leopard

[rachel30b]

hi, yesterday i got a leopard tortoise from a rescue centre, i already have a hermans tort and i have divided the table for the both of them, but i am worried that he will not be warm enough, advice on temps would be good, also i assume they just eat weeds like the rest of them but what about the occasional fruit, he is about 4 inches long not sure of weight as i dont like bothering him too much, want him/her to settle in , been giving regular baths, as obviously dont know anything about this tort as he came from rescue centre and he takes them in, the shell looks slightly strange the scutes dont line up properly on it cant explain, but looks bright in eyes and eating well and seems alert, i am quite aware that this chap is going to grow rather large

seem to think she female, kept weeing on us yesterday when we picked her up, comments welcome



also dont want him to feel left out here is a recent one of my hermans

[Henry-flash]

Leopards have similar care to meds. They are quite prone to RNS so watch for this. Fruit musn't be given. They like more grasses and hays then meds do. I will let experienced leo keepers expand on that.

[rachel30b]

thought i share this with you just been to check on him/her and she ahs moved out of the corner and fast asleep under the light worried about her being cold at night as she too big to dig down

[yam yam]

great pictures well done

hi why is she to big to dig down ?

[Henry-flash]

Never heard of them being too big to dig down. My adults often dig down at night

[veebee]

Mine like to hide under plants and they all use the bamboo hides at night which have hay in them.

No fruit but weeds mixed with lots of grasses and chopped hay, they need lots of fibre.

I dont have any extra heating at night, (they are kept in the back half of the living room, but no heating on at all at night. During the day they do need heat, about 90-95f under the basking light. I bathe mine each day, although I do see them regularly drink from the water bowl.

Vivienne

[rachel30b]

hi trying to get photo of shell on top tell me what you think thanks

[rachel30b]

i dont mean too big but she didnt last night just sort of tucked up in corner and i covered her up

The husbandry of leopard torts is totally different to hermanns and keeping them in the same environment is not really possible. Leopards should not be allowed to get very cold over night. It will nto bury intot he substrate as this is not what leopards do. Hermanns come from the mediterranean, experiencing totally different daytime and overnight temps. Leopards need to have a much hotter climate all the year round whereas hermanns benefit by a fairly large change of temps, hibernating in the winter. Their diet is also completely different. I would guess from looking at your leopard that it has had a bad diet for the last few months as there is a marked dip between the scutes. This is the start of pyramidding. So long as the diet is corrected then this should not show as more than a little groove in it's early growth. Where did you get this tort from? You need to feed it predominantly grass and hay with very little of anything else. Although they come from Africa they do like to bathe regularly when they will also pass vast quantities of urine. Hope this helps.