Rate of growth

[Chez]

How fast (or slow) do your turtles grow? When I got mine 2 and a half years ago, they were all hatchlings (with the exception of the adopted RES), and in the first year, the ybs grew to about 3", one of the maps hit 4" and the other map hit about 2.5".
The next year, the ybs was 4.5, and now he's like 5.5 6 mo.'s later, the bigger map.. died when I moved , and the smaller map was 3.5 and now 6 mo.s later he's 4".
So in 2.5yrs, the ybs grew 4.5 and the living map grew 3".
:Chez

[Arsenal]

my res has grown about an inch since i got him,in may. but my map has not grown one bit, im wondering if she will ever grow or stay at only 3.5 inches,...

[Chez]

I think that they just grow really slowly. After all my map has only grew 3" in 2.5 years.. Maybe it has to do with the fact that a lot of map turtles only grow to be 4-5" in adulthood.
:Chez

[Arsenal]

hwow. thats cheered me up, i thought she was a bit retarded hahaahah.... i thought they grew to at least 8 inches... well she is only young. well see in a few years. my res grows everyday ;D ahaha

[Jinx]

Turtles growth is dependant on environment, diet, housing, genetics and species ... a mud turtle and a RES do not grow at the same rate, a snapper and a sea turtle do not grow at the same rate. Shoot, two RES rarely grow at the same rate.

So long as your guy or gal is not growing 4-6 inches in a year, unless of course you own a sea turtle ... smiles. And he is generally healthy, I wouldnt worry. There is no hard nd fast rule concerning growth and I do not think there are any real studies to prove anything.

I believe 1.5-2.5 inches a year is the norm for RES and other turtles whose adult size is roughly the same. More growth, more often with hatchlings, and I noticed over feed turtles seem to grow quickier too ... but not healthy.

My Ben is 20+yrs now and he is 7-8inches. He hit this size more or less at age 7yrs.

Jinx