Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im thinking about getting a spur-thighed tortoise and have searched and found some info but still have a few questions. so if anyone can help here are a few questions

1.Are they sociable with other greek torts or do they prefer to be alone?

2.Do they get very smelly?

3.Would a indoor cage measuring 4X2 be all right?

4.Do they enjoy human company?

those four i would really like answered And if anyone can can you tell me of a good caresheet or your info? ANY info would be great. its always better to get info from more than one source.

i got the deminsions wrong to the cage to be more specific i was thinking of the 65 gallon reptarium. so will that work?

I've been keeping Greek's (Ibera, Terrestris, and Soussensis), amoung other species, for 25 years so here's my input to your questions.

1. Alone, unless you have a large enclosure and purely females. Males battle constantly and it can get ugly. If you have a male and female, the males are relentless in pursuing females and it can get ugly for the females. All Greek's are solitary animals by nature.

2. Not if you keep the enclosure free of accumulating poop.

3. Way too small. 3'x 6' minimum for a 5 inch SCL animal. The bigger, the better. These are tortoises that wander far and wide every day for food, shelter, and mates. Lots of site breaks help too. they all love climbing over rocks. They are not like Eqyptian's, who can do fine in a small enclosure.

4. Very much so, once they get acclimated. My oldest male Ibera (25 years with me and an adult when I got him) comes running over where I'm at whenever he sees me coming. Loves to have his head scratched and will let me pick him up and inspect him freely.

www.chelonia.org has a good Greek caresheet under the Care Sheets section.

Good luck.

Greek Tortoises are more interesting in groups. If you set up the habitat properly you can keep a pretty good group of them.
This is not to say that you can't keep a solitary animal.

If you clean up after them on a daily/bidaily basis and you are feeding them a decent diet, they are not smelly at all... well... maybe not TOO smelly.

A 2x4 enclosure would work for one or 2 if you are dealing with some of the smaller races (golden greeks, Tunisian (hard to come by) or something like that) but a larger enclosure is usually better. You'll find out that once you get into it you will probably loose control and go all out for the guys but for starters a 2 x 4 enclosure would work.

Here are some resources for you.

http://www.tortoise.org/
http://tortoisetrust.org/
http://www.tortoiselife.co.uk/
http://www.herplife.co.uk/
-----
Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Ok if i do get one johlum said 3'X 6' for 5" and i read it takes a few years for them to reach that long so at a small size and if i let it roam around a lot would a 4'X 2' work?

scratch that 65 reptarium that i see would be too small and id rather build one. and again thanks much for the info. do you think you could give me any more personal experiences about them. im still deciding if i should get a tortoise or something else.