Hi- need some help knowing what tortoise i got

[MostafaMH]

Hi all i am from egypt and we recently got a tortoise as a gift for my little sister and the previous owner knows nearly nothing about it. So I researched a little but couldnt identify its species so I was wondering if someone can tell what species it is and if possible aprox. age and gender.
Here is some pics of it and if you need more information please tell me.

It is probably some local species but I am not sure.

 

[kimber_lee_314]

Beautiful! It's a greek for sure ... not sure of the subspecies. I"m going to guess Antakyan/Golden Greek cross. (She looks a lot like one of mine.) It also looks to be female, based on the flat plastron, but I can't tell without seeing the tail.

 

[JohnathanO]

Welcome to the forum

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi MostafaMH:

Welcome to the forum!!

May we know your name?

 

[Torty Mom]

Welcome to TFO!!

 

[pdrobber]

welcome

 

[Isa]

Welcome to the forum

 

[DocNezzy]

Welcome. Congrats.

 

[MostafaMH]

Thanks for the help guys. My name is Mostafa i just add the extra part to my username to make sure it isnt used as for her name well she doesnt have a stable name yet mainly because we dont know for sure if its really a she or a he but my little sis want to name it kirby after the videogame character since she is officially her tortoise but she might change that if i can know its gender for sure. Well after this introduction I still have a few questions about her. First about her food. So far she is eating mainly lettuce but i think she needs more variation so I am asking is if there any other fruits or greens i should give her and more importantly is there any food that might be harmful for her. Second about the water. Should i give her any water or not neccery and can water hurt her. Finally I want to give her a bath so I was just going to put her in a small tub filled with little water and use a cloth to clean her shell and legs but since I am asking I that is right or should it be done in another way also is using any type of soup or disinfectant on her shell hurt her or just not necessary. Well that is enough questions for now so far she looks energetic and smart. We are letting her go free in the house most of the day becouse we still have nothing decent to put her in and she already seems to know most of the house. No matter where it goes it always return to the living room where her food is.

 

[bikerchicspain]

Hi and welcome,
If I am not mistaken it looks like a testudo nebeulensis. Possibly a female,
The picture of the plastron is not very clear, we would need a better picture of the tail and plastron to be sure.

She needs water 24 hours a day, they hydrate through their bottom, so the water should be clean and fresh and enough for it to bathe in but not enough so that if it flips it doesn't drown.

Do NOT use any cleaner on her,just water...

Food wise, No Fruit... I give my Greeks a strawberry or two when they are in season,
Greeks main diet is green leaves, lettuce should not be the main diet,

If you want to add lettuce into their diet then use Romaine lettuce,not iceberg.

If you go to the plants and foods part of the forum you will get all the information required for a natural and healthy balanced diet,also the No No's.

If you have any more questions we will all be happy to help.

 

[coreyc]

Hello Mostafa welcome to the TFO

 

[GBtortoises]

I agree with Yvonne that your tortoise looks like Testudo gracea nabeulensis based on the photos. The North African and Middle Eastern Greek complex are more of EgyptianDan's field of expertise.

 

[MostafaMH]

Well thanks already give her first bath she drank a little but didnt seem to enjoy it much. Anyway here is a better pic of the plastron. I tried to make her show me the tail but she strongly refused so i just took a pic of it inside hope it helps.

 

[bikerchicspain]

Looks like a male,but can't be 100%.
It could be to young,has it got a concave plastron?
Difficult one without seeing the tail underneath...

 

[MostafaMH]

Well its plastron doesnt look concave to me but i might be wrong. I guess i will just wait for a while till it show the tail before knowing the gender. Well I got one last question after taking the bath it started pooping a bit liquid poop several times yesterday before the bath it did only one or 2 hard poops is this normal or what?

 

[bikerchicspain]

Well its plastron doesnt look concave to me but i might be wrong. I guess i will just wait for a while till it show the tail before knowing the gender. Well I got one last question after taking the bath it started pooping a bit liquid poop several times yesterday before the bath it did only one or 2 hard poops is this normal or what?

Yes it is normal, especially when you bathe them. She will also poop white stuff, which is urates,also normal.
Doing a good job,shema not everyone is not like you and try and find out something about the animal they have..

 

[MostafaMH]

Well its plastron doesnt look concave to me but i might be wrong. I guess i will just wait for a while till it show the tail before knowing the gender. Well I got one last question after taking the bath it started pooping a bit liquid poop several times yesterday before the bath it did only one or 2 hard poops is this normal or what?

Yes it is normal, especially when you bathe them. She will also poop white stuff, which is urates,also normal.
Doing a good job,shema not everyone is not like you and try and find out something about the animal they have..

ok thanks i thought it got a cold or something similar. I will just keep it away from the carpet after her next bath. Well so far i have been asking cause of a combination of curiosity and responsibility. I just couldn't raise a tortoise knowing nothing about it and at the same time I would have felt really bad if something happened to her cause I was too lazy to read a few pages and ask a few questions while sitting on my chair. ok that all the questions I got for now but if i ever got another one I know where to ask .

 

[MostafaMH]

Ok thanks I thought it got cold or something similar. I guess I just need to keep it away from the carpets after bathing.
So far all my questions was because of a combination of curiosity and responsibility. I couldn't raise a tortoise I know nothing about and at the same time I would have felt really guilty if something bad happened to her cause i was too lazy to ask a few questions or read some pages while sitting on my chair.
Well that's all the questions I got for now but if i ever needed to know anything about her I know where to ask .