What species is my Turtie?

Question

Hey I have 2 new family members! There only 5 months old.
Please can somebody confirm what type of tortoise they are?!

I think they are ´´Sulcatas´´ but I'm not sure.

Heres some blury pics of one of them...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y102/emrt/P1010032.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y102/emrt/P1010040.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y102/emrt/P1010041.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y102/emrt/P1010038.jpg

Any advice apricated!!

Thanks Fantozzi..

Yer sorry bout the blur! I would try again but I want to leave them to settle in there new home.

The lady that had them, ended up with 17 by mistake!! ..

She bought a house last year, the couple that owned it said to her.. dont be surprised if you find tortoises in the garden, I have a breeding pair and I dont know if shes laid eggs!!

So she bought the house and months later found the garden floor moving!!

Shes been giving them away to people she knows well.

Iv done alot of research on the net, and asked advice in the pet shop on what to feed and by pIus, Iv owned reptiles before no not completly lost.

But any extra advice will be great!!

REPLY TO FIRESIDE MESSAGE: Just like to say that we live in Spain and there is no such thing as a Tortoise Rescue centre out here, they have there pet shops and thats it! So what was she to do? Plus as horrified as this might make u (and I do understand/agree) they sell Sulcatas in pet shops.. bigger they are bigger the price (normally about 1500€) she didnt just hand them out to any tom dick or harry she handed them over to friends that she felt would care for them properly. With todays day and age the internet and the vet should be enough to make sure we have the knolege to make sure there looked after correctly. Last of all if they are Sulcatas it will not be a problem for us as we have the room that they will need. And will contact experts (Either a vet or over the net expert) if we do find our selfs stuck and after advice. We have owned/cared for more diffrent animals for more years than I care to remeber. No harm in spending along time learning about a new one!!

Answer 1

They COULD be G. sulcata, or they could be T. graeca, or something else. How are we to know for sure from the pictures? I'm afraid that if you want someone to identify them, you are going to have to provide suitable pictures for the task of making an identification ( with better lighting ).

Regardless, it appears to be a species of tortoise, not common turtle "terrapene", and should not be handed out by this other lady to any Tom, Dick, or Harriet. They require special care that most people are not willing to purchase, on top of the fact that they can live over 100 years. The lady who gave it to you should contact a Tortoise/reptile rescue in her area right away and they should be given to people familiar with their care.

If these are T. sulcata, do you know that when grown they can be 2 or more ft. in diameter, 3 ft. in length, weigh well over 100 lbs. ( some 200 lbs. ), and that they burrow under your fences and house foundation? They require significant investment.

An ex of mine wanted sulcatas until I took her to the home of a Turtle and Tortoise Conservation Society member who had male/female pair. They were 8 and 6 years old respectively, housed in a portable storage shed about 6x8ft. for the night ( with 250 watt Infrared heat lamps to provide the night time heat they would have in Africa ), allowed to roam the backyard with dogs by day, the backyard perimeter was edged with vertical 4x4" square post driven several ft. down to prevent tunneling under the fence or house...and the younger female at 6 years old weighed more than my ex. did....she then decided to try getting into box turtles instead.

http://www.anapsid.org/sulcata.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~rednine/sulcatacare.html

Answer 2

you are right!!they are blurry pictures... if they are black and tan which is kind of what it looks like then you have leopard tortoises. and if so i would be glad if i were you since leopards are a lot smaller than sulcatas. i would look up tortoise care and check pictures on there and make sure that you are taking care of them properly since wherever you got them didnt know what to call them they probably didnt know how to care for them either

Answer 3

Looks like a Greek or Hermanns. Here is a photo that looks a lot like yours: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/world_of_turtles/Greek_Tortoises_-_Testudo_ibera/index.html

Whereas here is a Sulcata: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/world_of_turtles/Sulcata_Tortoises_-_Geochelone_sulcata/index.html

Answer 4

they look like hermon tortoises... i have a horsefield tortoise which looks a bit like that but it has a bumpier shell.