ID Help Western? Dalmation? Hermann's

anodyne99

New Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2025
Messages
3
Location (City and/or State)
Oregon
Hello! I wondered if anyone might be able to help us identify our Hermann's tortoise Marcel's variety. We adopted him from a local rescue as a 2.5 year old male Hermann's, variety unspecified. I am wondering if he might not be a 6-7 year-old Dalmation or Western though. He's got a keyhole marking, a line on his third vertebral scute, a fair amount of yellow on his head, and two black bands on his plastron, though the very top pair have a gap. I can't tell whether he has inguinal scutes or not, and I am not sure about the plastron sutures. We'd like to get some females to live with him and want to be sure if he is a Western or Dalmation that we get the appropriate variety. Hind leg L.jpgHind leg R.jpgLeft profile.jpgMarcel beak.jpgMarcel Carapace.jpgMarcel Plastron.jpgRight Profile.jpg

If anyone familiar with the three varieties could weigh in, I'd really appreciate the help! Marcel is our first tortoise and his vet said she couldn't tell!
 

Littleredfootbigredheart

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2023
Messages
7,679
Location (City and/or State)
UK
There’s not many members that ID the subspecies on here with 100% certainty, the main member who could was @HermanniChris but I don’t think he’s active anymore😕

I think(please don’t quote me on this) you have an eastern Herman here. Hopefully others can weigh in!

Feel free to check out these links if you haven’t already

Great one for new comers

Toms care guide

This is if you have an indoor set up, I made it using the care info above in mind, it covers correct equipment(uvb, heating bulbs, lighting etc, I’d double check bulb types), sizing, appropriately maintaining the humidity, safe substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything, and a really handy diet link to check out!

This includes lots of inspiration for an adult set up both indoors and out!

This one here is good to go over and keep on hand, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying😊

Hope you like them and hope someone else answers your subspecies question, welcome to the forum🐢💚
 

anodyne99

New Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2025
Messages
3
Location (City and/or State)
Oregon
There’s not many members that ID the subspecies on here with 100% certainty, the main member who could was @HermanniChris but I don’t think he’s active anymore😕

I think(please don’t quote me on this) you have an eastern Herman here. Hopefully others can weigh in!

Feel free to check out these links if you haven’t already

Great one for new comers

Toms care guide

This is if you have an indoor set up, I made it using the care info above in mind, it covers correct equipment(uvb, heating bulbs, lighting etc, I’d double check bulb types), sizing, appropriately maintaining the humidity, safe substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything, and a really handy diet link to check out!

This includes lots of inspiration for an adult set up both indoors and out!

This one here is good to go over and keep on hand, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying😊

Hope you like them and hope someone else answers your subspecies question, welcome to the forum🐢💚
Either way, I really appreciate your thoughtful reply and extremely helpful info! I will dive into that asap. Thank you again!
 

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