What to do about this randy boy…
My 6 year old ornate box turtle became sexually mature this year and I don’t know what to do with him aside from what I’m already doing which is keeping him confined to his own enclosure. I have three separate enclosures, one with an adult female and two juveniles and another with two males and one female, all 6-7 years old. Everyone gets along but I had to set up a new separate enclosure for this guy this year and I feel sort of bad. He is so riled up that he’s not even interested in the worms I’m trying to feed him. Occasionally, I put him in the enclosure with the older turtles to see if he can behave himself and he instantly makes a bee line for one of the turtles (he doesn’t discriminate what sex they are) and will chase them down and try to bite them and then try to mate with them. It’s stressful for them so back in solitary confinement he goes but I start to worry when he doesn’t seem interested in food because he has higher priorities on his mind.
I’m including a video of him right after I separated him from the other turtles because he was harassing them so then he zooms around his enclosure rearranging furniture on his mad hunt for a mate. I feel for this guy but he’s sort of a menace to the rest of the crew who all seem to respect boundaries 🤣