Estimate my tort's age?

[Squirt the Dalmation]

Hey everyone,

I know from searching through many discussions/threads here, and Other internet sources that there is no definitive way to age a tortoise without having had them since hatchling. However, for various care providing purposes, I feel like having a rough guess, may be helpful for him.

Here's the little info I was given by the 'pet store', Underground Reptiles: he is wild caught, and they estimated the age at 5-6 years. However, the age I don't trust for 2 reasons: they didn't even know the gender, and they gave me all wrong supplies for the enclosure (found this out thanks to Tom).

His name is Crush. He is about 5-6 inches long (shell). I am attaching a few pictures of him. If someone needs a different picture, additional measurements, or anything, please just let me know!

 

[Yvonne G]

It's tough to tell on russions because most of them are wild caught (rough shell). My guess on this one is ten years.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

He could easily be 10+, yeah chain pet stores suck when it comes to care advice, especially for torts it seems
May I ask how you house/plan to house him? Always nice to check in with newer members

What are your temperatures like all over? Ie basking temp(directly under the bulb), overall day temps(middle and cooler side), night temps?
What kind of basking bulb do you use? Packaging photos are good if you have any
Do you use indoor uv? If so what kind?
How’s humidity?
What kind of monitoring do you have?
What kind of things are you offering diet wise?

A photo of the full enclosure would be great if willing to share! Welcome to the forum!

 

[SinLA]

oof that gal/guy's shell is beat to sh#@. He or she has been banged around a lot. Glad they hopefully ended up in a good home.

Can you share your setup?

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

oof that gal/guy's shell is beat to sh#@. He or she has been banged around a lot. Glad they hopefully ended up in a good home.

Can you share your setup?

It definitely tells a journey! Some of those dinks look over 5 years old to me, hence the age estimate, it’s funny they guess the age so low in stores!

 

[SinLA]

It definitely tells a journey! Some of those dinks look over 5 years old to me, hence the age estimate, it’s funny they guess the age so low in stores!

The don’t, they simply tell everyone they are “about a year” because that’s what sells the most

 

[TammyJ]

Can we see some plastron pictures showing the tail? And welcome to the forum!

 

[Squirt the Dalmation]

It's tough to tell on russions because most of them are wild caught (rough shell). My guess on this one is ten years.

Thank you!

 

[Squirt the Dalmation]

Can we see some plastron pictures showing the tail? And welcome to the forum!

He has a piece of lettuce on his tail, oof! He's a rascal for sure.

 

[Squirt the Dalmation]

oof that gal/guy's shell is beat to sh#@. He or she has been banged around a lot. Glad they hopefully ended up in a good home.

Can you share your setup?

I have a picture of the original setup, but since I've changed the ramp bowl to a terracotta bowl, and added a larger upside down terracotta bowl for basking because I'm having trouble finding a flat stone/rock for now. Suggestions on that would be great! No picture of recent changes because he's asleep.
Also now have a lamp stand, and moved the food dish into his 'bedroom' because the heat was drying up the greens really fast. See pictures. Also in process of building a bigger enclosure. Should be done by Sunday night! With a third even larger enclosure coming after that after I've nailed down all the necessities and placements of everything.

 

[TammyJ]

He's a boy.

 

[Squirt the Dalmation]

He could easily be 10+, yeah chain pet stores suck when it comes to care advice, especially for torts it seems
May I ask how you house/plan to house him? Always nice to check in with newer members

What are your temperatures like all over? Ie basking temp(directly under the bulb), overall day temps(middle and cooler side), night temps?
What kind of basking bulb do you use? Packaging photos are good if you have any
Do you use indoor uv? If so what kind?
How’s humidity?
What kind of monitoring do you have?
What kind of things are you offering diet wise?

A photo of the full enclosure would be great if willing to share! Welcome to the forum!

Alot of stuff is in process right now. I ordered several things based on a member Tom sending me what he uses. I have a 65w flood light for basking. A ceramic heating element. Dual lamp lamp stand. Two thermostats (one for basking bulb area and one for ambient heat) but I am waiting on the two bulb holders which come Monday unfortunately because the pet store gave me a dual bulb holder and said that was all I needed.
He is currently in a 3' by 2' enclosure, again because of the reptile store. However he will have a ~2.5' by 4' enclosure by Sunday night that I'm in the process of building. The new enclosure will allow me to start regulating the humidity inside because it won't have an open area on top. A.k.a. seperate basking from ambient heat and humidity will both be address around Monday mid day. I would love some suggestions on how to control humidity now that he'll have a completely closed enclosure. P.S. I shared some initial setup pictures in a reply to another forum member, hope those give you a starting point.
Next thing I'd like to address is that I already know he ultimately needs a 4' by 8' enclosure, and that comes next on the list, but I wanted to build him something slightly larger and to better overall temp/humidity conditions as fast as possible first. And my first custom enclosure is being made in such a way that it can/will be modified to become the 4x8!
Lastly his diet. So far I have organic Dandelion greens, organic spring mix (both supplemented with repti-cal calcium + vitamin and repti-cal herpavite. Plus I got him some Mazuri tortoise diet LS pellets that I soak for some added fiber. I wanted to get some flowers/succulents/cacti but I'm struggling to find a nurse that doesn't use pesticides/insecticides for now. I haven't even had him a week.
I'm trying to absorb all the indo I can so that as quickly as possible I can ensure he is happy, healthy and thriving because I know I adopted (bought) him from not so great conditions at the reptile store. I had intended on getting all my setup figured out somewhat first, but I could just tell he wasn't doing well so some spontaneity factored in quickly.....

 

[Squirt the Dalmation]

Can one of you guys, or anyone I suppose, suggest substrate for him? I was suggested to get orchid bark, however I think the one I chose isn't good because the pieces are very large and I feel like it may make it difficult for him to dig at his size. He loves to dig/burrow! So I want to make sure I pick something that is a) correct for him, and b) conducive to what he likes (digging)!

 

[Anastasia 22]

Hello and welcome!
I believe, you can get plants from the nurseries but it will take time before you can feed them to your tortoise. I'm pretty sure your boy wouldn't eat anything that contains pesticides or other chemicals ("wild caughts" are smart enough about food).

 

[Squirt the Dalmation]

Hello and welcome!
I believe, you can get plants from the nurseries but it will take time before you can feed them to your tortoise. I'm pretty sure your boy wouldn't eat anything that contains pesticides or other chemicals ("wild caughts" are smart enough about food).

I totally get that, I just don't know if I want to risk it. I was in love before I left the store. He's my baby now Plus I'm a little nervous because of the shell dings (damage) and before we left the store, they had to remove a tick too. I didn't know anything got ticks except humans, dogs, and cats!

 

[Anastasia 22]

Tick!!! That is just wow....
You wouldn't risk if you give the plants time to get cleaned from chemicals I got my small rose bushes last May, and it's cleaned by now, so my Russians enjoy the fresh flowers.
I hope your boy will get better

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Can one of you guys, or anyone I suppose, suggest substrate for him? I was suggested to get orchid bark, however I think the one I chose isn't good because the pieces are very large and I feel like it may make it difficult for him to dig at his size. He loves to dig/burrow! So I want to make sure I pick something that is a) correct for him, and b) conducive to what he likes (digging)!

Hi!
Bark on the photos doesn't look too large, you can keep using it. However, to add more "digging fun" you can also get coco coir (coco peat) in a garden center nearby. You can use bark on top of coir (at least at the basking area and around food/water dishes) to reduce amount of mess he'll make out of it and keep coir damp.

Just as a side note - adult russian tortoises do fine at living room temperatures and humidity, you don't need a "closed chamber" for him. If you can build him an outside pen and let him brumate (hibernate) in the winter you may not need a large indoors enclosure at all.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Alot of stuff is in process right now. I ordered several things based on a member Tom sending me what he uses. I have a 65w flood light for basking. A ceramic heating element. Dual lamp lamp stand. Two thermostats (one for basking bulb area and one for ambient heat) but I am waiting on the two bulb holders which come Monday unfortunately because the pet store gave me a dual bulb holder and said that was all I needed.
He is currently in a 3' by 2' enclosure, again because of the reptile store. However he will have a ~2.5' by 4' enclosure by Sunday night that I'm in the process of building. The new enclosure will allow me to start regulating the humidity inside because it won't have an open area on top. A.k.a. seperate basking from ambient heat and humidity will both be address around Monday mid day. I would love some suggestions on how to control humidity now that he'll have a completely closed enclosure. P.S. I shared some initial setup pictures in a reply to another forum member, hope those give you a starting point.
Next thing I'd like to address is that I already know he ultimately needs a 4' by 8' enclosure, and that comes next on the list, but I wanted to build him something slightly larger and to better overall temp/humidity conditions as fast as possible first. And my first custom enclosure is being made in such a way that it can/will be modified to become the 4x8!
Lastly his diet. So far I have organic Dandelion greens, organic spring mix (both supplemented with repti-cal calcium + vitamin and repti-cal herpavite. Plus I got him some Mazuri tortoise diet LS pellets that I soak for some added fiber. I wanted to get some flowers/succulents/cacti but I'm struggling to find a nurse that doesn't use pesticides/insecticides for now. I haven't even had him a week.
I'm trying to absorb all the indo I can so that as quickly as possible I can ensure he is happy, healthy and thriving because I know I adopted (bought) him from not so great conditions at the reptile store. I had intended on getting all my setup figured out somewhat first, but I could just tell he wasn't doing well so some spontaneity factored in quickly.....

Thank you for your reply! Sounds like you have some great changes on the way!

Yeah it’s annoying they sell those dual lamps for torts, they’re pointless really as all the bulbs needs mounting separately, you want your flood bulb one end with the t5 uv(unless you’re giving outside time for uv needs), with your ceramic and ambient lighting in the middle.
In terms of humidity, as he’s an older adult, he doesn’t need it too high so it shouldn’t be a challenge to keep up with, especially in a closed set up
Diet sounds pretty good so far too!

Seeing as you’re in the midst of getting a finale upgrade together at some point, you might hopefully find this thread useful to look through, I cater more to visual learners like myselfit covers correct equipment, levels, sizing, appropriately maintaining the humidity, substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything and a really handy diet link to check out!

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org

This includes inspiration for both indoor and out, I think you’ll really like looking at the indoor bit to get some ideas going for your build

Enclosure inspiration

Howdy folks! Hope everyone is well! As you all know, I’m a big fan of making threads that cater more towards visual learners like myself, I’ve really been wanting to create a thread full of adult enclosure inspiration for a while now, I’ve managed to find some great references over time! I do...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, this one is really good to go over and have on hand! it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

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Hope they help!

 

[Squirt the Dalmation]

Hi!
Bark on the photos doesn't look too large, you can keep using it. However, to add more "digging fun" you can also get coco coir (coco peat) in a garden center nearby. You can use bark on top of coir (at least at the basking area and around food/water dishes) to reduce amount of mess he'll make out of it and keep coir damp.

Just as a side note - adult russian tortoises do fine at living room temperatures and humidity, you don't need a "closed chamber" for him. If you can build him an outside pen and let him brumate (hibernate) in the winter you may not need a large indoors enclosure at all.

I live in South east Florida, so there's not exactly hibernation weather available...

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Can one of you guys, or anyone I suppose, suggest substrate for him? I was suggested to get orchid bark, however I think the one I chose isn't good because the pieces are very large and I feel like it may make it difficult for him to dig at his size. He loves to dig/burrow! So I want to make sure I pick something that is a) correct for him, and b) conducive to what he likes (digging)!

Coco coir is your best bet! I think a orchid bark layer on top is good too