Yesterday, Xiaobian has made detailed science recommendation examples for the majority of netizens for semi-water turtles and water turtles, and today I will publish a recommended popular science article for tortoises for everyone! Why write tortoises at the end, or put the tortoises at the end is meaningful, because the tortoises in the domestic market with the maturity of the pet market has more and more players begun to contact, but many tortoise species are actually not allowed to be raised or bought and sold according to Chinese laws and regulations, and because of the immature domestic environment and breeding market, most of the tortoise species still need to be imported or even smuggled to be able to buy, so here Xiaobian does not advocate everyone to buy and raise varieties that violate the laws of our country. At the same time, because the continental environment, temperature and other conditions to raise tortoises need to support the equipment is more exquisite than the water turtle and half water turtle, incubator, UVB lights and other equipment is indispensable, so in the economy is not generous or insufficient time friends, Xiaobian suggests that you can prepare for the time being but do not be impulsive, because the probability of tortoises getting sick and dying is much higher than that of water turtles and half water turtles, it takes a lot of time and energy to invest in it, and you can wait until your own conditions permit at the beginning of consideration. In the future, Xiaobian will also give you some suggestions for tortoise farming and common diseases, and I hope you have something worth referring to!
Below, Xiaobian will give you an example of ten common domestic tortoise species, including their habits, characteristics, etc., hoping to give everyone the most intuitive understanding of the tortoise species.
1. Burmese tortoise
Burmese tortoise
Burmese tortoises are one of the most common tortoises in China, and Burmese tortoises are also known as dragon claw turtles, dry turtles, pillow turtles and so on. China is distributed in Guangxi, Yunnan, although in other provinces and cities of the farmers market, pet market often have Burmese tortoises for sale, but they are not produced locally, most of them are imported from Southeast Asia, and then dispersed to various places, in recent years, the depletion of resources has made almost all of the Burmese tortoises dependent on imports and some traders smuggling. Burmese tortoises usually inhabit high humidity teak forests, but have also been observed in open spaces in India in hot, dry conditions. Burmese tortoises inhabit mountains, hills and bushy jungles.
Burmese tortoises are more adaptable and like to eat plants such as melons, fruits, vegetables and so on. Bananas, tomatoes, citrus, etc. are more attractive to them, and in the wild, Burmese tortoises also eat flowers, grasses, wild fruits and fungi, insects, arthropods and mollusks. Burmese tortoise daily sunbathing is also essential, often basking in the sun can effectively prevent bulging, but it should be noted that Burmese tortoises are completely exposed to the sun for more than half an hour and are prone to dehydration and death, so it is necessary to prepare a kettle to replenish water regularly (sunbathing time is not more than half an hour is appropriate). Burmese land belongs to the typical rainforest type tortoise, the utilization rate of sunlight is high, and it does not need too much direct sunlight on a daily basis.
2. Red-legged tortoise
Red-legged tortoise
The red-legged tortoise is the most common species in China except myanmar, because of its lively and adaptable personality, it has become the best choice for many novices. There are two subspecies of the red-legged tortoise, the Colombian red-legged (commonly known as the old red-legged) and the Caribbean island red-legged (commonly known as the cherry-red-legged). The old version of the red-legged individual is larger, and the head has no obvious markings, but after the dorsal carapace grows to a certain extent, there will be an inward measurement depression in the middle (commonly known as: gourd waist). Cherry red legs are small, the head has obvious red markings, and the long back armor does not shrink, but remains oval. Although red-legged tortoises are commonly found in relatively dry grasslands and forested areas, this species also occurs in moist forest environments. There are some divergent views on which habitat is their preferred choice. Walker claims that red-legged tortoises prefer grasslands and dry forested areas, and that there may be only a handful of them preferring rainforest habitats. But other writers claim or argue that wet forests are preferred habitats. Red-legged tortoises feed primarily on grasses, fruits, flowers and small plants. Red-legged tortoises have been reported to eat small amounts of animal-based foods such as carrion in the wild.
3. Leopard tortoise
Leopard tortoise
Leopard tortoises, also known as leopard tortoises, inhabit dry grasslands and bushes, requiring extensive indoor and outdoor activity space. Prefers to live on semi-dry, thorny grasslands. During the hot season, it sleeps in the summer; generally 12-15 years the leopard turtle will reach sexual maturity. Turtles are very capable of laying eggs, and some females can produce 3 or more clutches a season. Leopard tortoises are mostly found in southern Africa and are widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, but they are not found in much of West and Central Africa. Properly reared, leopard tortoises can survive for a long time, even longer than a human lifespan. It is the most famous artificial tortoise species suitable for breeding and breeding in the reptile pet market. Leopard tortoises are herbivorous turtles that feed mainly on a variety of herbs. In the face of danger, they will put their feet and head into their shells to protect themselves, and usually make a hissing sound, probably due to the air being squeezed from the lungs when the limbs and head are withdrawn. Leopard tortoises prefer environments that also require a lot of space. If you circle them in a very small environment, they will lack movement. They are very strong animals, so all the fences have to be locked firmly. Warning: Leopard turtles, including star turtles, are susceptible to herpes infection, and it often causes diseases such as stomatitis and pneumonia. Animals that carry herpes can stay silent for long periods of time, but they are highly contagious and can be transmitted to other animals that come into contact with them.
4. Sulcata tortoise
Sulcata tortoise
The Sulcata tortoise, also known as the Sulcata tortoise and the Sulcata tortoise, is a very active tortoise. Called the tortoise, it is estimated that everyone will understand that this is a turtle that can grow to a large size. And it is a stone turtle in addition to the name! It is found in Ethiopia, Sudan, Senegal, Mali, Chad and other countries in Africa. With a body length of 83 cm and a weight of 105 kg, the Sulcata is the third largest tortoise in the world. The main feature of its appearance is that there are 2 to 3 thick tubercles on the sides of the hind thighs, the head and limbs are ivory to brown, and the front feet are covered with coarse scales. Because Sulcata turtles grow in the southern part of the Sahara Desert in Africa, the area is mostly very dry, and even rarely has a source of water to drink all year round, so the water needed must rely on food, and through highly impermeable skin and digging holes to avoid the sun, to preserve the water in the body. In addition, because they are desert and dry grassland tortoises, they mostly start to move at dusk or early in the morning to avoid the sun and high temperatures during the day. Sulcata turtle is a vegan animal, mainly relying on high-fiber plants, grass, cacti, lettuce, etc. for food, the species is quite stout, active and very easy to raise, the usual eclipse bait to a variety of food supply, and then add a little calcium, phosphorus, vitamins and other nutritional supplements. Excessive provision of animal protein will cause backlifts and eventually liver and kidney diseases, and in order to ensure proper water content in their bodies, it is best to bathe once a week.
5. Herman tortoise
Herman tortoises
Hermann tortoises are one of the representative species of European tortoises, with a strong physique, lively and cheerful personality, a moderate price and a medium-sized body shape, making it a very qualified introductory breed. Herman tortoises have a long lifespan, about 70-80 years of non-hibernation in captivity and about 120 years of hibernation on time. Hibernation is not recommended for raising small turtles up to 5 cm of dorsal carapace. A tortoise that is very suitable for breeding in Chinese mainland and does not have high environmental requirements. Because the difficulty of breeding is very low and the ability to adapt to the environment is very high, it is rare to be raised by the player, so it is recommended to raise small artificial individuals as much as possible. Large wild bodies are more likely to carry herpes pathogens, and parasites. Omnivorous, especially legumes, sometimes preys on earthworms, snails and insects. Northern Africa, Southern Europe and Central Asia, Sardinia, Corsica. The length of the nail shall not exceed 20 centimeters. It has 1 upper hip shield, no large warty scales on the thighs, and 5-10 rows of small scales on the upper margin of the forelimb. Its natural habitat is plant-rich and low-humidity areas in dry grasslands or shrub hilly areas. Adult dorsal carapace is about 15-20 cm in size. A healthy Herman tortoise should be very active and gluttonous, and although each tortoise has a different taste and special preference for food, the phenomenon of eating only one or two more flavorful foods should arouse the vigilance of the keeper, which may be due to problems with the tortoise's digestive system, or the parasites in their bodies may have reached a dangerous order of magnitude.
6. Galapagos tortoise
Galapagos tortoise
Galapagos elephants are the largest tortoises, plant-eating, eating cacti and fruits, pineapples, ferns, leaves and grasses. Can live in a drier environment. It is also a very slow-moving animal, only able to move 260 meters per hour. It is found only on 9 small islands in the Galapagos Islands. There is no condition at home, you can't fit it when you grow up, and the daily cleaning is enough for you to have a headache!
Two of the species' most famous individuals are George the Lone and Diego the Tortoise. Galapagos tortoises are both sexually alien, most notably hermaphroditic in populations of the shell horseback type, with males having more angles and higher anterior openings, allowing them to carry a more extreme appearance. Male turtles of all subspecies generally have a longer tail and shorter concave thickened edges of the shell tail for mating. The Horseback carapace structure of the Galapagos tortoise lives in areas with tall vegetation, such as the Galapagos Cactus, where cacti grow in arid environments where cacti balls grow. Larger Galapagos tortoises are better suited to higher elevations because they can resist slightly cooler and cloudy climates. It generally lives on larger and wetter islands and at lower elevations. Galapagos tortoises migrate seasonally between the rainy and dry seasons, from the grasslands to areas up to 600 metres above sea level. The same migration route has been created by many generations of turtles as a forest passage, which is defined as a "turtle highway". On those rainy islands, turtles with dorsal domes are more gregarious, often found in large groups, saddle-type turtles in relative isolation and solitude in their territories. Listed as a protected animal in the CitesI level of the Washington Convention.
7. Aldabra tortoise
Aldabra tortoise
The Aldabra tortoise is a reptile of the genus Aldabra tortoises in the family Tortoises. More and more people in the domestic market are also trying to raise this tortoise species. The Aldabra tortoise is notoriously skinny, but the price is not affordable for the average player! It feeds on plants and sometimes eats dead animals. The maximum length of the form is 105 cm. Its body shape is second only to that of the elephant tortoise, and its nostrils are longitudinally elongated. It is widely distributed in the land area of Aldabra Island. Each litter can lay 12-14 eggs. oviparous. Female turtles can lay 9-25 eggs the size of a tennis ball, which hatch in about 98-200 days.
The main population of Aldabra tortoises lives on the Aldabra Islands in the Seychelles. Because the Aldabra Tortoise Islands are protected, with less human influence, there are about 100,000 Aldabra tortoises on the island, the largest population in the world. Another aquatic population of species lives near the Zanzibar, Mauritius and Rodrigues Island Park Reserves, and this group of turtles is also only kept in captivity. The Aldabra tortoises on the market are all individuals who are legally imported for artificial breeding. The hue of the whole body color is black, with a tall, round, black and bright back armor, and the momentum of walking is like the king of the tortoise, although the unit price is higher, but the popularity is still undiminished. Tortoises are only one of the longest-lived animals on earth, and Aldabra tortoises are thought to live an average of more than 200 years, but this is difficult to verify because they tend to live longer than their observers.
8. Indian star-spotted tortoise
Indian star-spotted tortoise
Indian star-spotted tortoise Chinese name: Indian star turtle, distributed in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Iraq and other places. Star turtles are also the smallest species in the family Geochelone. According to the thickness of the pattern, it can be divided into Indian star turtle and Sri Lanka star turtle. The tortoises are found in semi-arid grasslands and can be found in areas with high rainfall, such as India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Indian star turtles prefer to inhabit flat grasslands, and given their habits of living in grassland areas, they are allowed to stock in places mixed with a variety of plants. They like to eat fruits, spiny cacti, plants with thick stems and leaves, and thistles. Domestic indian star turtles can have adverse effects if fed too many succulent plants, such as lettuce, lettuce, tomatoes, and juicy fruits, but in fact, this tortoise requires coarse, high-fiber foods. Excessive juicy fruits and soft foods are prone to gastrointestinal diseases, such as accelerated gastrointestinal motility leading to diarrhea. Males and females are easy to distinguish, males are small and narrow, and the ventral carapace is obviously concave; Females are large in size with flat ventral carapace. The male has a thick tail and the female has a short, fat tail.
9. Radiation tortoises
Radiation tortoises
Radiation tortoise, also known as radiation tortoise, is a very beautiful pattern of turtles, anyone who sees it for the first time will be shocked by its gorgeous pattern, in recent years in the climbing pet market popularity is very high, although a large number of imports, but the price is still high. The radioactive tortoise is one of the rarest tortoises in the world. In the Guinness Book of World Records, Captain Cook of the United Kingdom gave a radiant turtle to the king of the Kingdom of Dongka in 1777 AD, and it lived until 1965 to die, at the age of 188. Radioactive tortoises are terrestrial tropical turtles that prefer to live in the wild on dry land, surrounded by bushy jungles, low plants, and euphorbia plants. When the ambient temperature is 22 °C, it can eat normally; at 38 °C, due to the high temperature, the turtle also moves less and eats less. The turtle's optimal adaptation temperature tail is 22 °C-35 °C. The radioactive tortoise is docile and does not bite, and when the tortoise is placed in its hand, the turtle probes the brain and sticks out its tongue to look around, and if fed, it will soon be able to eat on its own. The turtle's sense of touch and smell is more sensitive than that of vision and hearing. After a long period of captivity, the turtles can identify the orientation and return to their turtle society every day. Radiation tortoises are predominantly herbivorous animals. Excessive animal protein must be avoided, and any red food for radiant turtles is extremely tempting. The meals provided should include: fresh leafy greens (sweet potato leaves, dandelions, alfalfa, chicory ...). etc.), fruit (10-20%), pasture, occasionally supplemented with tortoise feed.
10. Marginal tortoise
Marginal tortoise
Marginal tortoise, 30 cm to 35 cm. Weighing about 5 kg, the male turtle is larger than the female turtle, the male turtle features a concave abdominal carapace, a thick and long tail, the habitat area is mainly mountainous, the living height is about 1600 meters, their body size and body color are changed in response to alpine life, and the black back armor is useful, because the black back carapace is to be able to quickly absorb heat energy during the short rays of the sun to help them maintain the temperature in the body. The most important food of the marginal tortoise is weeds and Asteraceae, but wild marginal tortoises, between the juvenile stage and sub-adults, they will often prey on snails and earthworms, and the closer they get to adults, the more plant-based they tend to eat. This is a more adaptable species and less sensitive to changes in food and the environment. They have the same feeding habits as the average European tortoise. As long as it is properly raised, reproduction is very easy. Yuanqiao does not like to drink water, so it is enough to supply vegetables and fruits with higher water content.