How to tell the age of a tortoise

[leahmae2079]

Hello! I'm new to the tortoise world and have got a baby leopard tortoise. The shop I got him from was unsure of the age of him ( I call it a him as I liked the name humphrey). On a previous message they said 6 months but for a leopard he seems really small for 6 months. His shell is also a little soft but I will be getting chalk lumps and supplements. I was wondering if anyone could give a rough estimate on the age of him? Thanks

 

[Tom]

The only way to know the age is to know the hatch date.

Most people do not start this species correctly and the dehydration slows their growth tremendously and sometimes does internal organ damage too.

Take a close up shot of the tip of the snout. Look for the egg tooth. If there is still an egg tooth, my educated guess would be that this tortoise is less than 6 weeks old. No egg tooth would mean more than 6 weeks old. This is the only way I know of to estimate the age of such a small one. It could be 12 months old and it just hasn't grown, or it could have hatched two weeks ago.

Here is the correct care info for this species. Most of what you read out there in the world is wrong:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

 

[deadheadvet]

young.

 

[Yvonne G]

Six months is a little on the high side. There's not much new growth from when he hatched out of the egg.

 

[Dogo]

Idk either but i was wondering the same thing about my sulcata tortoise

 

[flowerlab]

Wish I could, wow! Good looking guy.

 

[TammyJ]

He is a beautiful little guy! Make sure you read the stuff about the correct humidity level and temperatures for that species.