Overland turtles on average live in bondage about 40 years. At the correct leaving and absence of diseases the turtle can live 50 and more years at your place. And how to determine the age of a turtle who became your pet quite recently?
Instruction
1. To give detailed information on age of a turtle and subtleties of her contents - a task of manufacturers. But also they can not always precisely determine the age. There is all steam of ways it to make. One of them – to measure armor length. Put a ruler to an armor and record distance of the most distant from each other of points. Compare results. Newborn overland tortoises are born a little more than 3 cm in size. To one-year-old age their armor grows to 5 cm, to two-year-old – to 6 cm. In 3 years the size increases to 8 cm, in 4 – to 10 cm, in 5 – to 12 cm, in 6 – to 14 cm. Depending on quality of a forage, level of daily consumed calcium and conditions of keeping of a turtle, their growth can reach the big sizes, but seldom exceeds 18 cm. The overland turtles living in the wild nature reach almost 30-centimeter sizes.
2. Attentively consider number of rings on an armor. The first of them appear closer to one-year-old age. During this period overlandof turtle grows especially intensively. Within the first year of life on an armor about 2-3 rings appear. Each next year, as a rule, are formed still on 1 or 2. At turtles long-livers they strongly grow dull and with age become smooth. It should be noted that this way of determination of age "works" only together with the first, and entirely it is not necessary to rely on its results.
3. Overland turtles become mature by 5-6 years, in the wild nature – by 10 years. At females the process occurs after males. By this period the armor of both sexes gets the extended form and darkens. At males long claws and a tail grow, they become more aggressive on the relation to each other and pay more attention to females. But at good conditions of keeping the puberty can happen much earlier therefore this way is not exact and is not taken into account without the first two.