help with age and sex

[pappabear1973]

Ok, when we rescued her from craigslist, we were told she was two. We got her from a kid that thought his RES was boring so got her to think she was more boring. I will iCloud photo of tail, top shell bottom shell face and claws. Weight, under a pound so unsure. She'll length is five inches, width four inches and height treo and a half inches. I counted eleven rings on her shell. So I know if she was a RES turtle she would be ten. Not sure how to tell on this girl. Was told she was two. Either ways, I'm sure she is a adult and think it is a she. Can any one help. Thanks.

 

[Yvonne G]

She looks to be full grown, so I'd say probably 15yrs. or older.

 

[Tom]

Female. Nice shell with current new growth happening. Judging by her size, growth, and shell appearance, I would guess her to be 3-5 years old and not quite fully mature yet.

She looks like she was well cared for and she appears to be in good shape. Maybe the kid did an okay job (or his parents did) despite the pet being "boring".

 

[pappabear1973]

The first owners made a nice smaller table pen. But very nice with hide out. Cuttle binge. Water dish. Food dish and log. Heat lamp. Substrate was wood chips. So not bad. But hopefully better with me for a long life. Thanks.

 

[pappabear1973]

Any one else with a good guess on age. How about which class of Russian. Thank you.

 

[biochemnerd808]

Looks like a classic horsfieds, (the kazachstani subgroup is more flat and round). And I agree that it's likely a female. The new growth looks nice and smooth. Congrats on getting her!
There is no way to know for sure how old she is, since Russian torts don't have yearly growth rings like trees. Their size depends so much on what environment they grew up in, and most pet store tortoises (assuming the previous owner got her at the pet store) have been wild caught. I would say somewhere between 10 and 20 years? Thankfully RTs live for 80+ years with proper care, so it doesn't matter exactly how old she is...

It looks like her eyelids might be a little swollen - do you have bark chips all over the enclosure? They usually end up being too dry... have you considered using another substrate such as coconut coir (Eco Earth) or top soil? Those substrates hold humidity better, and tortoises always LOVE burrowing down into their substrate.

Ok, when we rescued her from craigslist, we were told she was two. We got her from a kid that thought his RES was boring so got her to think she was more boring. I will iCloud photo of tail, top shell bottom shell face and claws. Weight, under a pound so unsure. She'll length is five inches, width four inches and height treo and a half inches. I counted eleven rings on her shell. So I know if she was a RES turtle she would be ten. Not sure how to tell on this girl. Was told she was two. Either ways, I'm sure she is a adult and think it is a she. Can any one help. Thanks.

 

[pappabear1973]

Thank you for the reply. Yes her current home does have bark mix. I am almost done building her new home. I hope to have her all set up in it by weeks end. I have a bag of play sand and for coir bricks to mix with it fit her new substrate in it. I will add some top soil if needed. I did not really notice the eye, buy had noted the skin appeared dry. I have allowed her to bath. What a poppy need. Lol. Thank you

 

[biochemnerd808]

If you plan to add playsand, when folks tell you to do a 50/50 mix, it's by dry weight. So for 1 brick of coco coir, you end up only adding about 1 cup of sand. Anything beyond that is too much, and will start causing problems...
I used to mix in sand, but then found that I like just straight-up coco coir or straight-up ACE topsoil better.

Thank you for the reply. Yes her current home does have bark mix. I am almost done building her new home. I hope to have her all set up in it by weeks end. I have a bag of play sand and for coir bricks to mix with it fit her new substrate in it. I will add some top soil if needed. I did not really notice the eye, buy had noted the skin appeared dry. I have allowed her to bath. What a poppy need. Lol. Thank you

 

[pappabear1973]

Thank you very much for that bit of info. I was going to work on that tonight. Sure glad you posted this. Thank you.