Sexing Hermanns

[jeweled lady]

I think Squirtle is your male. Like the others, I think you have one of each species. To be sure we need a close up of the back end of the shell please.

[purplepixie]

Mixing species is not a good idea. Not recommended by most experienced keepers:0(
Graecas can tend to stress, a lot more than hermans, and can have signs of RNS if they get too stressed.
I have kept graecas for quite a few years, and always keep them seperated from my iberas.

[AnythingWithAShell]

Are you absolutely sure both of your certificates state Testudo hermanni? How could a breeder get a cert stating a completely different species than the tort it's for? How could a breeder not know (or appear to not know....)?

Do let us know how you get on with speaking to the appropriate breeder, I'm very curious

If you decide not to keep both (if you can't provide for them separately) then you should get your money back from the breeder who sold you a completely different species with an incorrect certificate.

[JMJRL]

Hi, thanks everyone for your help.

Here's a picture of the back end of Squirtle, best pictures I can get for now:





And yeah, I've just read up on graeca tortoises. Thanks.

[terrypin]

hi your first tortoise you have labelled squirtle is a hermann probably boettgeri.the second tortoise pictures blastoise is graeca graeca and the plastrol markings have developed so im sure it is at least 6 months old.i keep and breed both these.although i have kept hatchlings mixed in the past i have found they do much better and grow much smoother when raised seperately because it is easier to control their diet .i absolutely dont reccomend you mix them as adults particularly with graeca graeca involved.they are very prone to runny nose syndrome and this can be avoided by keeping them seperately.also all the graeca species tend to butt and batter their females whereas hermanni are biters with relatively thinner shells which cant take this sort of treatment.hermanni males will easily draw blood from biting if allowed access to a graeca female.mixing adults from the different species or even sub species will most likely result in nasty injuries which can eventually prove fatal.
terry

[JMJRL]

Well a few days ago I inspected Blastoise's certificate further as i was comparing it to Squirtle's cert. And weirdly, it says this "Testudo Hermanni" was hatched in Jan 2010, but I only got Blastoise in Sept, in which it was one month old for sure. When i got Blastoise, the breeder had a nine month old baby sitting with it too. So, worried that i'd been given the wrong cert, I immediately emailed the breeder that I got Blastoise from and told him my concern. I thought maybe the breeder had accidentally mixed up the right cert with the 9 month olds? So he emailed back saying he'd sort all this out for me etc.

And yes, I've emailed Blastoise's breeder (Who alot of people on here are telling me looks Graeca) my concerns etc. If it turns out that it's definitely Graeca then i plan to ask for my money back (keeping the tort as i'm now attached) or something along those lines. Grrrr.

[boxman]

39 years experience health checking tortoises tells me that breeders guess in advance the numbers to be hatched, apply for certificates, and use them on any old thing if they have some spare.
Seen some wonderful claims about species in my time

[JMJRL]

Originally Posted by terrypin

hi your first tortoise you have labelled squirtle is a hermann probably boettgeri.the second tortoise pictures blastoise is graeca graeca and the plastrol markings have developed so im sure it is at least 6 months old.i keep and breed both these.although i have kept hatchlings mixed in the past i have found they do much better and grow much smoother when raised seperately because it is easier to control their diet .i absolutely dont reccomend you mix them as adults particularly with graeca graeca involved.they are very prone to runny nose syndrome and this can be avoided by keeping them seperately.also all the graeca species tend to butt and batter their females whereas hermanni are biters with relatively thinner shells which cant take this sort of treatment.hermanni males will easily draw blood from biting if allowed access to a graeca female.mixing adults from the different species or even sub species will most likely result in nasty injuries which can eventually prove fatal.
terry

Yeah, Blastoise is 6, nearly 7 months old now. Well I plan to keep them apart now i'm just very dissapointed that this breeder seems to have sold me a different species to what I asked for and he told me it was...

Thank you for letting me know all this about graeca.

[JMJRL]

The reply i got from Blastoise's breeder was "No, I only breeds Hermanns always have. Never kept any other tortoises."

...Now i'm even more confused?!

[AnythingWithAShell]

Originally Posted by JMJRL

The reply i got from Blastoise's breeder was "No, I only breeds Hermanns always have. Never kept any other tortoises."

...Now i'm even more confused?!

Try not to be confused, I think you've just fallen prey to a not very great breeder...

Incidentally, do your certs state they were born in UK? I've seen 'wholesalers' try to pass themselves off as breeders in the past, going unnoticed until someone studies the certs and discovers the tort/s were not born in this country. In these cases, people have often had misidentified torts as well.

Why not recommend they come on here, and learn about what they are breeding?