Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My girlfriend bought this female mediterranean tortoise about a year ago (she was 6-8 weeks old at the time), and we're looking for some help identifying the exact species. This pics are about 2 months old, but she's currently around 250 grams.

Here are pictures from each angle:

Thanks for the help. I'm a little out of my element when it comes to tortoises.

- Scott

I can not say for sure but it looks like a Spur Thighed Tortoise / Testudo graeca.

I am basing this on its general appearance and specifically on those tubercals that are on the upper thighs of the rear legs.

Hopefully someone with more familiarity can confim this.

scuter

Testudo nabeulensis.
Thanks for the fantastic pictures.
Also... I'm sooooooo jealous. The growth on that tortoise is perfect, not to mention beautiful. Can you please describe the exact care of the animal and be as precise as possible.
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

"Testudo nabeulensis"

Excellent! Could you point me at a good site that describes the species? I had a hard time finding one in English.

Most importantly, how big will she get?

"Can you please describe the exact care of the animal and be as precise as possible."

I don't personally watch over her, so I'll have to get some details.

What I do know is that she currently lives in a 36" x 18" x 8" tub (roughly). There's a 100 watt (I think) heat lamp on one side and a undertank heater on the other side. There's also a full spectrum UV light that's off a night. The substrate is soil/bark mixture. I think the hotspot is around 100 f, and the rest doesn't go below 80. That's just from memory, though.

She eats mainly leafy green salad mixes in the morning (a good solid handful), and gets calcium and vitamins twice a week. She usually eats some butternut or bananna squash in the afternoon. She loves the stuff. In fact, we used hand feeding of squash to get her more comfortable around people.

Her name is Nora. She comes out frequently and wanders around. Very curious, very interactive. She also does do quite a bit of car traveling on weekends (coming back from college), but she doesn't exhibit any signs of stress from that.

We have some baby pictures here (she was originally sold as a Hermann's):

sunnyvalezoo.com/album.svz/hermanns/

Sorry the care details are so vague. I can get more specific if you're interested -- let me know if there are any areas that are particularly curcial.

One last thing, she has always done what appears to be very deep breathing when she's trying to scope out a situation. The neck skin expands and contracts fairly rapidly, and sometimes the head goes slightly inside the shell on inhale. It stops as soon as she starts walking around. A vet said this seemed odd, but not worth worrying about if she's always done it. We've encountered a biology professor that suggests it's just a smelling mechanism. Any idea?

Thanks again,

- Scott