Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have tracking my leopard tortoise growth every week for the 13 months that I have had him. He was 6 months when I got him. I am afraid he is growing way too fast eventhough I feed him mostly grasses and 2 mazuri pellets every two days. Hercules just past 18oz and is 19 months old.

Can anyone else share their growth rates for their young leopards if you have them?

Thanks, Ben

Can you post a picture of what it looks like.

If you've got normal growth and good proportions, I wouldn't worry about the rate.

If you cut back on the Muzari to every 3 days that will slow down the growth but as I said earlier, if you are getting normal growth I wouldn't worry about rate.
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Ed
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Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

See images below. His proportions are good but he does have some pyramiding that I want to slow down. I feed him orchard grass, timothy hay mostly, and toss in cactus, hibiscus, dandilion, ficus, a little clover, wandering jew, yard grass.

I feed him once a day, unless he is outside and then he can eat grass as he wants. I keep his enclosure nice and warm, good lights, temp controls, vitamins, straight calcium on everthing, and calcium with D3 every third day.

Do I simply cut back on the amount of food? I don't get it. If he was outside all the time he would eat a lot more than I feed him because he wants to eat all the time. I am confident he is getting the right lighting, but the only way to really ensure that is to buy a UVB light meter which is about $200.

Take a look at the pics and let me know what you think. I tried to take an angle that showed the pyramids the best.

forgot to post the images. These were take about 2 months ago - he was between 15 and 16 oz.

It is a really good looking leopard even though there is a little pyramiding going on. Leopards are one of the toughest to get smooth growth out of. Richard Fife of Raparian Farms does have this down though.

Do you have a humid hide for it to rest/sleep in? It sound's like you are doing everything else 'right'. You have to keep in mind that all this stuff is all tied together.

I have 4 tortoises that I keep together. One is slightly pyramided and the other 3 are not. I'm trying to figure what the animal is doing different because they all get the same treatment. Behavior also plays a part although I'm not sure how much.

Can you post a shot looking straight down on top?

I'm convinced that heat and hydration are the main factors.
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Ed
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Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

I just noticed that tortoise appears to be what some call a South African Leopard. It looks like a pardalis babcocki in every way except for the baby scutes. That is real interesting in itself if that's the case.

A top shot can tell for sure.
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Ed
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Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

He has places to hide but not a "humid hide". Is that some specific product? Here is top shot. My understanding is that he is a Pardalis Pardalis, not a babcocki. What do you think?

Thanks, Ben

That is definately pardalis pardalis. The interesting point is that if you could not see the baby scutes there is no way you could say that was pardalis pardalis.

It is still a wonderful specimen and I wouldn't worry about the rate at all. It just means you are taking good care of it and it is responding accordingly.
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Ed
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Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

A humid hide is a moist place where you can maintain a higher than average humidity.

One of the RF keepers on this list uses a rubbermaid sweater box placed upside down with a moist substrate inside. I'm going to give this a try but place it right side up so I can remove the top to check out the inside.

I'm also going to cut the hole about 2 inches up so I can control the moist substrate better. This will be used in my indoor enclosures.

For the smaller guys I just moisten one side of the enclosuer every day or two.
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Ed
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Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

EJ,
some of us make a dry side and a moist side and place one (or more) hide boxes on each side for box turtles while they are indors....
Have you ever tried providing two hides of differeing humidity for small (hathcling/juvenile)arid climate torts?

second image.

Ben,

I have had two small leopards I got in January. Then they were 36 gr and 50 gr. They are now 66 gr and 86 gr. They mostly eat what they find in their outdoor pen (planted from turtle cafe) plus some other cactus, weeds and flowers I find. The breeder said they hatched out in Oct 03 (the bigger) and Nov 04 (the smaller) which puts them at 9 and 10 months old. Don't know if this is slow - but they look healthy and active.

Do you have any pictures? If someone could tell me how to post a pic I have some recent ones.

T

Thanks for your message, I posted photos in response to the previous message.

Regarding how to post, I cannot quite recall because I posted those images a couple months ago as well. I do know that one way is to upload them to the server, and then you can click on the select image from the photo gallery. Maybe someone else can help here.

Ben

Your guy looks great to me. I am going to try and attach the pictures. I have no idea if this is going to work. If it does, you can see my guys are much smaller (but they are a year younger too). They are also pardalis babcocki, if that makes a difference in growth rate, I don't know.

T

My leopard is 7 months old and it is still only 3 inches long. Is this normal? It grew for the first couple months I got him and then now it seems to have stopped. Is this okay? I have been feeding him timothy hay, lettuce, and some dandelions. I just want to make sure I am taking good care of him. I also give him calcium supplements twice a week.

Also-with the human hide I have never heard of spraying it with water?? Am I supposed to do that?

If someone can explain how to post pictures I will gladly post one of my little guy (or girl)

Thanks

It's only going to grow as fast as the conditions and input materials that are provided allow.

I've got 2 little guys that I hatched out in March. They were 41mm SCL on hatching and are now 51mm SCL. I think that's kinda slow for me but I'm nt concerned about it.

I have another leopard that is growing kinda quick and the only concern there is that it looks a little asymetric. I have a good idea why and it is curious.
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Ed
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Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Hi,

I went to the photo galleries, uploaded the pictures following the directions and then when you go to post, it gives you the option to select an image from the gallery.

Mine are small too. They were 4.3 cm (36gr) and 5.5 cm (50) grams in January. Today (7 months later) they are 6.2 cm (66 gr) and 7.3 cm (98 gr) - - so the largest is only 3 inches. I have no idea if that is good, bad or in-between.

That's the point... there is no good or bad as long as the animal is healthy in every other way.
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Ed
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Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care