Cam, they are violent to each other in many cases, either sex can be this way. I have had males charge at my feet on several occasions as well. They are in my opinion the best tortoise for personality. They're incredible animals. Females display territorial aggression towards each other when they are gravid or feeling cramped. They will ram each other for hours. Males can inflict serious bite wounds on the back legs of females and other males during fighting and breeding. I had a hatchling ibera that would repeatedly ram it's food dish only taking a few seconds to stop and eat here and there.


Great tortoises.

Intense!
sounds like the 5th graders at our son's school...

very nice thankyou everyone.

Can a greek and ibera go together?

I do not recommend it at all, ibera are far too agressive for graeca and injuries most likely will happen. Greaca also tend to carry heavy parasitic loads since most are fresh imports. Cross breeding is also a possibilty and that will only add to the mass confusion surrounding these animals.

All very good points!

oh right i see.

thanks! i was just curious, im happy with my hermanns.
I wont be getting any other tortoises til next summer.
even then that will just be a horsefield as ive got a spare cage now.

Tay,

I think you are getting confused with the whole 'greek' and 'greek ibera' thing. Greek is used (mainly in america, no offense meant here)as a term for all tortoise under the Testudo graeca group.

Testudo graeca ibera are then a sub-species within Testudo graeca with Testudo graeca graeca being another of the sub-species. Basically all of these are 'greeks'. T.g.graeca are from Northern Africa, so greek isn't really logical anyway <ducks>

Peter

This post was last modified: 12-21-2007 10:53 AM by Henry-flash.

Nice breakdown, no need to duck