As you all know, i have 3 RES, well, today i measured my male which i have had for 9 years, and he was about 5 3/4-6 inches. i've read that RES grow at different rates, depending on individual turtles, some people have said they've had turtles from the same litter eating the same diet and growing all different sizes within a year.

he is healthy, and eats well, he is outside so he gets all of his natural lighting. i just figure he is a slow grower, he has grown massively since i've had him, i was in 8th grade when i got him and he fit in the palm of my hand, now i am 23 and he is bigger than the palm of my hand

so what do you all think, is he undersized, or just right?

what all are you feeding it? mine went through growth spurts every time i added a few new foods to their rotation. try adding a few more high quality pellets to its diet. my snapper and peninsula cooter are now 2 years old and both are exactly 5.75". the western painted is the same age and is now 4.75". they all grow at different rates and not all grow to the same max size. if you try measuring him a few times a year, get the exact measurement and write it down. most likely you will notice an increase in size.

they eat the floating food sticks from reptomin, live fish, plants, cooked meat. they get a good variety.

He does seem small for his age but it would be hard to guess as to why. I measure and weigh my turtle every month now so I can see his growth easily.

i am going to start measuring them all regularly and keeping a log.

i just noticed i really misspelled "undersized" pretty badly.

on a side note, is it possible to make a turtle, my two females look EXACTLY alike, now i know all RES look alike to some degree, but these are mirror images of each other. the only real difference, is sometimes one of the females is a bit more aggressive than the other.

"Is it possible to make a turtle?"
Not sure what you mean. Some would say God makes turtles.

If you meant is it possible to tell them apart then certainly it is. Few animals are truly identical.

i meant "mark" the turtle. i have been on a misspelling roll here lately. sorry about that

You can put a tiny dot of red nail polish on the back of the shell of one of the turtle's if you want. Hopefully, the chemicals won't be able to get into the turtle. I've heard of a few people using that method with wild turtles for identification when recaptured. My mother put a dot on our wild box turtle. The next year, it was hard to see though because it wears off and got covered in dirt.

i would be very surprised if they were truly identical to the human eye. a pic of the carapace or plastron may be able to be used to id the turtles when measuring.