The most common way to tell the age of a turtle is to calculate the age of the turtle from the concentric rings on its dorsal plastron shield, which is generally projected by the number of concentric rings on the turtle's dorsal plastron shield, with each ring representing a growth cycle, i.e., one year. The number of concentric rings on the shield, and then add 1 (shell-breaking birth is one year) that is the age of the turtle. This method is only clear when the turtle dorsal armor concentric ring pattern, can be calculated more accurately, for the old turtle or concentric ring pattern ambiguous turtle and greenhouse turtles (a year long multi-layer false concentric pattern) should refer to several methods to deduce the approximate age of the turtle: (this method of the southern species of stone money turtle as an example)

1, look at the abdominal armor in the middle of the line: generally about 3-4 years of abdominal armour in the middle of the line began to narrow the middle of the line on both sides of the pink color! (1.5 pounds or more, the greenhouse two years can basically), 5-7 years abdominal nail line began to bend, pink gradually faded, more than 7 years abdominal nail line curved molding thick curved or straight line. 5 years (some 6 years) below the tortoise abdominal nail line is white or light silver straight thick line, this abdominal nail line with the age of the growth of the color will slowly become darker and thinner and more curved. 3 year old stone turtle Abdomen

3 year old stone turtle Abdomen 3 year old stone turtle Abdomen 3 year old stone turtle Abdomen

The following are pictures of 4 year old turtles:

Full 4 year old stone turtle

Full 4 year old Southern Stone TurtleFull 4 year old Vietnamese Stone Turtle

Generally turtles less than 5 years old (and in some cases, 6 years old) have the midline of the ventral carapace which is a white or pale silvery-white, straight, thick line. This line will slowly become darker, thinner and more curved as the turtle grows older.

Full 5 years of stone turtle full 5 years of stone turtle 2, look at the color of the abdominal armor: purebred southern stone turtle from the hatchling abdominal armor is a light waxy yellow, with the age of the growth of the color will be deeper and deeper, until the waxy yellow through the light pink. China turtle business network cnGuiBie.com

3, look at the thickness and shape of the throat shield: from hatchling to adult turtle's throat shield and shield is relatively thin and peaceful, with the growth of the age of the turtle the thickness of the throat shield will slowly grow, the shape will slowly want to inward curvature of the turtle's throat shield and shield will be generally more than 5 years of the turtle's throat shield and shield will be such a performance. 6 years of stone turtle pictures: foot 6 years of increasingly southern stone turtle foot 6 years of increasingly southern stone turtle

Foot 6 years of increasingly southern stone turtle The following is 7 years of southern species of stone turtles

4, look at the turtle head to shell contraction of the neck folds: the turtle encountered when the head of the shell contraction up to the shell in order to protect their own safety, but the turtle head contraction of the neck of the neck folds of the turtle of each age is different, the older the turtle the more pronounced neck folds, the 12 years of the neck folds, the more pronounced. The older the tortoise, the more pronounced the neck folds are, and the neck folds of a tortoise that is 12 years old or older are quite pronounced when the head is contracted. The shrunken skin is similar to the wrinkles of an old person.

5, look at the tail cloaca boils: generally speaking, not yet reached gonadal maturity of the turtle cloaca boils next to the cloaca is smaller smooth particles, once the turtle reached gonadal maturity of the cloaca boils next to the cloaca is more pointed particles, for the southern stone turtles are really stable production is in about 8 years.

The above is my personal opinion and identification experience as well as some of the observations and summaries of the old farmers, specific to have a physical or pictures to be able to judge the age of the tortoise probably accurately, can not summarize all 。。。。。。

On the identification of the age of the turtle should also be farmers themselves after a long period of observation, analysis and summarization, more observation of the physical characteristics of turtles of different ages, the simplest reason is that the turtle and the same as the human phase, different age groups have different appearance characteristics. Only in this way can we accumulate and summarize more accurate turtle age identification methods.