Other Turtle Discussion :: determining age

[sillyleisl]

Is there a way I could determine how old my turtle is? She's about 7".

[untsmurf]

It's almost impossible to be completely sure how old your turt is. You'd have to take into consideration their history of feeding, habitat, and their sex. If any of these factors are out of the ordinary, then there's really no telling how old she is.

[Safdar]

Shes she said ^^^
Its unlikely to get a accurate age
How they were fed
The size of thier habitat
If all this is stuff isnt normal
Then figuring out an age will be hard

Size is almost out of question
Parasites
diesaes
Overfeeding
Underfeeding

all these can affect the growth

So if any of thses have happend then there is no telling

[sillyleisl]

Oh really? I don't know her past so I don't have any info to give. I don't even know if she was store bought or caught in the wild. Thanks anyways,

[SpotsMama]

You'd be safe in assuming she's more than a couple of years old. Beyond that it's hard to say. Is she still growing? The upside potential for a female is 12" long but they don't all get that big. If your girl lived in poor conditions when she was young then she may be as big now as she'll ever get. The normal low end size for a female that's reasonably healthy is 9".

[sillyleisl]

I'm not sure if she's still growing because it didn't occur to me when I first got her to measure her. Her habitat when i got her was not great because there was no pump or filter and her diet consisted of pellets with maybe some fish once or twice. 12"!? Whoa, now that's a big girl! She'd be cute that big though. I don' think I'll get that lucky though because of her history. Hopefully we can reach 9" though.