Adopted new daughters with big scar, and strange Toes

[deserttort]

Hi folks, I adopted this beautiful lady a couple of months back. Appreciate your help on a few things:

Identification: have three Greek tortoises, but this doesn’t look anything like them; any guesses on breed and age?

The gash: There’s a big white scar running across her shell, but it is solid hard, and does not seem to be causing any problems. Any ideas of what this might be, and if I need to do anything special?

Diet: This poor thing only eats lettuce, and nothing else. No flowers, fruits, or anything else that my other fellows gobble up. I usually feed my torts arugula and other things that are approved by tortoise table. Any suggestions on how I can break her out of her bad habits? It’s been two months and nothing has worked.

Toes: I can’t shake the feeling like she has some missing digits. Does that seem like the case in the pics, and is there something I can / should do?


Thanks in advance!

 

[wellington]

I think she is a Russian. I will get some others to help with ID. @Yvonne G @Tom
She should not eat fruit and neither should your other tortoises. Fruit can be fed to very few species cuz it's high in sugars and messes with the gut.
As for food, you will have to chop all foods up fine and mix with finely chopped lettuce and spritz with water. As she starts to eat the majority of all the better foods, slowly add more and take away slowly the plain lettuce
She looks good otherwise and I wouldn't worry about the healed scar or missing toes/nails.
If she isn't a Greek, she should not be mixed with your others.

 

[deserttort]

I think she is a Russian. I will get some others to help with ID. @Yvonne G @Tom
She should not eat fruit and neither should your other tortoises. Fruit can be fed to very few species cuz it's high in sugars and messes with the gut.
As for food, you will have to chop all foods up fine and mix with finely chopped lettuce and spritz with water. As she starts to eat the majority of all the better foods, slowly add more and take away slowly the plain lettuce
She looks good otherwise and I wouldn't worry about the healed scar or missing toes/nails.
If she isn't a Greek, she should not be mixed with your others.

Thanks… Yes, fruit is a rare treat. I wanted to check if she will eat that because she eats nothing else, but even passed on the fruit.

 

[Maggie3fan]

I don't think it's a Russian...maybe a Hermanni...anyway, no fruit!!!

 

[Tom]

Thanks… Yes, fruit is a rare treat. I wanted to check if she will eat that because she eats nothing else, but even passed on the fruit.

It will take time to get her eating better foods. They eat what they are used to eating. New foods have to be gradually introduced.

None of yours should be getting fruit. Think about it. If its so bad that you can only use it once in a while, why use it at all? Use something good for them as a treat like hibiscus or lavatera flowers, some red or yellow peppers, grated pumpkin or squash or sweet potato/yams,

The old scars are probably from being stepped on or hit by a car. Who knows? Nothing to do about that now. Might have had a run-in with a dog or rat or some other predator at some point in its life.

Here is the care info, same as for your other torts:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/the-best-way-to-raise-any-temperate-species-of-tortoise.183131/

 

[TeamZissou]

Definitely a Greek. Looking back at your other threads, this one is a different subspecies from your others. I see that I was incorrect a few years ago, and said that your others were terrestris Greeks, when in fact they are ibera Greeks, so sorry about that. The one in this thread is definitely terrestris. There is a lot of color variation within terrestris.

In terms of number of toes, there are usually four on the back feet and five on the front feet, which can be four larger toes/nails and one smaller nail that can be harder to see. I wouldn't worry about it since this tort looks healthy. I would keep her separate from the other ibera.

Asia Minor Tortoise | hermannihavenhome

www.hermannihaven.com

Mesopotamian Tortoise | hermannihavenhome

www.hermannihaven.com

 

[deserttort]

Definitely a Greek. Looking back at your other threads, this one is a different subspecies from your others. I see that I was incorrect a few years ago, and said that your others were terrestris Greeks, when in fact they are ibera Greeks, so sorry about that. The one in this thread is definitely terrestris. There is a lot of color variation within terrestris.

In terms of number of toes, there are usually four on the back feet and five on the front feet, which can be four larger toes/nails and one smaller nail that can be harder to see. I wouldn't worry about it since this tort looks healthy. I would keep her separate from the other ibera.

Asia Minor Tortoise | hermannihavenhome

www.hermannihaven.com

Mesopotamian Tortoise | hermannihavenhome

www.hermannihaven.com

Thanks so much for clarifying both species! You’re absolutely right, terrestris pictures look exactly like my new adoptee. Interestingly, I find her head shapes to be also less angular than the Ibericas’.

Since you were looking at my previous posts with my old tortoises, I have a random question. When I look at these pictures, I feel like their coloration was brighter two years ago than now. Is that possible? Can Shell colors fade overtime for some reason?

 

[TeamZissou]

Thanks so much for clarifying both species! You’re absolutely right, terrestris pictures look exactly like my new adoptee. Interestingly, I find her head shapes to be also less angular than the Ibericas’.

Since you were looking at my previous posts with my old tortoises, I have a random question. When I look at these pictures, I feel like their coloration was brighter two years ago than now. Is that possible? Can Shell colors fade overtime for some reason?

Hard to say, I'm not sure I know for certain. If anything, I would expect darker areas to get a little lighter with lots of bright sun exposure. Yellows may also be influenced by diet, specifically things like carotenoids from either multivitamins (Herptivite) or with increased variety in the diet.

Chris Leone has also talked about wider temperature swings influencing yellow color brightness in testudos. Do you keep them outside? Do you brumate them over the winter? FWIW, ibera are brumators while terrestris are supposedly not. Though, some from areas other than the old "floweri" subspecies (Gaza strip, the very yellow terrestris from Chris's website) supposedly may be able to brumate. I've never found a good source that talks about this though.

 

[deserttort]

Hard to say, I'm not sure I know for certain. If anything, I would expect darker areas to get a little lighter with lots of bright sun exposure. Yellows may also be influenced by diet, specifically things like carotenoids from either multivitamins (Herptivite) or with increased variety in the diet.

Chris Leone has also talked about wider temperature swings influencing yellow color brightness in testudos. Do you keep them outside? Do you brumate them over the winter? FWIW, ibera are brumators while terrestris are supposedly not. Though, some from areas other than the old "floweri" subspecies (Gaza strip, the very yellow terrestris from Chris's website) supposedly may be able to brumate. I've never found a good source that talks about this though.

Excellent points. I did move them from balcony life, where their previous owner had them, to an outdoor enclosure two years ago.

I live in a part of the Middle East, where summers are extremely hot. Winters lows go to around 60F, but come back to 75F during the sunny times of the day.

I have seen none of them brumate proper, but the large Ibera becomes extra sluggish, and might go a day or two max without surfacing. Interestingly, and to your point, that the terrestris didn’t seem to change her behaviors much during peak winter.