So I have a juvenile Desert, about 5-6 years old. I literally rescued him from an idiot kid.
Some of his background story is possibly several generations of inbreeding so i'm a bit worried about him.
He seems so small with very little growth.
I'd say he's about 4 1/4" long. Is that small for his age?
I don't know what size a tort should be for the age, but I did read a thread that a experience tort guy did that show two torts that were the same age but one had restricted food and one was feed quite a bit and the one who was feed well was twice the size as the one with the restricted diet. I don't know if this helps but I hope it does.
I found this at
http://www.blm.gov/az/asfo/wildlife/tortoise.htm
Their study was on wild Desert Torts but...
"Tortoises grow to about 100 mm in the first five years, at which time the shell is nearly ossified, and sexual maturity is estimated at between 12 and 20 years of age. Growth is related to forage quality and availability. Tortoises which grow faster become less vulnerable to predation at a younger age. Tortoises which grow faster become sexually mature sooner than slow growing tortoises. A decrease in growth rates during adolescence could significantly reduce the lifetime production of eggs of a female, thereby lowering recruitment."
Hope that helps.
Kyris
I know this is an old post, but I had to respond. Captive desert tortoises grow significantly faster than wild torts because they have food availability for extended periods of the year. Wild tortoises typically only get to gorge themselves for about 4-6 weeks per year (on average), whereas captive tortoises will eat daily for as long as they're not hibernating (8-9 months or so). What this does to growth rates is quite dramatic. I've attached a picture of a tortoise in my wild study group (photographed in early June '08) that will be five years old sometime in August or September. As you can see, he's about as big as a typical 6-month old captive desert tortoise:
WOW- that is crazy!!! Thanks for sharing,