General Care Discussion :: Help in determining age of my RES

[gaevwa]

Hello to all. I got my 2 RES last June and last night I measured their SCL at about 2.5". Can anybody guess how old are they? Much thanks for any help offered.

[Mech Cb]

I've always wondered this as well. If someone knows of a good trick, maybe this could be posted?

[blackforces get you]

its hard to tell how old a red ear slider is unless you had it since it was a hatchling and hatched from its egg in front of you. i got mine at 5 inches and i don't know how old it could be. it could be 5 years old and i wouldn't even know it.

[BullDog]

It's pretty much impossible to tell accurately, but we can guess.
Gaevwa, at 2.5", your turtles are probably 6-8 months old. That's just a guess, of course. Size is determined by a number of factors, including sex, genetics, nutrition, etc.

[gaevwa]

I see. So it's pretty much hard to guess their age if we only base it on their SCL.

Thanks so much for the infos.

[mackadocious]

can vary greatly....when i got my turts, their previous owner had had them a year and they were 2" and just under 2".....and i'm guessing the girl had purchased them in china town or something pretty much hatchlings....they had been kept in terrible conditions tho (ie no light, pretty much zero filtration and the tank was only cleaned once in that year), which i'm sure stunted their growth--but only for a while...patsy's 7" now tho who knows...maybe they'd have both been bigger had it not been for that 1st year...