NewTortEnthusiast
Active Member
Hello all. 4 days ago I had purchased two small sulcata tortoises. Both of which are about as big as
a base ball. I bought them from a close neighbor for really cheap because I am his neighbor, who in hindsight isnt a very good sulcata breeder. He had shown me most of his sulcatas, from hatchlings to small juveniles all the way huge tanks. How he was handling things wasnt necesarrily horrible, just disorganized. He had no system of tracking what age group each individual tortoise belongs to. He also over fed some of his oldest tortoises and a few juveniles with some real narly pyramiding; but that was only like 3 so mistakes happen.
My two tortoises are named Steve and George (will change name when sex is finally determined for sure).
What HE TOLD ME WAS the pair are roughly 2 years old. I do not believe him one bit. Regardless of this obvious confusion I purchased these two because I liked how each of them look, aside from some additional issues. Both of them have slight pyramiding already which I am afraid of, since they are obviously not 2 years old if they are about the size of a base ball. I have yet to weigh them and need to purchase a digital scale to get real accurate weight measurements.
My real questions are: how old are my tortoises realistically? Did the breeder really underfeed them or give them a really poor diet? Are they stunted? Or does he have no idea what he is doing?? Ive looked around and compared mine to genuine 2 year olds and yearlings and even 6 month olds and I am still confused; based on the age he gave me. The breeder is flat out wrong about the ages of Steve and George right?...
I care about their health and am paranoid if this is all just purely confusion and he lost track of time, or if they are seriously stunted, yet there is pyramiding and im confused.
Please help.
a base ball. I bought them from a close neighbor for really cheap because I am his neighbor, who in hindsight isnt a very good sulcata breeder. He had shown me most of his sulcatas, from hatchlings to small juveniles all the way huge tanks. How he was handling things wasnt necesarrily horrible, just disorganized. He had no system of tracking what age group each individual tortoise belongs to. He also over fed some of his oldest tortoises and a few juveniles with some real narly pyramiding; but that was only like 3 so mistakes happen.
My two tortoises are named Steve and George (will change name when sex is finally determined for sure).
What HE TOLD ME WAS the pair are roughly 2 years old. I do not believe him one bit. Regardless of this obvious confusion I purchased these two because I liked how each of them look, aside from some additional issues. Both of them have slight pyramiding already which I am afraid of, since they are obviously not 2 years old if they are about the size of a base ball. I have yet to weigh them and need to purchase a digital scale to get real accurate weight measurements.
My real questions are: how old are my tortoises realistically? Did the breeder really underfeed them or give them a really poor diet? Are they stunted? Or does he have no idea what he is doing?? Ive looked around and compared mine to genuine 2 year olds and yearlings and even 6 month olds and I am still confused; based on the age he gave me. The breeder is flat out wrong about the ages of Steve and George right?...
I care about their health and am paranoid if this is all just purely confusion and he lost track of time, or if they are seriously stunted, yet there is pyramiding and im confused.
Please help.
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