Western hermanns

[Onidara]

How rare is this species of tortoise? I just got a Tsm western and was thinking about getting another western but a Tsf so they could breed later on.

 

[Tom]

What is Tsm and Tsf?

Westerns are not common in the American pet trade. I would try to get @HermanniChris to ID the locale that yours is from so you can get another from the same locale. I would house them separately or get several females to the one male.

 

[Onidara]

Tsm = temp sex male. Tsf = temp sex female.

 

[HermanniChris]

They're rare. A pure blooded western is VERY rare to be frank. The only ones to ever be legally imported into the USA from pure lines were brought in by T. Crutchfield and G. Ullmann in the 1970s and 1980s (less then 2 dozen) and then by myself between the years 2009 and 2014 and lastly B. Zovickian in 2013. These are of course what we actually know about since no one else has ever come forward in several decades. They are extremely difficult to bring in because of the IUCN's status of them in Europe. The EU makes it very tough to get them over here. They have never been imported in big numbers whatsoever and most likely never will be unless it's done illegally.

I've been offered almost anything I can think of in trade for the adults kept here, stars, spiders, Albino this, albino that, Radiateds, Egyptians etc. the only thing I ever trade are their offspring. But it of course comes down to personal opinion. To myself as coordinator and the other parties involved with the North American Regional Studbook we have going for them, they are priceless. We went as far as getting granted funding to do DNA research on the majority of animals in the studbook and all the ones that reside here at my place. They are PURE, as pure as they can get actually. It was a heck of an experience and surreal.

Who did your TSM come from? Larry? Nick? If either of them, the animal is from Tuscan stock I brought in during the summer of 2013.

If you want breeding success down the line with them you'll want at least one more male and several females. Western Hermann's males need to be able to fight. Keep them together for periods of time and then separate them. It's natural for them to battle it out or they will "fall asleep on the job". They are more aggressive then their common eastern cousins when it comes to breeding and courtship behavior. I'll even let multiple males fight at one time. It yields great success. Westerns are not the most prolific or fertile tortoise so it helps to have multiple males in on it just how it would be in nature.

You can visit my site solely dedicated to them for much more info:

hermannihaven.com

Always feel free to ask any questions about them, they are my main focus above all species bred here.

 

[Onidara]

They're rare. A pure blooded western is VERY rare to be frank. The only ones to ever be legally imported into the USA from pure lines were brought in by T. Crutchfield and G. Ullmann in the 1970s and 1980s (less then 2 dozen) and then by myself between the years 2009 and 2014 and lastly B. Zovickian in 2013. These are of course what we actually know about since no one else has ever come forward in several decades. They are extremely difficult to bring in because of the IUCN's status of them in Europe. The EU makes it very tough to get them over here. They have never been imported in big numbers whatsoever and most likely never will be unless it's done illegally.

I've been offered almost anything I can think of in trade for the adults kept here, stars, spiders, Albino this, albino that, Radiateds, Egyptians etc. the only thing I ever trade are their offspring. But it of course comes down to personal opinion. To myself as coordinator and the other parties involved with the North American Regional Studbook we have going for them, they are priceless. We went as far as getting granted funding to do DNA research on the majority of animals in the studbook and all the ones that reside here at my place. They are PURE, as pure as they can get actually. It was a heck of an experience and surreal.

Who did your TSM come from? Larry? Nick? If either of them, the animal is from Tuscan stock I brought in during the summer of 2013.

If you want breeding success down the line with them you'll want at least one more male and several females. Western Hermann's males need to be able to fight. Keep them together for periods of time and then separate them. It's natural for them to battle it out or they will "fall asleep on the job". They are more aggressive then their common eastern cousins when it comes to breeding and courtship behavior. I'll even let multiple males fight at one time. It yields great success. Westerns are not the most prolific or fertile tortoise so it helps to have multiple males in on it just how it would be in nature.

You can visit my site solely dedicated to them for much more info:

hermannihaven.com

Always feel free to ask any questions about them, they are my main focus above all species bred here.

The one male I have is from Larry and I've been trying to find him a pure female but I've been having no luck. Do you know Arizona tortoise compound westerns came from and if they are pure? He's the only that's going to have hatchlings soon.