Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone can give me an estimate of the growth rate of sulcatas? I realize diet, etc. can affect growth, but am interested in an average, of the size of hatchlings, yearlings, two-year-olds, etc.
Thanks!

I don't think anyone can give you a definitive answer on this but I can show you some photos that might help you.
I remember when we first adopted ours we don't know where she came from, she'd been dumped to fend for herself. She weighed 9.1 lbs then. Everything I read said they grow slowly when they are on a natural diet. Our lawn is exactly what she needs, I don't feed her because I don't need to, she eats the lawn. I thought I have several years before she gets so big that I can't pick her up.
Yeah.. right.. after 2 years here I couldn't pick her up anymore.
This coming July will make it 5 years since we got her, she's around 70lbs now.

I have some photos I can show you. These are all torts that my vet has.
I'll do this in a couple of posts.
The first photo is the baby that was born this month at the age of 1 day:

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PHRatz

This next photo shows something interesting:
The smaller one is 2 years old & has been fed nothing but a natural diet. A clutch mate to this smaller one was kept by it's breeder & fed pellet diet, that one is dead now.

The larger darker colored one in this photo is one that came from people who's story on where the tortoise came from & how it was cared for is dubious, the vet isn't sure of the facts but it's about 2 years old too.
More than likely the larger one hasn't been fed a totally natural diet.. but we don't know for certain.

Here you have two that are around two years old they are not related to each other but one is larger..
Why? Could be any of the reasons you'd mentioned.. diet, genetics, who knows?

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PHRatz

Thank you for the information! I bought some that are 12 months old and was surprised to see they measure 2.5" across the bottom, not over the back. I thought they'd be quite a bit larger than that.

I appreciate the pics, too! =)

You are welcome.
At 12 months I would think (based on everything I've read) that yours being that small is a good thing.
When they grow too fast- if the fast growth is caused by the wrong diet & lack of humidity then they pyramid.
You don't want that to happen because what your seeing on the outside doesn't begin to tell you what bad things may be happening on the inside.

Our tortoise is pyramided, when she first got here she was very sick from poor nutrition and from being dumped to fend for herself which caused a mild respiratory problem. Poor diet would have contributed to the respiratory problem too.
Her skin was gray, her muscles were so weak that her head wobbled like a bobble head doll when she walked.
Good nutrtion turned her around, her head stopped wobbling, her skin is a beautiful color of yellow and sand.
Her pyramids can still be seen but they aren't as bad as they were because the new growth was correct growth.
We love her, "warts" and all

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PHRatz