I Need an Experts Help (My Russain tortoise's Subspecies and Age)

[alben909]

Hello TFO, I need help with my russain tortoises age and subspecies. I am planning to start a breeding colony this September and want the babies to be true to one subspecies. Can you help please. (Wanting to know the age just came to mind but if you can tell me that would be great ). Here are some pics.

 

[Yvonne G]

I am not able to tell the sub-species apart, but I'll give you some helpful hints:

Put your tortoise on a glass or a cup, so that his legs are off the ground and he is stationary.

Take a good, clear shot straight down on his carapace.

Take a good, clear shot from directly to the side, showing how much his carapace curves.

For the plastron shot, you can invert the glass so the open end is up, and see if you can balance his carapace on the glass without danger of him tipping off. Then take a straight down shot.

If no one on the forum knows how to differentiate between the sub-species, then look on the member list and find Egyptiandan. Send him an email with your pictures. Or find him on Shelled Warriors forum and show him the pictures over there. He's the absolute best at this sort of thing.

And I applaud your intentions of keeping the strain pure. Wish we all knew more about it so we all could do this.

 

[alben909]

Thanks I can always count on you guys