turtle dominates the other and oppresses it, as a result of which the second turtle eats less and grows worse
• there may be fights and injuries over territory, over food, a land male may injure a female during mating

When choosing the number of turtles, be sure to keep in mind that:

• 7 small red-eared turtles of 3-4 cm is not the same as 7 hefty turtles of 20-25 cm in length;
• turtles are loners and they are not bored alone;
• while turtles are small, it is impossible to determine exactly their gender. So your two babies will not necessarily turn out to be a boy and a girl later on.
• some species of aquatic turtles cannot be kept together due to their aggressiveness (snake-necked turtles, trionics, caiman, vulture)

Turtle grouping:Most tortoises are best kept in groups (one male and 3-4 females) of their own species. You should not keep other turtles near caiman, vulture and trionyx because of their aggressiveness. Do not mix species from different geographical areas in order to avoid diseases that are unusual for them in nature. It is also better not to keep turtles that vary greatly in size, as large animals can injure small ones. The exception is adult females with older, but smaller males. Keeping two land males together or a female and a male (without seating) together is strongly discouraged.

Turtles-old-timers will defend their territory, so the old turtles should be planted for 2 weeks, and at this time let the newcomer get comfortable in the terrarium. In case of fights and intimidation of one of their animals (constantly hiding) – they must be seated.

collective behavior

Based on the observation of scientists for groups of turtles and single turtles, they concluded that it is better to form a team for a long time and not change it. If one of the members of the team leaves or a new one comes, then the entire social structure can collapse. Turtles remember each other, looking for a familiar group, if they suddenly find themselves alone … Yes, turtles live quietly alone, but on the other hand, they are capable of social relations and are able to copy the behavior of other individuals. This can be used, for example, in the case of those who do not eat well.