Nice to hear from you again.

You can judge a wild turtle’s age fairly accurately, up to a point, by counting the growth rings on the shell’s scutes (scales, plates). The growth rings appear as irregular but generally circular rings within each scute. Each line roughly represents one year of growth in a wild turtle from a temperate region (tropical species sometimes lay down more). However, long-term captives, which are usually overfed and not given a hibernation period, will lay down many rings each year, distorting the count…I once counted 38 growth rings on a 6 year old captive spur-thighed tortoise (which weighed 65 ponds by that tender age)!.

After age 20 or so, the earlier growth rings begin to fade…especially on the plastron (lower shell) but on the carapace (upper shell) as well. Eastern box turtles have reliably been documented as living in excess of 100 years (via tracing the owners of several well-identified specimens on Long Island, NY), so you may have your 3 toed for some time!

The enclosure you describe would be ideal, assuming it does not have a screen bottom as is often the case with rabbit hutches…if so, just cover it with Cypress Bark or another sturdy substrate. If the cage has no floor and you are keeping it outdoors, turn up the soil – the turtle will forage for worms and sowbugs; you can also throw in handfuls of dead leaves to encourage foraging. Be sure to guard against raccoon predation – they can kill even an adult box turtle.

Male box turtles become very restless when ready to breed – if the cage’s sides are screened, you may need to attach smooth plastic or something similar around the bottom, or the turtle will continually climb and fall.

Please also check out our Box Turtle Care Book, and be sure to write back if you need anything further.

Good luck with the skink also,

Best regards, Frank Indiviglio.

I’m considering adopting a Three Toed Box Turtle from a local shelter, is there any specific way to age these turtles? I’m told or read rather you can count the plates to get a general idea?

I have a 4x3x2 setup that a friend had built planned for a rabbit but they changed there mind so I acquired it would this be a good setup?. As always, excellent articles.

Regards,

-Dave

btw, I did acquire that blue tongue skink. She’s kind of hissy.. but I guess or hope she’ll get better with time!.