Shelled Warriors Forums - View Single Post - Please help me identify the subspecies of our tortoise

biochemnerd808 · 23-02-2013, 06:41 PM

I am new to this forum, but have been very active on the US tortoise forum.

I was wondering if you could help ID our Greek tortoise. He looks a lot like pictures I have found on British forums of "Tunisian" Greeks, which are small like he is, and skinny...

We rescued him last year from a woman who got him as a yearling at a reptile show in 2006 (she showed pics of him 'little' - he was tiny). At the time she said it was a "Tahitian" tortoise, which just plain doesn't exist. The closest thing I know of is a 'Tunisian' although he could be a very puny 'Antakyan, too. He hatched Summer 2005, is 14cm long (SCL) and weighs 476g. I know he is underweight, but he has actually gained 56g since coming into my care early November last year.

His old owner only fed him romaine and carrots - at least she sprinkled with calcium. In his previous home was kept in a 20gal aquarium on dry wood chips. His old owner also drilled a hole into his shell and put a ring through it - we removed this the second day he was with us. We also trimmed his beak, which was terribly long. Now he happily lives in a tortoise table we built him, with coco coir as substrate, proper lighting, and good dark leafy weeds to eat. He will spend a good portion of the Summer outside.

Here is the link to a blog post I wrote last year that has pics. I took those before taking out the ring in his shell or trimming his beak... I chose to post this link because it has good pics of his shell from above, the side, and the plastron. http://tortaddiction.blogspot.com/20...se-rescue.html
Here is also a post with more recent pictures of him: http://tortaddiction.blogspot.com/20...2-minutes.html
(The glass you see is the front of the tort table we built him)

For the record, we love little Boo whatever subspecies he is. The nerd in me just wants to know. What do you think? Tunisian? Antakyan? Something else entirely?

23-02-2013, 06:41 PM	#1
biochemnerd808 Junior Member Egg Join Date: Feb 2013 Posts: 3	Please help me identify the subspecies of our tortoise I am new to this forum, but have been very active on the US tortoise forum. I was wondering if you could help ID our Greek tortoise. He looks a lot like pictures I have found on British forums of "Tunisian" Greeks, which are small like he is, and skinny... We rescued him last year from a woman who got him as a yearling at a reptile show in 2006 (she showed pics of him 'little' - he was tiny). At the time she said it was a "Tahitian" tortoise, which just plain doesn't exist. The closest thing I know of is a 'Tunisian' although he could be a very puny 'Antakyan, too. He hatched Summer 2005, is 14cm long (SCL) and weighs 476g. I know he is underweight, but he has actually gained 56g since coming into my care early November last year. His old owner only fed him romaine and carrots - at least she sprinkled with calcium. In his previous home was kept in a 20gal aquarium on dry wood chips. His old owner also drilled a hole into his shell and put a ring through it - we removed this the second day he was with us. We also trimmed his beak, which was terribly long. Now he happily lives in a tortoise table we built him, with coco coir as substrate, proper lighting, and good dark leafy weeds to eat. He will spend a good portion of the Summer outside. Here is the link to a blog post I wrote last year that has pics. I took those before taking out the ring in his shell or trimming his beak... I chose to post this link because it has good pics of his shell from above, the side, and the plastron. http://tortaddiction.blogspot.com/20...se-rescue.html Here is also a post with more recent pictures of him: http://tortaddiction.blogspot.com/20...2-minutes.html (The glass you see is the front of the tort table we built him) For the record, we love little Boo whatever subspecies he is. The nerd in me just wants to know. What do you think? Tunisian? Antakyan? Something else entirely?