Adult?

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flyingsqueak

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When is a russian tortoise considered an adult?

Orrin was most likely wild caught a little over a year ago, spent a few weeks in a petsmart, then spent a year with an extremely neglectful family before coming to me about a week ago. He is 5.5 inches long (I'll have weight and pics later tonight) and has about half an inch of recent indoor growth. Based on all that I'm guessing that he's around 8 years old--but I could be way off.

So when is a russian tortoise considered an adult? I don't want to mistreat him by not providing him with enough humidity if he's still a juvenile, but I also don't want to increase the risk of shell rot by having too much humidity if he doesn't need it.
 

dmmj

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males at that size are usually full grown, they get up to 6 inches, so if he is a male and 5.5 inches then he is close to being full grown.
 

Kristina

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He is more likely closer to 10-12 years of age.

Frankly I keep all of my tortoises in the same humidity levels - high (70-90%) despite their age. As long as they are kept at the appropriate temperatures, it isn't going to hurt them. The only time that higher humidity becomes a danger is if they are allowed to become chilled, and get a respiratory infection.

There are other factors that go into shell rot, such as acidity of the substrate and presence of fungus spores, and over all cleanliness. As long as there is a wqrm basking area where your tort can dry off, there won't be shell rot. I have 14 hatchling, yearling, and juvenile tortoises in DRIPPING wet enclosures - no shell rot. They are Manouria, Sulcatas, Stars, a Redfoot and a Greek.

At that size, a male is more of a sub-adult or adult. They don't really get much larger than that.
 

flyingsqueak

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Thanks!
Since he's a rescue who only had access to rotten food for who knows how long I'm also a bit worried that he might be very underweight.
He's currently exactly 500 grams at 5.5in (140mm). Is that dangerously small? Is there something specific I can feed him to help get him to a healthy weight?

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[/url] IMAG0204 by flyingsqueak, on Flickr[/img]

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[/url] IMAG0091 by flyingsqueak, on Flickr[/img]
 

dmmj

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he looks good when you pick him up he should feel like a rock, not just a shell, If that make sense.
 
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