FarmerDenise
Out to pasture
Spartacus is one handsome dog!!
Ok, You can see it, but promise not to laugh....
- Thread starter Rebbetzin
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lorihadams
Always doing laundry
Okay, that was just too cute! The coop is great and so is Sparticus! I think he stole the show!!!
You have a tortoise?
You have a tortoise?
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Rebbetzin
Almost Self-Reliant
Yes, I have had him about 20 years. My brother inherited him from a client in CA... He is a Californa Desert Tortoise. Raised in captivity. My brother said he was between 60 and 80 years old, but that was when I got him.lorihadams said:
His name is Zoop... you get it?.. "Turtle Zoop"
Here he is with Spartacus.
He has the cutest little pink tongue. It looks just like a human tongue.
Farmfresh
City Biddy
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
Look at his teeth! That is too cool, my DS would kill to have tortoise that big! He was really upset when we made him let his turtle go....just not good in an aquarium.
Shiloh Acres
Lovin' The Homestead
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Oh, those pics of your tortoise are too cool. I just LOVE their kind of"old man" faces.
My daughter and I once met a lady who did tortoise rescue and she had almost a dozen of varying ages. Some were in their own pens but she had a large pen with four or five in it, and it was funny to watch them interact. They are much more active than I would have thought. Very cool critters.
My daughter and I once met a lady who did tortoise rescue and she had almost a dozen of varying ages. Some were in their own pens but she had a large pen with four or five in it, and it was funny to watch them interact. They are much more active than I would have thought. Very cool critters.
TanksHill
Super Self-Sufficient
Is there any way to know how old your tortoise really is? I thought they counted the circles on their backs, no wait is that a tree? 
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Tracyfeltsmills
Sustainable Newbie
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Smashing and to think i had one of them slides, lol i'm a chicken owner too,
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Rebbetzin
Almost Self-Reliant
I never thought to Google such a question... let me see what I can find.TanksHill said:Is there any way to know how old your tortoise really is? I thought they counted the circles on their backs, no wait is that a tree?
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Ok they say, there really isn't an accurate way, unless you know when the tortoise hatched. The rings in the shell plates vary with amount of food and water avaiable etc. I did find they can live longer than I thought.
There are verifiable ages of over 150 year for a few tortoises.
Here is a blurb on them from Wikipedia.
Tortoises generally have lifespans comparable with those of human beings, and some individuals are known to have lived longer than 150 years. Because of this, they symbolize longevity in some cultures, such as China. The oldest tortoise ever recorded, almost the oldest individual animal ever recorded, was Tu'i Malila, which was presented to the Tongan royal family by the British explorer Captain Cook shortly after its birth in 1777. Tui Malila remained in the care of the Tongan royal family until its death by natural causes on May 19, 1965. This means that upon its death, Tui Malila was 188 years old.[3] The record for the longest-lived vertebrate is exceeded only by one other, a koi named Hanako whose death on July 17, 1977 ended a 226 year life span.[4]
The Alipore Zoo in India was the home to Adwaita, which zoo officials claimed was the oldest living animal until its death on March 23, 2006. Adwaita (sometimes spelled with two d's) was an Aldabra Giant Tortoise brought to India by Lord Wellesley who handed it over to the Alipur Zoological Gardens in 1875 when the zoo was set up. Zoo officials state they have documentation showing that Adwaita was at least 130 years old, but claim that he was over 250 years old (although this has not been scientifically verified). Adwaita was said to be the pet of Robert Clive.[5]
Harriet, a resident at the Australia Zoo in Queensland, was apocryphally thought to have been brought to England by Charles Darwin aboard the Beagle. Harriet died on June 23, 2006, just shy of her 176th birthday.
Timothy, a spur-thighed tortoise, lived to be approximately 165 years old. For 38 years she was carried as a mascot aboard various ships in Britain's Royal Navy. Then in 1892, at age 53 she retired to the grounds of Powderham Castle in Devon. Up to the time of her passing in 2004 she was believed to be the UK's oldest resident.
According to articles published by the Daily Mail and the Times in December 2008, Jonathan, a Seychelles Giant tortoise living on the island of St Helena may be as old as 176 or 178 years. If this is true, he could be the current oldest living animal on Earth.
