Guess the age

Hello,

Following a chat on another thread with @Anyfoot I was wondering about my little Aristotle's age. He measures a length of 8cm and weighs in at 97g. When I brought him home the end of August he weighed 76g... I'm not sure how much weight he should have gained in this time but he certainly does eat well!

I reserved him the end of June and know the reptile house he came from had received him 3 weeks prior to that so he's older than 18 weeks.

Any ideas on age? Here is an up to date picture just for the sake of it really!

Lu. Your never going to know for sure and they all grow at different rates.

My 3 juveniles were that weight at
6 months
9 months
12 months.

So if you was to compare yours to mine, anything between 6 and 12 months old.

Do you know the source of this tort?

And what a cute tort, most likely a female with the split scutes.
I'm surprised your plants are still alive.

I know he was bred by someone Mansfield way and then sold on to a reptile house in Notts which is where I got him from.

Wow, I didn't realise growth rate could vary that much across a 6 month period as you have described. It's good to have a ball park though. Thank you.

I do find his irregular scutes down the centre peculiar, from looking at other people's pics they seem more regular!

Anyfoot said:

And what a cute tort, most likely a female with the split scutes.
I'm surprised your plants are still alive.

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He or she is doing their very best to destroy the plants! The fern has had it and the spiders are next on the menu!

I love that extra scute. Aristotle's very cute. At 3 months, my tortoise weighed 80 grams. She eats everything and doesn't stop. I'm amazed she has that much room to eat so much.

Lu_x85 said:

He or she is doing their very best to destroy the plants! The fern has had it and the spiders are next on the menu!

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I shouldn't laugh, but that is hilarious. Everyone wants a nice pretty real life enclosure, everyone except the tort. Lol.
I'm doing the opposite to the norm now, I'm putting plants in they don't like and won't eat. Even that's a struggle, but I'll get there.

MysticCaribou said:

I love that extra scute. Aristotle's very cute. At 3 months, my tortoise weighed 80 grams. She eats everything and doesn't stop. I'm amazed she has that much room to eat so much.

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My One at 80g is 20wks.

I'm sensing this extra scute should mean I switch to female pronouns! It's seeming like the best bet... although I know it's not a definite!

Can anyone explain to me why the extra scute is more common in females?

Anyfoot said:

I shouldn't laugh, but that is hilarious. Everyone wants a nice pretty real life enclosure, everyone except the tort. Lol.
I'm doing the opposite to the norm now, I'm putting plants in they don't like and won't eat. Even that's a struggle, but I'll get there.

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Stottie and I have very different ideas about what's for dinner!

Lu_x85 said:

I'm sensing this extra scute should mean I switch to female pronouns! It's seeming like the best bet... although I know it's not a definite!

Can anyone explain to me why the extra scute is more common in females?

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It's thought that higher incubation temps cause split scutes and also higher temps produce more females.

@N2TORTS , give us some bumf on this please.

Anyfoot said:

My One at 80g is 20wks.

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At just 5 months she weighs 132 grams

MysticCaribou said:

At just 5 months she weighs 132 grams

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She's stunning! What a pretty little face! And a very good weight!

She looks awesome, you can see the most recent growth crevice, this will fill in with new keratin, aslong as she's not kept dry, which it's obvious you are not.

Anyfoot said:

It's thought that higher incubation temps cause split scutes and also higher temps produce more females.

@N2TORTS , give us some bumf on this please.

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Well Craig ...I would assume that tort to be around 4-5 months old ......and as far as splitties here is a link brought on by me ....
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/split-extra-scutes.117000/

N2TORTS said:

Well Craig ...I would assume that tort to be around 4-5 months old ......and as far as splitties here is a link brought on by me ....
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/split-extra-scutes.117000/

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Thank you for the link to the thread. It really is fascinating. With my environmental scientist head on the environmental factors influencing appearance before even emerging from the egg is quite brilliant, I can see how both humidity and temperature fluctuations could play a huge role in that.

For a population to thrive, as Anyfoot has mentioned, nature would have to provide opportunities for production of males and females. If a further off shoot of this is 'informal' scutes which are harmless and don't impact survival in anyway then I guess the tapestry of life is just added too.

I'd certainly love to run a poll to see whether the number of females with split scutes is higher or whether there is not really a dominant gender.