greek and hermann?

[Claireabbo]

alright me and my boyfriend are planing on getting a tortoise together and have it be ours like a little child... (not yet) but it has been 2 years! anyway! we were thinking about greeks or hermanns. how big do each of them get? male and female. and what about the care?

 

[ewam]

I don't know much about hermans because I don't have them but when I was trying to figure out if I should get a leopard or a Herman I learned a bit about. I am pretty sure they get as big as leopard which is about 30 to 40 pounds and there isn't much difference between a male or a female.

 

[Claireabbo]

how long? and what about the care? do you know?

 

[ewam]

Well they are mediteraniun tortoises so it needs to be humid so you have to mist the substrate and give him soaks daily in shalow water for about ten minutes.

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I would also consider getting a leopard tortoise based on where you live like if you live in southern Cali like I do then an African tortoise is good because it's dryer here. And a lot of the experts on this forum know a lot about leopards so they can help you out a lot I don't hear as much about hermans.

 

[TurtleTortoise]

I have a Greek, they stay around 8 inches. They need the biggest cage possible, min. 2' by 4'.

 

[Claireabbo]

do you know how big of an enclosure a hermann needs? and why do greeks need so much? just curoius what small species of torts would you reccomend to be like really cute and not too difficlut to take care of and pretty healthy of course! cause we both have school. homework. and animals so yeah easy peasy lemon squeasy!

 

[GBtortoises]

Eastern Hermann's, which are the most commonly available of the three subspecies do not get any close to the size of a Leopard tortoise! A huge Hermann's female will reach about 9-10" max. A more common adult size is around 6-8" for females and 5-7" for males. Three pounds, maybe four is pretty heavy for a fully grown mature female. No where near the size of a Leopard.
While they are Mediterranean region tortoises, they are from the Northern Mediterranean and the Easterns in particular are found primarily farther inland in areas that are actually far out of the Mediterranean climate such are Romainia and Bulgaria. They do not require a high require high humidity. But are more active in a mid range of 50-75%. They are active at higher and lower humidity levels also depending upon the temperatures that accompany that humidity.
Greek tortoise maximum size depends on the subspecies and area of the fast range that they inhabit. There are three primary areas that Greeks are found: North Africa, the Middle East and the Northern Mediterranean. The first two regions are inhabited by several subspecies of Greeks which generally speaking reach up to about 7-8" as full grown adults. The Northern Mediterranean species is primarily Ibera Greeks, Testudo (gracea) ibera which can become quite a bit larger as an adult, some reaching up to 10" but more commonly around 8-9". The care of the Greeks from different regions does differ a bit so it is always important to know what region that your's may be from. For the past half dozen years almost exclusively Middle Eastern Greeks have been imported into the U.S. with most coming from Jordan, Libya and bordering countries.

 

[Claireabbo]

right on! exactly what i was looking for! thanks

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

As a general rule, Hermann's are quite a bit less shy than many Greeks, and so make great pets...of course, I am a bit biased.

 

[cherylim]

This is my Hermann's in his enclosure. That's 4ft x 2ft and it's a good size for him, he's 4 inches now.