Hi I was wondering if there was a way for you to find out the age of a tortoise I have been told sheldon is 5 but the old owner was not able to tell me his date of birth
Any help would be appreciated = )
Any help would be appreciated = )
Age of a tortoise
- Thread starter louisensheldon
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He was born December 09, 2006. Hey tomorrow is his birthday! Actually, there's really no way to tell. Pick a date.
You can't be that accurate, but could estimate it based on species, size, environment (i.e. wc vs. cb), etc. when the tortoise is still young and growing. But heck when the tortoise reach maturity, who could tell whether it's 25 yrs old or 55 yrs old unless you know its history?
Thats true, no real way to know unless the breeder can tell u, most u can get is usually an estimated age then just pick a hatch date based on that
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If there's still growth rings, count the amount of rings on each scute. The general rule is one ring per year. However, after about 13-15 years, it's almost impossible to tell how old they are because they've stopped growing. A 50 year old tort could have just 15 rings. I got this info from a herpetology graduate student at UAB, she's doing research on tortoises so 
it's probably right.
it's probably right.Thank you for all the feedback wasn't sure if you could unfortunately I have no history I bought him from a friend at work who had a small wooden box with some crap lights on so he didn't have uv or a basking light so the vet said he is also small for his age due to lack of this aw well I will just make his birthday the day I got him but thanks again
but thanks again
Talka said:If there's still growth rings, count the amount of rings on each scute. The general rule is one ring per year. However, after about 13-15 years, it's almost impossible to tell how old they are because they've stopped growing. A 50 year old tort could have just 15 rings. I got this info from a herpetology graduate student at UAB, she's doing research on tortoises so
...ummm I hate to be the bearer of bad news but ring tally will NOT give you even a close estimate of age!
Depending on weather, food, illness and any one of a dozen differant reasons, a tortoise will have several growth rings in a year.
In the last year WalkingRock has had 4 growth cycles, the year before he had 3 and each growth cycle will leave a new ring. At this time in his life, WalkingRock is 11 yrs old and his current ring count is 25+, some are so close together its hard to count. Since Cathie has had WR since the day he hatched, we do know his history and his Hatchdate.... we're pretty certain he's not 25+ yrs old.
Sorry, but unless you know the history of your tortoise you can only guess at the age.
Growth rings... actually you are both sort of right.
Tortoises develop growth rings almost exactly like trees do. Good growth periods- wider rings. Poor growth periods- skinny rings. This usually reflects the natural patterns of their home range- Red-footeds, for example, have wide rings in the wet season and skinny ones in the dry.
However, even in the wild, it is not as simple as 1 ring per season. Local climatic conditions, food availability, etc. affect them- adding additional rings or preventing new ones, and hatchlings seem to add them more rapidly than adults.
So- within a given population, growth rings can be used to determine which animals are older and guess at age since they will all add rings at the same rate- but it won't work reliably when comparing animals from different areas, and it does not apply at all to captive animals that are not exposed to naturalistic growing seasons.
Tortoises develop growth rings almost exactly like trees do. Good growth periods- wider rings. Poor growth periods- skinny rings. This usually reflects the natural patterns of their home range- Red-footeds, for example, have wide rings in the wet season and skinny ones in the dry.
However, even in the wild, it is not as simple as 1 ring per season. Local climatic conditions, food availability, etc. affect them- adding additional rings or preventing new ones, and hatchlings seem to add them more rapidly than adults.
So- within a given population, growth rings can be used to determine which animals are older and guess at age since they will all add rings at the same rate- but it won't work reliably when comparing animals from different areas, and it does not apply at all to captive animals that are not exposed to naturalistic growing seasons.
Will growth rings be the same for all torts in a given wild herd? (given multiple growth cycles a year)
Growth rings are not a reliable source of aging a tortoise.
Tortoise absolutely continue to grow beyond age 15
They do not perform the same as a tree in rings
There are a multitude of studies that support these statements
Although it is fun to wrangle your tort and put on the old lady glasses doubled with a magnifying glass and try to keep count...lol
Tortoise absolutely continue to grow beyond age 15
They do not perform the same as a tree in rings
There are a multitude of studies that support these statements
Although it is fun to wrangle your tort and put on the old lady glasses doubled with a magnifying glass and try to keep count...lol
U can not guess how old ur tort..
But, u sure can know his birthday if u buy it straightly from the breeders who know exactly when their bron..
But, u sure can know his birthday if u buy it straightly from the breeders who know exactly when their bron..
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