How old is my eastern painted turtle

During good times growth is rapid. But when food is hard to find, like during droughts or unseasonably cool summers, the carapace slows in growth. The quality of food probably also affects the spaces between rings. For instance, a die-off of mammals or birds might occur in the range of a terrestrial turtle, leaving abundant meaty, calcium-rich corpses to be scavenged.

The higher protein content in the diet one season, or maybe even for just an intense pig-out month, could trigger a growth spurt that gets recorded in a wider than usual growth space between scute rings.

Sometimes the entire shell resembles a hand grenade — an almost sure sign of being raised in captivity.

Bill Love December 1, pm. The scutes on a painted turtle have rings that resemble those in the cross section of a tree. When turtles shed old scutes, the new ones have an added ring. Counting the number of rings on a scute will tell you the age of a painted turtle.

Female painted turtles are generally larger than males, and they have flat plastrons. Males turtles have concave plastrons. Males also have longer stockier tails and longer front claws. Painted turtles can be a source of Salmonella. The sale of small turtles as pets in the United States is illegal.

Laura Payne has been freelance writing for several online publications in her free time since Payne teaches linguistics classes at both universities on an adjunct basis.

So, by counting this annual rings, we can determine the age of the turtle. However, a team of investigators under Dr. According to Dr. Red-eared slider is one of the most popular pet turtles in the USA.

They can easily live for up to 50 years in captivity. It is really difficult to determine the age of a slider turtle unless you know when it has hatched. However, there are some methods which can help you guess the age of the slider turtle. Like red-eared sliders, painted turtles are also very common and popular in the USA.

Here are the steps to guess how old a painted turtle is:. Guessing the age of a snapping turtle is very difficult, especially when the turtle is matured. Sometimes, the shell condition and the size also gives a good estimation of the age of the snapping turtle. So, this is my detailed guide on how to tell the age of a turtle. Turtles are quite messy creatures. And you need a powerful weapon to cope up with the mess. Fluval FX6 is a giant beast equipped with multi-stage filtration system.