Anyone working with Morocco greek tortoises

[turtlemanfla88]

I just started working with a group of Moroccan greeks. seeing is anyone else working with these.

 

[Yvonne G]

@GBtortoises and @HermanniChris come to mind.

 

[HermanniChris]

Yes we do here along with several other graeca subspecies and locales. Beautiful animals but sensitive.

 

[turtlemanfla88]

HermanniChris,
I had seven they are inside eating great. Then in two days I lost two out of the blue. I been working with turtles and tortoises for a long time. Please tel me what you did and made you successful with them.

 

[HermanniChris]

Have you wormed them? These "farmed" T. graeca are heavily infested with various parasites. Panacur takes care of the nematodes and a few others but flagellates need to be toasted by metronidazole. If you can take some fecals to a vet just to see what they actually have, you can asses this yourself without the unnecessary stress and invasive procedures a vet will bring on. I did this myself, immediately hydrated them by forcing them on mazuri soaked in pedialyte. I also added pedialyte to their water. Hydration is crucial even though they are an arid type of Greek tortoise. Bright light via 160 watt mercury vapor bulbs and a 10.0 T5 help to perk the tortoises up making them feel at home under the intense Moroccon sun. Their substrate is what I use for my Egyptian tortoises. 60/40 sand-top soil mix with a layer of oyster shell on top. Feed everyday and get them in the grove of grazing. I do dandelions with mazuri while indoors. I also mix dried organic herbs into mazuri and there's a video on how I do this on my site: hermannihaven.com

Make sure they have plenty of hiding areas and always have access to fresh water. And keep them away from any other graeca or any other species for that matter. Members of the Testudo graeca species complex are known to be carriers of harmful bacteria that will kill other species. While these tortoises may carry the bacteria their whole lives and seem healthy the entire time, other species
(T. hermanni ssp and Leopard tortoises in particular) will perish if it exposed to it.

And lastly, leave them be. Let them settle in and don't stress them unnecessarily.

Hope this helps!