Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I went to a reptile last weekend looking for a female golden greek to add to my group of 1:1 golden greeks. I wanted a female to take some stress off of my current female this spring and summer when they are housed outside. Unfortunately, all of the golden greeks looked very lethargic and weak, so I didn't even bother to check if they were males or females.

My attention soon turned to a new type of greek tortoise I haven't seen. At least three seperate vendors were selling these and calling them leopard phase greek tortoises. These tortoises were quite large for greeks (already 8 inches) and the vendors said they would grow about 3 inches longer. The tortoises were healthy and active, so I decided to purchase a pair. They look very similar to standard greek tortoises,(they have spurs on their thighs)but they are larger and have a more mottled pattern like a leopard.

I'm wondering if anyone knows what subspecies of tortoise these are. I'm thinking they may be Libyan greeks but I'm not positive (they don't look exactly like the pictures I've seen). Also, I bought a pair to be seperate from my golden greeks, but just out of curiosity, would golden greeks/middle-eastern greeks be able to interbreed with these?

Thanks! Any info is appreciated!!

It sounds like they are Libyan Greeks, if you could post a picture of the carapace and the plastron that would help. Libyan Greeks are Testudo graeca cyrenaica. They won't though get any bigger then the 8 inches. They can cross breed with the middle eastern greeks, but it's not recommended.

Here is a picture of my female. The male is not quite so mottled.

Sorry, that picture didn't work, I'll try again with this one. Hopefully this will work.
Female Leopard Phase Greek Tortoise

Yes she is a Libyan greek. If the male has the same head and very curled under supracaudal scute and the same seam on the plastron between the abdominal and femoral scutes then he's a Libyan also.