How many years does it take for an Aldabra tortoise to be sexually mature?
Laura said:its more by size from what I undertand...
emysemys said:Both of my males displayed last year. They were 10 and around 100lbs.
ALDABRAMAN said:It has been our experience that it is more maturity & size than age & size. One of our best breeder females is 120ish pounds, however is 100+ years old. Our best males exceed 600ish pounds, they are both 100+ years also. We are at odds with young & big aldabra tortoises being able to produce, this is based on our experience over many of years. I have spoke with many of aldabra keepers and breeders that have different opinions on this issue. This species can be very challenging to breed and I only know of few that have had success.
emysemys said:Greg: Is that your poor little 100+lb female under that great big old male in your new avatar?
Not very, 100+ is generic. There is no way to get a true number. We have tortoises from all over, including Bush Gardens, Parrot Jungle, and Life Fellowship. When they got them they were big and mature imports with no knowledge of the exact age. We wish we had hatch dates, my guess they would be way higher than think.zzzdanz said:Hey Greg, how accurate are the ages on such an old tortoise.Are there hatch records that old or are they just kind of ballpark numbers?..It would be awesome to be able to trace them back that far.
Yes. I agree. We can trace back two of our females that belonged to the Godley family in the Seychelles in the early 1900's. However no known age or size at that point. They are both very mature and our two biggest females. We were told several years back at the purchase of one of our biggest males that he was imported from the Seychelles in 1932. Based on his growth change and shell pattern he was way big and mature when he was imported.zzzdanz said:That's what I figured..That's to bad,would be really interesting to see all the who's,what's, and where's of one of them.