2010 South African Leopard Thread.

Erik Elvis

Active Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2017
Messages
244
Location (City and/or State)
Delaware
I love these guys. Now I really like my little sulcata but I wish I would have known of these before getting him. Don’t dare tell him I said that....
 

diamondbp

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Nov 17, 2012
Messages
3,331
I placed an aged Babcock next to the 2010s for comparison. Miz Babcock weighs 29lbs, the female 2010 is 26lbs and the male is 19lbs.

View attachment 223871

And BR-r-r-r-r-r-r!!!!! it's cold out there. 38F degrees this a.m.

Yvonne what she’ll length are yours up to? They both look outstanding
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,389
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
My 2010 SA female from Tom deposited eggs in a nest a little less than a month ago and I've left them in the ground, protected by cinderblocks. Here we are less than a month later and she's digging another nest.

The female is in a large yard with two breeding size males and three juvenile males, so chances are pretty good the eggs are fertile. The two larger males fight often, so testosterone could be high.

If anyone has any suggestions for me on how to diapause these eggs then incubate them, I'm



(all ears)

2010 SA leopard nesting 6-6-19.jpg
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,264
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
My attempts at artificial incubation have largely failed. I'm leaving all eggs in the ground now. The originator of this line of tortoises tried all sorts of artificial incubation techniques for years, and eventually decided to leave them all in the ground because it simply worked better. Ours were all ground hatched.
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,389
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
So you think my weather is ok for ground hatching?
 

diamondbp

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Nov 17, 2012
Messages
3,331
So you think my weather is ok for ground hatching?

I’m trying a new technique at “room temperature” (75 degrees) for the first 6 weeks or so instead of the wine cooler method. I can’t leave them in the ground because of our high moisture content in the soil down in Louisiana, along with other factors like fire ants and a high water table.

So far my initial clutch has been to quite noticeably chalk. In the past my clutches would chalk but not in an overly obvious manner as these are. Hopefully this is a positive sign.

The other two clutches in the photo were recently laid. So they need a few weeks before I expect them to chalk.

If this “room temp” method doesn’t yield results I will then create an elevated nest box to move the eggs to for safe natural incubation. It’ll be difficult to keep the fire ants from moving in and I’ll have to play the moisture level by ear. Fingers crossed. I’ll keep y’all posted.

Last year I had terrible luck with the wine cooler method. Even for first year females I considered it super poor results (1 baby out of over 40 eggs)

IMG_7348.jpgIMG_7034.jpgIMG_7372.jpg
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,389
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
Well, so far I have two nests in the ground. I'm going to have @Kapidolo Farms make me some sort of wire boxes to cover them with. I've noted down the dates they were laid. The nest areas are in full sun from early morning until about 5p in the afternoon, then the old house next to that yard shades the spot.
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,389
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
All of my nests for the past two years have not hatched. When I dug up the eggs, there were no babies in them.
 

New Posts

Top