Please help us collect a database of tortoise growth rates by sharing measurements of your own tortoise! We appreciate any and all information we can collect! See the submission field below…

Details of project:

Assessment of body conditions and therefore, the chelonian’s health, has always been difficult due to the masking abilities of the shell. Originally developed for determining suitability for hibernation, scientists have developed a ratio of body weight to carapace length to better assess the health of a tortoise. Jackson (1980) compared measurements from healthy and unhealthy tortoises of the species Testudo graeca and Testudo hermanni. But why not study more species?

We are establishing a database of tortoise measurements for any and all species to create similar ratios. Although these ratios, of course, may not be used to determine suitability for hibernation (for example, in non-hibernating species), these ratios can still aid in assessment of health and age approximations.

Please, if you keep tortoises (especially captive bred of known ages), report below with their measurements and basic information. Submit one report per individual tortoise. You can add multiple measurements for different time points if you have owned the tortoise for several years and have tracked their growth. In fact, this type of data is most valuable. If you do not want to fill out the below form, feel free to email an excel spreadsheet with the below information to bigandsmalltortoise@gmail.com, or you can upload additional files in the form below.

Thank you; we highly appreciate your help in providing the tortoise-keeping community with a valuable tool!

References: Jackson, O.F. (1980) J. Small Anim. Pract. 21, 409-416.