The pen is 36" wide x 8' long if that gives an idea of his size. The carapace can help indicate the age of the tortoise by the number of concentric rings, much like the cross-section of a tree. By nature, this species belongs to the crepuscular type. Many people say to use the rings around the scutes that grow with the years. 2nd year – 6 weeks. I am trying to determine how old he is. It is not possible to tell the age of a tortoise by looking at it. Sulcata tortoises are large reptiles, also commonly referred to as the “African spurred tortoise.”These creatures are the third largest species of tortoise in the world, behind the Galapagos tortoise and Albrada giant tortoise. If you keep multiple desert tortoises, separate the sexes and do not allow them to breed. It is a desert-dwelling tortoise whose range extends along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert from Senegal and Mauritania, east through Mali, Chad, the Sudan and Ethiopia to Eritrea. This cannot be used to judge age, as the tortoises grow at different paces depending on diet, husbandry, and genetics. Sulcatas can grow to be well over 230 lbs., and live as long as 70 years! Also, they have you and often other pets for companionship. 5- Sulcata Tortoise’s lifestyle; Do you want to know how long these tortoises live? The oldest recorded specimen in captivity, also at the Giza Zoological Gardens, was 54 years of age (Hughes, 1986, in Stearns). Tortoises are loners that do just fine by themselves. Tortoises can overeat and being chronically overfed (whether they are overweight or not) can cause long term health problems. Unless you have an approximate hatch date, it may be impossible to get an exact age. There is a common belief that counting the rings that appear on the shell of a tortoise yields the number of years the turtle has been alive, but the formation of rings on a tortoise shell is not regular. Unfortunately, he came with no background information. This will help you to determine the animal’s age. However if you’re not confident for any reason, keeping your tortoise awake all year round until the age of about 3 is okay, but you’ll certainly want to hibernate them the following year. He is roughly 9" wide x 12" long. The Daily Mail reported that he was born in 1882, and survived five monarchs including Queen Victoria King Edward … Determining when your tortoise is sated is more of an issue of looking at your tortoise's growth and overall well being than on how much he is eating in one sitting. Hi, We just adopted a Sulcata Tortoise (Herman) through our Herp Society. Thanks for your help! Sulcatas have broad, flattened carapaces, evenly brownish or yellowish in color. Tortoises have a beak but no teeth and no external ears, just two small holes on … He passed away in Guernsey after being bitten by a rat. According to experts, the Sulcata tortoise lifespan ranges from 50 to 150 years in the wild. It would be similiar to the rings of a tree. As they age, the growth rings inches on each of the scutes are strongly marked. Sulcata tortoises, also known as African spurred tortoises, can weigh, on average, 200 pounds and measure 24 to 36 inches long when fully grown, making them the third largest tortoise on Earth. Many tortoises can retract their head, their four limbs and tail into the shell for protection. The approximate duration of hibernation according to the age of your tortoise should be: 1st year – 3 weeks. One of the UK’s oldest tortoises was Thomas who lived to the ripe old age of 130. Besides the stress to the tortoises from fighting and mating, there is no place to put the overabundance of unwanted pet desert tortoises. The African Spurred Tortoise (Geochelone sulcata) is also known as the ‘Grooved Tortoise’, the ‘Spur Tortoise’ and the ‘African Spur Thigh Tortoise’. 3rd year – 10 weeks
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