How many toes?

[Raymo2477]

I got a Hermann's tortoise a few months back and over the weekend I bought a book on them by Holger Vetter. I was trying to ID my little tort and notice that on her front limbs she has four toes on the left and five on the right.

Is this common?

 

[cherylim]

More common than you'd expect, in my knowledge. Hermann's can either have four or five claws, and there are quite a few that I've heard of that have different numbers on different feet.

Emrys has four toes on every foot, but he's got the wrong number of scutes. Nobody can be sure why these variances happen, but I suspect CB inbreeding has something to do with it.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

More common than you'd expect, in my knowledge. Hermann's can either have four or five claws, and there are quite a few that I've heard of that have different numbers on different feet.

Emrys has four toes on every foot, but he's got the wrong number of scutes. Nobody can be sure why these variances happen, but I suspect CB inbreeding has something to do with it.

Long been my suspicion, as well...I know a lady who's pet Greek, "Horatio" (probably an Iberian) has 4 toes on it's right front and left back feet, but 5 toes on it's left front and right back feet, and a split scute.

She's had him for about 3 years, but never counted his toes until just recently, then immediately called me to see if this might be a health issue...I assured her that it's likely just how Horatio was born, and that's how hes "special".

Certainly hasn't affected his appetite any.

 

[Anthony P]

Really interesting..