How can I tell the age of my RT?

[Tort-Rex]

Since we got Rex, my RT, at Petsmart, we do not know the age of him. Also, the worker did not say anything about his age and said he was definitely a female, even though I found out HE is definitely a "he". So, I don't really think they would know anyway.
So, I was just wondering, how, if there is a way, can I tell the age of my Russian tortoise?

 

[lismar79]

Not really without a hatch date. If over 4" he is an adult & can be 4 to 10 years or even older. I got mine at ps too & was told she was a baby....so I have dubbed her 8yrs old since there's no way to know

 

[naturalman91]

you can't tell unless you have a exact date or month of hatch

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

It's very hard to tell the age of an RT without their hatch date! You can roughly estimate by counting the growth rings on their marginals (outer ring of scutes) but there's really no way to your torts EXACT age.

 

[smarch]

Franklin's from petco, I too had this question, someone here told me 5 was a good number to go by for estimate purposes, so his adoption day is also his birthday, so we just had his second "gotcha day" and his 7th birthday.

My petco was smart enough to actually give me a male, the worker even double checked with another worker! they don't feed them entirely properly but do at least know some stuff when it comes to reptiles at my petco (we have no local owned pet shops anywhere close!)

 

[dmmj]

Hold on let me check my magic 8 ball.
"answer cloudy ask again"
"answer cloudy ask again"
"answer cloudy ask again"
I keep getting the same answer.
There is no way to know without a hatch date, they are just guesses otherwise.

 

[StaceyJ]

We just guessed at 3yrs old'ish and will have a 'greens' cake on the day we got him.

 

[Tom]

They can live for 100 years or more, so whether they are 4 or 40, doesn't really matter. I say, just enjoy your tortoise whatever his age.

 

[Tort-Rex]

Thanks for all your replies, I love him even if he is older than I would have expected. His age doesn't really matter to me, I was just wondering