Too small?

[kaija2012]

I keep testudo myself, but recently noticed a Craigslist posting asking for help building a really nice indoor table for a sulcuta. While it WAS nice to see the enthusiasm to provide a beautiful and well-designed habitat, I was thinking that a properly kept sulcuta will outgrow an indoor table rather quickly, so I responded with the advice to consider making a proper outdoor set-up geared toward the future needs of this species instead of sinking time and $$$ into the super deluxe style table they were describing and explained why. The poster responded to me saying that they got this female at 3 inches and now 4 YEARS LATER it has only grown to 4.5 inches. This can't be a normal rate of growth, can it? Do people often keep 4+ year olds of this species in indoor tables? Please teach me! Thanks.

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[Yvonne G]

No, you are correct. There is something very lacking in their care of the tortoise to have kept it small for such a period of time. A 4 year old sulcata might be almost the size of a full grown desert tortoise, or about 10lbs. Of course, each tortoise is an individual, and may grow slow or fast, but seems to me this tortoise should have grown more than it has.