I have two ~15 yo Hermanns tortoise (female and male). The male has always been extremely horny and constantly humping the female. He has always bit the female's hind legs, which I did not like, but it didn't seem too bad.
This year he has been much more consistently chasing her and biting her, sometimes her head. Whenever I am around, I flip him to try to discourage the biting. It is not working. I have been resorting to just putting him into a timeout box.
Any ideas on what I can do to have them coexist peacefully?
Edit: Sorry about the flipping, I feel that it is a better solution than placing him in a different location. He is able to flip back in about 10 seconds or sometimes less.... but enough time for the female to escape. The tortoises have plenty of space and plants to stay out of eyesite of each other. The male still chases her down. If you saw it I think you would hardly call it abuse... just slows it down.
Either way, sounds like no good way too keep them happy. I will work on keeping them separate and re-homing the male.