leopard feeding

[carl20]

For quite a while now i have been feeding my leos once every three days, i let them eat all they can for about 2hours although they usually fill up in 1 hour or so. I still bathe them every day or 2 and they have access to meadow hay if they become very hungry although they dont really eat it that much with them being so small.

Can anyone forsee any problems feeding them once every three days as they seem fine at the mo and im sure it will help prevent pyramidding but i dont wanna kill my torts over the next 20 years, u know how the saying goes.....

I know that we are only new owners but .....

.... we feed our leo's everyday with a varied mix of chopped weeds and a sprinkle of finely chopped meadow hay (done in the food processor) they eat well for about half an hour and then I clean the rest away - they have one (maybe two) 'rainy' days when we give them just 1 small leaf each.

All of ours seem very alert and the babies have learnt a routine very quickly.

Why do you feed them every three days? Is it just because of pyramiding?

[piglet]

Carl I think maybe that's a bit drastic but if you are weighing them and there is a marked weight gain then who am to criticise but you must have a marked weight gain for this type of feeding regime to prove efficient.
Darren

Hey Carl!

Well I have a baby Sully as you know and I do feed him everyday. Although I limit this to twenty minutes, not an hour for the same reason as you I guess. But because he is a baby I think they should be fed everyday. Like you still bathing every other day, he loves his dip! lol Mind you he's a year old soon! His weight is steady and I'm happy with that.

[carl20]

thanks guys,

darren i have been at it for nearly 2 months, there has been some gain on average (by this i mean i have weighed them a few times and averaged it due to feeding, baths, craps etc...)

They are still quite active and like i sed they have access to meadow hay all the time although i woul not expect it to be as nutritious to them as weeds correct me if thats wrong.

Darren do u have an idea to how often a leopard would find weedlike food in the wild? (stupid question but u mite have read a study somewhere)

[piglet]

Hi Carl
Wild leopards are predominately grazers of grass and will graze daily as long as temps allow of course, a huge amount of these grasses would be in various stages of growth from fresh shoots to dry hay like strands , weeds as such are not something they would feed upon in great number as they are not indigenous to the open grasslands that most leopards inhabit, of course after any rainy period the grasslands will be flushed with annual flowering plants that I'm sure will be greedily eaten whilst they are available but they diet is basically 90% mixed grasses something i feel can be fed daily in captivity especially now as there is little nutritional value in autumn or winter grass except shear bulk fibre .

Darren

[carl20]

cheers darren, i dont think id struggle to find grass somehow but i remember reading something bad about picking it and feeding it, plese enlighten me

[sandy]

As Darren said, Leopards love to graze fresh grass. Not the cut sort<g>. Seed up large seed trays
with grass, that way you can have fresh grass for them all year round. Especially this time of the
year when its cold and frosty.

[carl20]

cheers sandy, i have done a few trays but they have devoured them but my garden is full of long grass if i can pik it 4 them?

[veebee]

Thats what I do Carl, mine wont eat grass of their own bat yet, so I pull it up, usually the new soft shoots, then cut it up fine so that it sticks to the wet weeds, they have always got a bit trailing out their mouths!! On the new leopard forum I'm on they also say that couch grass is good for them as its more fibrous. People on that site also do as you do and chop redigrass/hay and sprinkle that on the wet food.

vivienne