Which breed is my tortoise?

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laceyjade

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What breed is he/she?

I have been given a tortoise by my neighbour who found it in the field behind our house (we already have a spur thighed)
We dont know which breed it is or its age any suggestions? it measure 4 inches (the shell) has a large tail, spur on each thigh, green/grey coloured shell, underside has black patches, has smiley beak?

I cant seem to attatch the picture anyone know why?
Thanks
 

Yvonne G

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RE: What breed is he/she?

Hi laceyjade:

Since you're in England, I would guess that you have one of the Greek tortoises. But we're going to have to see a picture to tell you for sure.

If you download one of the free picture programs such as tinypic.com or photobucket.com, put your pictures in there, then copy/paste the
 

laceyjade

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RE: What breed is he/she?

jimmy.jpg picture
 
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Akronic

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RE: What breed is he/she?

you dont need a photobucket account or anything like that, rather than posting your comment in the "quick reply" box at the bottom of the screen you can just click "new reply" at the top right of the "quick reply" box. that will take you to another page, scroll to the bottom and you will see an "attachments" tab, click browse, and if you have the pics saved to your Hard Drive you can just upload from there.
 

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GBtortoises said:
Photo is too small to make out any detail, even after downloading.

If you click on the picture it comes up bigger.
 

GBtortoises

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emysemys said:
GBtortoises said:
Photo is too small to make out any detail, even after downloading.

If you click on the picture it comes up bigger.

Yeah I tried that earlier today but it wouldn't open on the computer that I was using. It does now on my laptop. Thanks.



It looks like your tortoise is most likely an Ibera Greek, Testudo (gracea) ibera, based on that one photo. A plastron photo as well as a view straight done on the carapace would help to better identify it.
 

laceyjade

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I have tried to attach some better pictures :)
rorys 098.JPGrorys 097.JPGrorys 094.JPG

Also does anyone now how to tell the sex? :)
 
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laceyjade

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Pictures of my tortoise, which breed?

I have the pictures (above) hopefully you can tell now!

lacey
 

laceyjade

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JoesMum said:
Looks like Testudo Graeca Ibera to me :)

thanks :) I have a testudo graeca greaca too, but only 7 years old
How can I tell his sex do you know?
Lacey
 

JoesMum

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Gender is a problem until they get a bit older. If they lay eggs or 'flash' you, it's pretty obvious. A tortoise penis is "once seen, never forgotten"... it's huge!

Joe mates with everything and anything and has the classic concave plastron (so they don't fall off when mating... think about it ;)). Females have flat plastrons. Joe's tail is also very long and bends to one side. Females have shorter straight tails.

The trouble is that until they're teenagers none of the classic signs are really developed, so it's largely educated guess work.

Hopefully I won't get told off for posting a link to another forum, but this thread is quite good for identifying the difference between Ibera and Graeca How To Tell T. g. graeca from T. g. ibera
 

laceyjade

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Oh ok thankyou for your help :)
I think it may be a boy he is called geoffrey!! so hopefully, his tail is long and to the side and he does have an attraction to my leopard print slipper!! he will mount it or try to eat it!
Amazing yours has reached 50! hopefully geoffey will be around when I have children ole enough to appreciate him!
Sorry to pick your brains, but with the trotoise you identified as estudo graeca do you have any idea how I could estimate his age?
His shell is 4 inches by 3?

Thanks :)
 

JoesMum

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Age is hard to tell. Joe was wild caught (all tortoises in the UK were when he joined the family 42 years ago) and probably grew very slowly for his first few years. Captive bred torts tend to grow more quickly.

Unless you have had a tortoise since it was a hatchling there really is nothing more than guess work. Joe was about the size of Geoffrey (maybe a little smaller) when we got him and now measures 10.5 inches... he could be a lot older than we think, but we'll never know.
 

GeoTerraTestudo

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JoesMum said:
Looks like Testudo Graeca Ibera to me :)

Agreed. I also think it's T. graeca ibera.

BTW - LaceyJade, there are no breeds of tortoise, only species and subspecies. Breeds come about by artificial selection from a single species, and so are quite closely related, e.g. dogs come from wolves, house cats come from wildcats, chickens come from jungle fowl, etc. However, the different types of tortoises out there evolved on their own, without human intervention.
 

laceyjade

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RE: Which species* is my tortoise?

Ah ok :shy: Yea that makes sense! thanks
 
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