Hello from Greece

the_calcar_avis

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Joined
Oct 23, 2019
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2
Location (City and/or State)
Greece
Hey guys!

My name is Nicolas and I am from Athens Greece. I studied medicine but always had a deep fascination for animals so I decided to go back to uni and start veterinary medicine and finally be able to do what I love: have a job centered around animals and their care and protection. I own a house with a big garden in the very south of Greece where I keep a lot of Testudo hermann boettgeri. They basically wandered into my garden where they are able to find a lot of grasses and herbs but also water and the occasional fig that falls from the tree. So now I just provide them with the yearly visit to the vet but other than that they are just doing their thing.
I signed up for this forum in order to find out more about Aldabra and Sulcata tortoises. In Europe they are quite rare and not many people keep them as pets so its rather hard to find good information on them. I hope I will be able to learn a lot here in the forum and maybe find a good source to get two Aldabras for my garden.

Hugs from Greece!
Nicolas
 

Yvonne G

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the_calcar_avis

New Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2019
Messages
2
Location (City and/or State)
Greece
hey guys!
thank you all for welcoming me.
yes i am totally aware that the aldabras and the hermanni will have to be separated. im not so fond of tortoise pancakes.. ;) which kind of reminds me of this story i recently read: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/05/science/dinosaur-crushed-sea-turtle.html
but yes i wouldn't want to harm any animal nor put it in danger of getting hurt in any way. but thank you very much for the links. i will read through them. its my new hobby. read through the forum and try to piece the info together :)

to be quite honest i am not sure which to get. aldabras or sulcatas. both are very interesting. obviously there is the big difference in cost but i decided to just do the research first and see what animal fits better into my environment. the garden is rather large (around 850-900 square meters thats about 9000 square foot if im not mistaken??). and thats just the garden in the back of the house. in the front there is another garden with 300 square meters. so my thought was to move all the greeks in the front and have the big boys in the back. i am quite concerned about the climate though. it's not florida and the winter can get chilly. so i will have to think of a solution to provide them with a suitable home. here is a link to get an idea what the climate is like. https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/greece/kalamata/climate

and then of course there is the issue of even getting one ore the other species. i am not sure what regulations there are and if i will need a permit or something. also i will have to research what paperwork i will need in order to import the animals cause there is no chance these will be for sale somewhere in greece. as of now i have found some sellers in germany and england. but that step is still a little ahead of where i am now.

thanks again!
 

TammyJ

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5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2016
Messages
7,119
Location (City and/or State)
Jamaica
Welcome and the best of luck in your endeavors. Aldabras are BIG. A LOT more expense involved, and space needed. As you know already, right?
 

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