Which species are these?

[Mantoise]

I'd like to introduce you Bolt(L) and P.I.(R), found the couple roaming a public park near my home, since there are plenty of cats and snakes there, people I do not doubt would threw them for fun and no one keeps tortoises in their garden due to other larger pets, I took them home but I do not know their species or sex and fed them dandelion leaves and salad from my garden, sometimes stawberries. cherries, wildberries, carrots, radishes, cabbages and broccoli(the last four boiled in the micro and cooled), they are more than well fed but do not seem to drink water by itself(tried to pour it on a tiny plate), I fill their food with mineral water(the same kind I use to wash their food) for now. I arranged a 70x45cm movable terrarium(It offers 25 cm of shade) with around 7cm deep earth, they are no more than 3cm tall and twice as long, I take it out and cover it with a net for a few hours on the sunny days so they can enjoy the sun and when I have time let them enjoy the garden under my supervision. When back in I leave them by the window(where they are eating wildberries in the pic), I bought a UV lamp for the rainy days. Have you any ideas how old they might be, if they're herbivores, if the terrarium is adequate, if they need something else? The "Pet Shop" I have close do not seem to know much about tortoises.

 

[method89]

They look like Hermann's. I highly recommend putting them as close to where you found them as possible.

 

[Sarah2020]

Hi, I assume they have escaped and someone had lost their pets or they were let go due to cost of living.

Please read care sheet and enure they have clean water in a dish they can walk through, with another flat dish similar to your yellow one with fresh green leaves and weeds. Fruit is not very digestible for them so give occasionally if at all. As you Italy they will have warm climate but in winter they will need heat lamp and UVA set up and as they grow brumation.

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

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[Tom]

View attachment 357725
I'd like to introduce you Bolt(L) and P.I.(R), found the couple roaming a public park near my home, since there are plenty of cats and snakes there, people I do not doubt would threw them for fun and no one keeps tortoises in their garden due to other larger pets, I took them home but I do not know their species or sex and fed them dandelion leaves and salad from my garden, sometimes stawberries. cherries, wildberries, carrots, radishes, cabbages and broccoli(the last four boiled in the micro and cooled), they are more than well fed but do not seem to drink water by itself(tried to pour it on a tiny plate), I fill their food with mineral water(the same kind I use to wash their food) for now. I arranged a 70x45cm movable terrarium(It offers 25 cm of shade) with around 7cm deep earth, they are no more than 3cm tall and twice as long, I take it out and cover it with a net for a few hours on the sunny days so they can enjoy the sun and when I have time let them enjoy the garden under my supervision. When back in I leave them by the window(where they are eating wildberries in the pic), I bought a UV lamp for the rainy days. Have you any ideas how old they might be, if they're herbivores, if the terrarium is adequate, if they need something else? The "Pet Shop" I have close do not seem to know much about tortoises.

If you are going to keep them, its important to learn how to care for them correctly. Most of what you read online is all wrong.

For starers:
1. They need to be in an enclosure, not roaming loose. You will lose them otherwise.
2. They should never be housed in pairs. Groups are okay, and all alone is fine, but not pairs.
3. They should not be fed fruit. The sugars upset the flora and fauna in the GI tract. Their main diet should be a wide assortment of broadleaf weeds, leaves, and flowers.

More here, and look for the temperate species care sheet near the bottom:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

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[Mantoise]

For starers:
1. They need to be in an enclosure, not roaming loose. You will lose them otherwise.
2. They should never be housed in pairs. Groups are okay, and all alone is fine, but not pairs.
3. They should not be fed fruit. The sugars upset the flora and fauna in the GI tract. Their main diet should be a wide assortment of broadleaf weeds, leaves, and flowers.

Of leaves and weed they eat plenty, I don't know which flowers are safe to feed them. I'm more concerned about their hydration, when served water in a small dish they seems to not care for it. About the pair thing I didn't know, they seem chill with each other, when one goes to sleep the other always go to sleep beside it.
About keeping them I don't know, if I can provide for them I'd rather keep them, if not I'll give them to someone qualified.
They are enclosed in the terratium, I supervise whenever they are loose in the garden so they won't endanger themselves or run away, for where I live it means to be in serious danger.

 

[wellington]

They look like Hermann's. I highly recommend putting them as close to where you found them as possible.

Are they native to Italy? If so, I wonder if they are wild or captive but go loose or purposely let go.
I would almost guess, with the pyramidimg and being two together, that they are someone's pet that got loose or let go.

 

[Mantoise]

Hi, I assume they have escaped and someone had lost their pets or they were let go due to cost of living.

Please read care sheet and enure they have clean water in a dish they can walk through, with another flat dish similar to your yellow one with fresh green leaves and weeds. Fruit is not very digestible for them so give occasionally if at all. As you Italy they will have warm climate but in winter they will need heat lamp and UVA set up and as they grow brumation.

I assumed someone released them, too.
They have two dishes as you describe that I regularly clean but they never care for the water filled one,. I give them mineral water, so that they stay clear of chlorine and are fed daily with fresh leaves. I will purchase a heat lamp.

 

[Mantoise]

They look like Hermann's. I highly recommend putting them as close to where you found them as possible.

That would be to endanger them further, the park is near a stream home of both snakes and really big rats, and there are at least four cats that visit the place. I would prefer to find them a qualified shelter.

 

[Tom]

Of leaves and weed they eat plenty, I don't know which flowers are safe to feed them. I'm more concerned about their hydration, when served water in a small dish they seems to not care for it. About the pair thing I didn't know, they seem chill with each other, when one goes to sleep the other always go to sleep beside it.
About keeping them I don't know, if I can provide for them I'd rather keep them, if not I'll give them to someone qualified.
They are enclosed in the terratium, I supervise whenever they are loose in the garden so they won't endanger themselves or run away, for where I live it means to be in serious danger.

They need to be soaked daily for a couple of weeks. Water dishes need to be of the correct type and sunk into the substrate.

They are not chill with each other. That sleeping next to each other is one trying to crowd the other one out of its territory.

Supervising them while loose is how they get lost. Everyone intends to watch them closely, but something always happens. They need to be contained in an enclosure of some sort.

All of this and much more that you need to know is explained in the care sheet.

 

[Mantoise]

Are they native to Italy? If so, I wonder if they are wild or captive but go loose or purposely let go.
I would almost guess, with the pyramidimg and being two together, that they are someone's pet that got loose or let go.

If they're hermann's they are not from my region we are close to the Alps. I asked around the block to those who have no dogs running around, they had no torts.

 

[Mantoise]

They need to be soaked daily for a couple of weeks. Water dishes need to be of the correct type and sunk into the substrate.

They are not chill with each other. That sleeping next to each other is one trying to crowd the other one out of its territory.

So I should actively soak them? It isn't innate?

I'll make another terrarium, is the size I stated at least adequate for a baby tortoise?

 

[Yvonne G]

I've temporarily moved your thread to our Hermanns section, but it looks to me like you may have a hermanns and a greek. Please lay them on their back and shoot us a picture of their underside. in the meantime I'll send a request to @TeamZissou for their opinion on the species.

They look as if they've been raised in captivity, not wild tortoises.

To soak use a tub with tall sides they can't climb out of and fill with warm water until the water comes up to the middle of their sides. . . where the top shell meets the bottom shell.

 

[Tom]

So I should actively soak them? It isn't innate?

I'll make another terrarium, is the size I stated at least adequate for a baby tortoise?

Yes. It is not innate, and there are lots of reasons why a tortoise may avoid the water bowl in a captive situation. Dehydration is probably the number one killer of tortoises, followed closely by dogs.

70x45cm is very small. I recommend 122x61cm for little babies, and they would need 244x122cm if housed indoors as adults. Outdoors is better in suitable climates.

 

[wellington]

That would be to endanger them further, the park is near a stream home of both snakes and really big rats, and there are at least four cats that visit the place. I would prefer to find them a qualified shelter.

They are not native so this should not be followed. Only wild native tortoises or turtles should be placed back into the wild, if found in the wild.

 

[TeamZissou]

Yes these are Hermann's tortoises, and they look like Eastern Hermann's to me, but I cannot be sure without photos of the plastron (bottom of shell). They appear to be quite pyramided, suggesting that they were kept captive in conditions that were too dry and then released. One side of the carapace of the tortoise on the right appears to be a bit sunken in, suggesting that it didn't get access to UVB, another indicator that they were released.

As for the location in Italy, if you are located in Lombardy, that is too far north for normal range for Hermann's tortoises. They only extend as far north as Pisa on the west portion of the peninsula. Most of the Hermann's in Italy are Western's, though there may be some populations of Eastern's Hermann's on the eastern portion of the peninsula as far down as Venice, and up into Slovenia, though I don't know how representative the map is of current populations. The dashed line delineates the Eastern/Western subspecies.

 

[Sarah2020]

I assumed someone released them, too.
They have two dishes as you describe that I regularly clean but they never care for the water filled one,. I give them mineral water, so that they stay clear of chlorine and are fed daily with fresh leaves. I will purchase a heat lamp.

Their intake of water is very small but it is 100% required to be provided for hydration and good health. I change water twice daily AM and PM as Speedy will walk through. Potable human OK water is fine and what they should get used to. Regular warm water shallow soaks are also beneficial in a high sided container.

 

[Ricky j]

View attachment 357725
I'd like to introduce you Bolt(L) and P.I.(R), found the couple roaming a public park near my home, since there are plenty of cats and snakes there, people I do not doubt would threw them for fun and no one keeps tortoises in their garden due to other larger pets, I took them home but I do not know their species or sex and fed them dandelion leaves and salad from my garden, sometimes stawberries. cherries, wildberries, carrots, radishes, cabbages and broccoli(the last four boiled in the micro and cooled), they are more than well fed but do not seem to drink water by itself(tried to pour it on a tiny plate), I fill their food with mineral water(the same kind I use to wash their food) for now. I arranged a 70x45cm movable terrarium(It offers 25 cm of shade) with around 7cm deep earth, they are no more than 3cm tall and twice as long, I take it out and cover it with a net for a few hours on the sunny days so they can enjoy the sun and when I have time let them enjoy the garden under my supervision. When back in I leave them by the window(where they are eating wildberries in the pic), I bought a UV lamp for the rainy days. Have you any ideas how old they might be, if they're herbivores, if the terrarium is adequate, if they need something else? The "Pet Shop" I have close do not seem to know much about tortoises.

Don't put them back them tortoises ain't native to the US so most likely someone ditched their pets
So if you're not going to keep them bring them to a reptile rescue center if you have one around your state

 

[EricW]

Don't put them back them tortoises ain't native to the US so most likely someone ditched their pets
So if you're not going to keep them bring them to a reptile rescue center if you have one around your state

They live in Italy, not the U.S.

 

[Ricky j]

They live in Italy, not the U.S.

I didn't know that thanks for the info

 

[EricW]

I didn't know that thanks for the info

No worries. Regardless, seems like these were pets released and possibly eastern, not western.