New Tortoise Timothy

[Cwarring85]

Hi everyone.
I am new to the tortoise keeping world and was wondering if you all could help. Tortoises have always been my favorite animal and I have always wanted one. My wife and I were at a big box pet store the other night and saw a tortoise for sale. Now normally I don't buy from big box stores but he was adorable and looked so sad in his little enclosure so we decided to buy him to give him a better life. We were told he was a Hermanns Tortoise and was around a year old. I took what the guy said with a grain of salt but was wondering if anyone could confirm his breed and possible age? His shell is about 5.5 inches long. I don't have his weight. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SinLA]

I'll let others much more knowledgeable than me start, other than than to say everything the pet store told you is likely wrong. This is a DENSE article but worth reading:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

Can you provide photos of your lighting, heating and the whole setup. What are you using for substrait?

I will tell you that a single 2x3 "tortoise house" is jut a marketing thing, they are not fit to keep either adult or baby tortoises in. you will need a much much larger space for an adult tortoise.

I will say his shell looks really good so that's good...

 

[Cwarring85]

I'll let others much more knowledgeable than me start, other than than to say everything the pet store told you is likely wrong. This is a DENSE article but worth reading:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

Can you provide photos of your lighting, heating and the whole setup. What are you using for substrait?

I will tell you that a single 2x3 "tortoise house" is jut a marketing thing, they are not fit to keep either adult or baby tortoises in. you will need a much much larger space for an adult tortoise.

I will say his shell looks really good so that's good...

His current setup is temporary until I can build him a bigger one. The lighting is a 160 watt uvb and uva bulb. His basking spot has a slate stone and is around 90 degrees during the day. His substrate is just cypress mulch but i put a bunch of timothy hay in his hide as well. He has fresh water everyday, a cuttlebone, and is fed organic dandelion leaves, bell pepper, carrot tops and fresh spring mix each morning. He's eating very well and moves around a decent amount but sleeps a lot also.

 

[wellington]

Remove the hay, it molds easy and your tort needs at least 50% humidity.
The diet isn't bad but try to add more. If you can only do grocery greens right now try adding endive, arugula, water cress, escarole and mazuri tortoise food is a good addition in small amounts. Cactus pads also.
I'm not good at ID ING the Mediterranean species except the Russians so I will leave that to others.

 

[_The_Beast_]

Welcome and congratulations on your new pal! You've definitely come to the right place to learn ❤️

To me it looks like a Hermann, but older than one year based on size and shell. If you post a picture of the plastron tail area folks might be able to confirm if it's a boy or a girl (assuming it's old enough and not actually a yearling).

 

[Cwarring85]

Welcome and congratulations on your new pal! You've definitely come to the right place to learn ❤️

To me it looks like a Hermann, but older than one year based on size and shell. If you post a picture of the plastron tail area folks might be able to confirm if it's a boy or a girl (assuming it's old enough and not actually a yearling).

Yeah from my research and measurement it definitely seems older than a year.

 

[SinLA]

if it were a Russian I would say 100% it is a wild caught adult, but I don't know how big box stores source their hermanns, possibly through brokers. But as I said, his/her shell looks good which is better than many big box store torts.

Yes please post as many photos of the enclosure and him/her that you can