Sharing a tank should not mean suffering bites, but it sometimes can. Biting behavior in your turtles may have you confused and may make you wonder why the animals are doing this.
This article looks into why one of your turtles is biting the other one.
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Why is my turtle biting the other one:
Turtles may seem docile and peaceful but these animals sometimes engage in some aggressive behavior like reptile wrestling, snapping beaks, flaring claws, and biting each other.
There are a variety of reasons why turtles do this, here are reasons why this happens with your pets:
Mating:
If you have a male turtle and a female turtle, and it’s mating season, then the biting may be happening because it’s mating season.
During mating season, the male turtle may gently bite the female’s neck to get her attention, will bite her neck to hold onto her as he mates with her, and males of some species of turtles will bite the female’s neck to get her to release eggs.
What to do:
This is normal behavior and isn’t something to worry about, the bites that the male turtles give the female are generally quite gentle and will not be harmful. Just keep an eye that he doesn’t bite her too hard.
Health issues:
Another reason why a turtle may bite another one may be because the animal is sick.
Symptoms of some turtle sicknesses can include pain and discomfort which will make the turtle not want to socialize with other turtles.
If a turtle approaches a sick turtle it may get bitten. Biting is the sick turtle’s way of warding off others.
What to do:
The illness will cause your sick turtle to develop other symptoms. You can try to diagnose the animal at home based on the other symptoms but this may be time-consuming and your pet may not have much time
What is recommended is taking your sick turtle to the vet for an examination, diagnosis, and treatment.
Territory disputes:
Turtles like their own space, they aren’t like humans who are social and who can share space to some degree.
For this reason, if you have too many turtles in an area then overcrowding can happen. This will make the animals aggressive and want to bite each other.
Not only will the animals bite each other in this case, but the animals may also chase and even ram each other. Unfortunately, the weaker turtles will have nowhere to go.
What to do:
The best thing you can do for your pets is to get them separate enclosures. Make sure that each enclosure is big enough for each turtle, if not then aggression can form in your pets
You can also get your pets one big enclosure with enough space for all of them.
Resource disputes:
Your pet’s enclosure may be big enough but the animals may still become aggressive The animals may bite each other because they are competing for resources.
Resources in the animal’s enclosure include food, basking spots, and hiding spots.
What to do:
Getting more basking spots, hiding spots, and food into the animal’s enclosure will stop the aggression and stop the biting. Spread the resources around so all the animals can use the resources at the same time
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other turtle/tortoise related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: What Kills Pet Turtles?, Do Turtles Eat Their Babies?, Male Turtle Biting Female Neck, Why Is My Turtle Attacking My Other Turtle?, Turtle Biting Other Turtles Head Off, Why Does My Turtle Try To Bite Me?, Do Male Turtles Eat The Eggs, Turtle Scratching Shell On Toothbrush, Why Do Turtles Put Their Feet Up At Night?