Are Hermann's Tortoises easy to come by?

[Bernarranglin]

I was browsing different tortoise species because I'm interested in buying one, and I decided that the Eastern Hermann's Tortoise is the right one for me! I was just wondering if they're easy to find at local petstores (North America in general), and if the owners will be able to distinguish Eastern from Western

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Bernarranglin:

Welcome to the forum!!

Just a note of explanation: We moderate the "vendor review" section to be sure an innocent vendor isn't being wrongly bad-mouthed. So your original posts were going into the moderation file to be checked before they print on the forum. I moved one of your posts out of moderation into this forum so you could receive answers.

May we know your name and where you are?

If you are here in the States, we have some Hermann's breeders here on the forum. Take a look through our for sale section.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

Haven't run across a petshop that carried a Hermann's in some years, but there are some individual breeders here who can fix ya up...check the classifieds here.

The odds of you finding a Western Hermann's is even slimmer and they're considerably more expensive than the Easterns (which make every bit as nice a pet), and some consider Easterns to be a little hardier, too.

 

[dmmj]

There are several pet stores near me and I have never seen one, there are some breeders, I just don't think they are as popular as other species. I know they are real popular in the UK, there are some breeders on here just look around.

 

[GBtortoises]

Hermann's aren't as common in pet stores as they used to be. Availability depends very much on what is wild caught species are currently being imported. Right now it's mostly Middle Eastern Gracea subspecies. Russians are usually also available. Some Eastern Hermann's were imported a few years ago in small numbers. It's extremely doubtful that you're going to have to worry about finding a Western Hermann's for sale in a pet shop. They are much more rare in captivity in the U.S.

There are several breeders and sources for captive born Eastern Hermann's. Check some of the sellers in the for sale section on this site. I think Tyler Stewart may have some available. My tortoises breed seasonally so I won't have any captive born offspring until very late summer. Other sites are www.kingsnake.com and www.faunaclassifieds.com.
Average price for first year captive born Eastern Hermann's should be around $100-125 each. Older junvenilles and adults will be more.