Are my Russians two different subspecies?

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hi! I have two female Russian torts. A 9” girl and a 6” girl. They live in my enclosure together happy as can be and I keep up with the research and care of them.

I was wondering, I saw a page on here with different subspecies of Russian. I like to learn as much as possible so it interested me

Delilah, my 9” girl, has a very round shell—she’s almost as wide as she is long. Becky on the other hand has a much more elongated shell.

I don’t know their ages, as they were both adopted from people who couldn’t care for them anymore.
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Pics added.

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Yvonne G

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The member who wrote that thread no longer visits this forum. We can ask @HermanniChris if he can I.D. the sub species. I think he's going to need a side view so he can see the dome shape.
 

DARKFIRE007

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I want an updated thread on subspecies myself, I am almost certain my male and my (rapidly growing) female are different subspecies. I'm worried they won't be able to produce viable offspring.

Reports of MY disappearance have been greatly exaggerated :)
 

HoosierTort

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The member who wrote that thread no longer visits this forum. We can ask @HermanniChris if he can I.D. the sub species. I think he's going to need a side view so he can see the dome shape.
I’m actually going to be speaking this year at TTPG about Russian tortoises and all 6 subspecies. There are actually 5 valid and 1 extinct subspecies. Sadly, the information EgyptianDan had posted isn’t completely correct and leaves information. A certain website about Russians also has many errors. The best information is from Europe and has to be translated into English first. I’ve been working on it for a very long time and I hope more attention is given to them once the most current information is presented to people.
 

Sarah2020

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Keeping 2 together is not advisable. As they like to climb on food and eat so I suggest you provide same amount of food, split across 2 plates, spaced apart with rock or water in between this can avoid a bite or claw or fight for a tasty leaf.
 

Yvonne G

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I’m actually going to be speaking this year at TTPG about Russian tortoises and all 6 subspecies. There are actually 5 valid and 1 extinct subspecies. Sadly, the information EgyptianDan had posted isn’t completely correct and leaves information. A certain website about Russians also has many errors. The best information is from Europe and has to be translated into English first. I’ve been working on it for a very long time and I hope more attention is given to them once the most current information is presented to people.
I hope you'll share with us. I'd love to have the info and I'll make it a sticky.Would probably be a good idea to take down the one already there.

(Dang I wish I could attend TTPG!!)
 

HoosierTort

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I hope you'll share with us. I'd love to have the info and I'll make it a sticky.Would probably be a good idea to take down the one already there.

(Dang I wish I could attend TTPG!!)
Once I have all my slides done and the data is all put together, I will absolutely share here! I would love to see more people grouping them correctly as it’s shown to help with fertility. Many only have one subspecies just by chance. Most of the ones imported have been three subspecies and exported out of Uzbekistan. That doesn’t mean it’s only the ones found in Uzbekistan as over there herdsmen collect them while hiking and pass them off to a dealer who holds them until he gets enough to make traveling to the next guy in line until they finally get exported.

Here is a link listing the subspecies but note, Terbishi isn’t confirmed to still exist. More testing needs done on the ones coming from eastern Kazakhstan to see if they’re legit terbishi or not.
 
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