Sex and species

[Paddemor]

This is my first post. I am from Norway, and I am not that good in English, but I hope you understand what I am writing

I have two tortoises which I got in Tunis.

I mainly want to know sex and species of my two tortoises. I will try to post some pictures so that you can see.

They are now about 1,5 years old. When I got them, they weight was 24 and 31 gram. And now it is 87 and 202 gram. So they have gained a lot of weight.

Maybe its to early to tell sex, because they are babies. until now I have thought that they were both girls. hey have looked very much like each-other. But recently I have noticed that the smallest one (Nella) have a longer tail that goes to one of the sides. Sam has a straight tail, and a bit shorter.

I hope someone can help me. I have tried to ask the same questions in Norwegian forums, but I have not received any answers.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Paddemor:

to the forum!!

I don't know much about Greek tortoises, but Danny will give you some help as soon as he reads your post.

Yvonne

 

[Paddemor]

Thank you, Yvonne! What a nice welcome!

Veronica

 

[katesgoey]

Welcome to the forum Veronica!!

 

[tortoisenerd]

Welcome! Someone will some along soon about the sex ans species, no worries. Want to share more about how you keep them? We love pictures! That's interesting they are so different in size as from your post I ascertained they are siblings? Are they kept together?

 

[Da915]

Aloha! Your English is perfect and your tortoises are beautiful. Ibera Greeks, perhaps?

Don

 

[Meg90]

First seems male, second is definitely female. Can you post some more closeups of their tails?

Maybe they are Libyan Greeks? The look too dark to be Ibera

 

[egyptiandan]

Perfect with the sexes Meg and close with the subspecies

You have 2 Tunisian greek tortoises, Testudo graeca nabeulensis.
Like Meg said the first picture is a male and the second a female.

Welcome to the forum Veronica

Danny

 

[Meg90]

Ahh! That was gonna be my guess, but I couldn't find a comparison picture! I kept searching "Tunisan" Greeks, not Tunisian!

 

[Paddemor]

Wow! Thank you for the warm welcome! I have tried two Norwegian forums, but haven't got any answers. I will absolutely use this forum when I want to learn and talk about tortoises! I am very happy to hear that you could tell me both sex and specie. I will definitely post more pictures, I just have to figure out how I resize them.

I keep them together. I don't know if they are siblings, but its possible. They live in a terrarium about size 80 x 50 cm. They have UV light and hot spot. They have a small pool so they can cool down, and they have rocks so they can hide.

I see that the biggest one, Sam (Now I think I have to call him Samantha, since its a girl ) is dominant. The smallest one wait for Sam to eat, and Sam often interrupt Nella when she (or he... ) is eating. I tried at one point to separate them, but it looked like they were missing eachother.

In Norway, we have a long and cold winter, so I cant have them outside from september to may, but they have been outside many times recently. I also let them walk inside my apartment. They are very curious, and want to climb and taste everything.

I feed them with different kind of lettuce, and pellets for tortoises. And I give them calcium.

Again, thank you all so much!

I will be back with more pictures of my tortoises and their terra

 

[katesgoey]

Veronica - why don't you just switch their names so Sam becomes Nella and Nella becomes Sam....would that be too strange?

 

[Paddemor]

Veronica - why don't you just switch their names so Sam becomes Nella and Nella becomes Sam....would that be too strange?

Yes, thats a good idea It will be strange in the beginning, but i think I can get use to it

 

[Paddemor]

Here are some more pictures of my tortoises

The little one (boy?)

The big one (girl?)

Baby. I think this one was about 6 months here.

Both babies

Terrarium.

It is so difficult to get nice photos. But this is my best....

I would like to know if I am doing anything wrong. With terrarium or anything

I have redecorated the terrarium some times, but my husband says that they want to have it the same way always. He says that they use long time to get comfortable in the terrarium. I don't know if its true...

I try to read much on the Internet, but its difficult to know what is right, because I read different things on different sites. And I have problems to understand English. I know the most basic words, but I can not always understand the whole sentence...

 

[Yvonne G]

Your pictures are just fine...nothing wrong with them at all. And the only thing I would change about the terrarium would be to adjust the light so it shines straight down instead of off at an angle like it does. That way the heat stays on one side of the habitat and the other side would be a little cooler for the tortoises.

When I first got into turtles and tortoises and was researching and learning, I found out that tortoises don't like to have "their furniture re-arranged." That they like their landscape to stay the way it is and not change. However in the ensuing years, I have heard many people say they rearrange their habitats all the time and the tortoises seem to enjoy it. So I guess it must be an individual choice. Move stuff around and if your tortoise seems ok with it, then its ok. But if he seems stressed out, then you know that you have a tortoise that doesn't like change.

Yvonne