Hello from Switzerland

[Boettgeri]

Hello everybody !

I'm living in Switzerland and I have 2 tortoises (testudo boettgeri, 3 years old).
I enjoy talking about tortoises and always learning new things about it !
That's why I'm here.

I apologize for not being word-perfect in English.

Have a good day and take care of your tortoises

 

[Reptilony]

Hello everybody !

I'm living in Switzerland and I have 2 tortoises (testudo boettgeri, 3 years old).
I enjoy talking about tortoises and always learning new things about it !
That's why I'm here.

I apologize for not being word-perfect in English.

Have a good day and take care of your tortoises

Welcome suisses! Are you speaking german?

 

[Boettgeri]

Thanks !
I live in the french part of Switzerland. I have learned german in high school but it was a long time ago lol...I can speak a little german but not fluently. I speak french fluently and portuguese is my mother tongue.

 

[Reptilony]

How come your mother tongue is portugese? Tes parents sont portugais ou brésiliens?

 

[Boettgeri]

Oh you can speak french ? My parents come from Portugal but I have family in Brazil too.

 

[Reptilony]

Yes it is my mother tongue in fact I barely speak english. Les suisses ont déjà la réputations de parler pleins de langues...là c’est tout un arsenal ! I live in the only place in the continent of america that speak french (if you don’t count guyanne francaise lol) they probably don’t even speak much french over there.

 

[Boettgeri]

Cool ! Je suppose que vous/tu (je préfère l'anglais pour ça "you" c'est plus simple !) vivez au Canada ? J'avais une collègue canadienne qui me racontait ses hivers à -46°C mais cela a l'air tellement joli le Canada !
In Switzerland we have 4 national languages : french, german, italian, romansch (le romanche est en voie d'extinction). I have only learned french, german and english at school not the others. I live in a city where there are more strangers than swiss so I have a lot of "friends" from everywhere but I cannot speak all their languages, too difficult lol

 

[Reptilony]

Cool ! Je suppose que vous/tu (je préfère l'anglais pour ça "you" c'est plus simple !) vivez au Canada ? J'avais une collègue canadienne qui me racontait ses hivers à -46°C mais cela a l'air tellement joli le Canada !
In Switzerland we have 4 national languages : french, german, italian, romansch (le romanche est en voie d'extinction). I have only learned french, german and english at school not the others. I live in a city where there are more strangers than swiss so I have a lot of "friends" from everywhere but I cannot speak all their languages, too difficult lol

I would prefer to live in switzerland but I guess we only know un pays parce ce qu'ont voit sur les cartes postales lol. Yes winters are very cold, is the weather nicer in suisse? Also do you have to house your babies part of the year inside?

 

[Boettgeri]

I think you are right it is difficult to know how it really is in a country if we do not live there. I'm not sure if I will always stay in Switzerland lol I see you have a sulcata ? I suppose she or he lives inside all year long ? The worst temperature I experienced in Switzerland during Winter was -20°C. My tortoises are european they hibernate each Autumn until Spring, they hibernate about 6 months, it is very long for me but it is very important for them. I still don't know how to say this in english so I will try in french. Je les laisse s'endormir dans leur enclos dehors, après 3 semaines d'hibernation je les déplace très délicatement (sans les réveiller) dans un caisson d'hibernation dans le garage, je vérifie régulièrement l'humidité et la température et ainsi leur évite le gel. Je sais que certaines personnes ici les laissent hiberner dehors dans des serres mais moi je suis plus rassurée de le faire en caisson dans le garage.

 

[Reptilony]

Yes I do have a sully that is almost 5 months old. She will be able to spend about half year outside with a heated shed of course. The other half will be inside my future house which will have a giant habitat for her. (Si elle se rend jusque la) I wouldn't let them outside either...What species of tortoises do you have?

 

[T Smart]

Welcome!

 

[Boettgeri]

Reptilony : It is cool to have all this things for your sully I love these tortoises but I can not have exotics here and I read they can weigh like 100kg when they are adults , it's amazing. I have two testudo boettgeri they look like hermans.
One of them (I have not many pictures in this computer but I can take more when they are awake ) :
https://www.casimages.com/i/180901084247565245.jpg.html

Thanks T Smart

 

[Reptilony]

Reptilony : It is cool to have all this things for your sully I love these tortoises but I can not have exotics here and I read they can weigh like 100kg when they are adults , it's amazing. I have two testudo boettgeri they look like hermans.
One of them (I have not many pictures in this computer but I can take more when they are awake ) :
https://www.casimages.com/i/180901084247565245.jpg.html

Thanks T Smart

Lol soo cute : ) Some sub-species males do can but not my female...fortunately. It's funny because here we cannot have locals, only exotics.

 

[Boettgeri]

I didn't know you can only have exotics there. It's interesting.
She is very cute ! isn't she too young to already know for sure she is a female ? I think mine are little boys even the breeder told me they were incubate at female temperature lol but I'm not sure yet. In two years maybe I will know for sure.

 

[TriciaStringer]

Welcome! Looking forward to seeing more pictures. I enjoyed your back and forth conversation with @Reptilony even if I didn't know what you were saying for some of it.

 

[Boettgeri]

Thanks I will post more pictures next time sorry we spoke a little french, I will try to learn more english words related to tortoises to be able to speak only english here for everybody to understand ^^ I will also try to improve my english, I read a lot of things in english and I usually understand it but I'm not used to speak or write a lot in english (sorry if I made a mystake)

 

[Reptilony]

I didn't know you can only have exotics there. It's interesting.
She is very cute ! isn't she too young to already know for sure she is a female ? I think mine are little boys even the breeder told me they were incubate at female temperature lol but I'm not sure yet. In two years maybe I will know for sure.

Well no of course I can't be 100% sure but the breeder told me there was only 1% chance to be a male. For now she is a female to me lol there is not much info about this subject....Yes the other day I put back in nature a lost painted turtle, they are illagal to keep just like every other species. Here in Qc I believe every turtle/tortoise species are endangered. What kind of native species is there in Suisse?

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome!

 

[LaLaP]

Hi and welcome!

 

[Boettgeri]

Reptilony : I understand mine were also females to me before I doubt it lol Here painted tortoises are also forbidden. A lot of people brought painted tortoises here but it was catastrophic for the local ecosystem because a lot of them where also released in the lake. The only endemic specie in Switzerland are "cistudes" turtles, there is a rehabilitation program for cistudes and it is forbidden to remove them from their environment and to keep them. For all the tortoises there is not a strict law...Unfortunately you can buy different european tortoises that are endangered even in pet shops ! You can also find breeders that sell exotics tortoises. If I want I can buy an exotic but when I said I can't it is because for me an exotic tortoise has nothing to do in Switzerland, I think they are better in their native environment and the weather here is not naturally good for them. That is why a choose testudo boettgeri, they can live here without problems, they like humidity, they hibernate and the rest of the time they live in the garden. In France, there is more laws for tortoises. If you go to France with any kind of tortoise (unless horsefeldii I think) you need a special authorization, if you don't have these authorization there, they take your tortoise from you and you have to pay a fine and you can even go to jail. Most of the tortoise are endangered species, in France normally some hermanns are endemic species but they tend to disappear in their natural environment, it is also forbidden to remove them from their environment and to release a captive tortoise in the environment. You need to always be able to justify from where you tortoise come because there is animal trafficking and it is strictly forbidden.

Yvonne G and LalaP thanks