Sulcata age indicator?

[gustaf]

Attn: experienced keepers. Tom i hope you will chime in on this.
Ok so here are two sulcatas. Both about 25 inches long. I have a pic of each. I believe the darker edges around the scutes indicate new growth. The bottom tortoise has wider dark edges, at least around the lower edge of the lower scutes. So does that mean the bottom tort has more new growth than the top one? Even though the torts are the same size does that mean the bottom tort is probably younger than the top tort because of all the aggressive recent growth. Younger torts usually grow faster than older torts. If so does that mean the bottom tort will pass up the top one? I dont know if my thinking is accurate. What do you think?

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

Well, it is impossible to tell the age of a tort without the hatch date, but you can estimate I'm not very good at estimating age by looking at the scutes and growth lines, but he looks like an adult.

 

[Tom]

You can have late bloomers that grew slow for a few years and then sprout, or you can have babies that reach 35 pounds in 3 years and then slow way down, or anything in between. Add in the millions of variables in keeping and feeding styles, the wide variety of possible climates, etc., and there is just no way to tell, or to predict what will happen in a case like this.

Sorry.

 

[gustaf]

Ok. Another question. Keeping in mind what you told me, the answer is probably not going to be a definate yes or no.

Lets say there are two sulcates with known ages. One is 10 years old and the other 20. If they are both 25 inches long and 85 pounds or so, is it safe to assume that the younger one will probably pass up the older one and ultimately end up the larger tortoise in the end? My hypothesesis here is that if sulcatas generally have their most aggressive growth in their first 10 to 15 years the older tort has already past that point but the younger one still has a few years of aggressive growing left.

On the other hand. Maybe the older one wasnt brought up in the same conditions as the younger one. For instance, if the older tort's living conditions are changed to mimic that of the younger one, like it starts getting the same diet. Will the older tortoise possibly have a growth spurt, even though its much older? Im sure genetics and other variables will play a role in this as well.

 

[Tom]

Your last paragraph most closely mimics what I would say. I have seen many cases to back up any of these scenarios. The answer is: There is no reliable answer. It could go any number of ways for any number of reasons. There are just too many variables, both known, unknown and unknowable, to make any sort of reliable prediction about what you are asking.

My Scooter and Bert tortoises (from 1998) were raised very dry and fed a very low nutrition, low quantity, high fiber diet. They were runts at 12 years old barely breaking 40 pounds. I abandoned the "slow growth and low protein diet mimics the wild and prevents pyramiding" method of keeping because it failed miserably and I learned what was really going on through much time, effort, expense and research. I started feeding them "normally" and keeping them well hydrated and each of them are close to 100 pounds now. Better late than never.

 

[gustaf]

Thanks so much tom for sharing your experience. Im looking to buy another big one. I live in central florida. I have found three within a fairly close driving distance. They are all about the same size. Two of them are of unknown ages. The third is supposedly 10. The owner of the ten year old is asking $200 more for his than the other guys are asking. He a real nice looking sulcata but one of the other ones is pretty good looking too. Trying to decide which one to buy. They are all about 25". Im hoping to see it break the 30 inch mark in a few years and am trying to figure out if one is more likely to get that big than the other. But it sounds like theres no sure way to know if they will get that big or how long it will take. I think i will save a couple hundred bucks and go with the less expensive one. I love sulcatas and to me the bigger the better. And i want to continue to gain all the knowledge i can about these spectacular torts. Thanks again Tom and everyone else for sharing your knowlege and experience.

 

[gustaf]

I currently have a sulcata that is about 12 years old and almost 20" and about 42 lbs. I have had him about a year. I havent seen any growth as as far as length but he has gained 6 pounds since i got him. He eats mostly grass and weeds. Maybe i will start supplimenting some Mazuri as well.