Tortoise length

Hello, I'm wondering what's the proper way to messure a big tortoise? What I do is flip them over and measure from the bottom of there shell near the head to the bottom of there top shell. However you you just measure from one end to the other end of the bottom shell then my tortoise are smaller than I say.

Thanks for any information.

Go old school. Paper and pen, sit tort in paper, trace around shell, and mark where head is. Allows you to see the total shell growth

Blackdog1714 said:

Go old school. Paper and pen, sit tort in paper, trace around shell, and mark where head is. Allows you to see the total shell growth

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I do a slightly modified version of this:

• put a sheet of paper on the floor by a wall
• put your tortoise on the paper, head facing the wall as close to perpendicular as possible
• (gently) push your tortoise against the wall so that shell is in contact
• holding pen/pencil straight up and down, mark where the end of the shell is
• measure the paper from where it touched the wall to where your tortoise's shell ended
• give your tortoise a treat for being so well behaved

I think there are lots of ways to measure a tortoise, the most important thing is to do it the same every time, so you can accurately track change over time.

Jamie

Nah I mean a big tortoise, to big for a place of paper. He is an adult sulcata and weighs 285 pounds so I also cant move him to a wall....

jsheffield said:

I do a slightly modified version of this:

• put a sheet of paper on the floor by a wall
• put your tortoise on the paper, head facing the wall as close to perpendicular as possible
• (gently) push your tortoise against the wall so that shell is in contact
• holding pen/pencil straight up and down, mark where the end of the shell is
• measure the paper from where it touched the wall to where your tortoise's shell ended
• give your tortoise a treat for being so well behaved

I think there are lots of ways to measure a tortoise, the most important thing is to do it the same every time, so you can accurately track change over time.

Jamie

Click to expand...

waswondering said:

Nah I mean a big tortoise, to big for a place of paper. He is an adult sulcata and weighs 285 pounds so I also cant move him to a wall....

Click to expand...

ooops, sorry.

J

No problem. I'm the reason I'm looking is because I have some 80 pounders I'm thinking of selling and when I look up how much they normally go for it always says there length and price not how much they weigh. So idk how much there worth.

jsheffield said:

ooops, sorry.

J

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I'm positive some of the keepers with large torts will chime in shortly... I'm interested now, and will follow.

J