2010 South African Leopard Thread.

Tom

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After a year and a half of trying to make it happen, I finally succeeded in acquiring a bunch of Geochelone pardalis pardalis. (Note to Mr. Scientist, I am aware that YOU recently decided to change the genus name of this species. However, I've been using the "old", perfectly good name for 20 years, and prefer it. If YOUR new name holds up for 20 years, maybe, I'll consider changing. Such a shame that you spent your time and resources fixing something that ain't broke, instead of on something useful like figuring out what hatchlings do for their first year in the wild or solving the pyramiding mystery for us all... end rant.)

Anyhow, I was able to get 36 of these beautiful little hatchlings and share some of them with several forum members. I'm keeping around 10, or so, and the rest have all gone to good homes. This presents an amazing learning opportunity for us all. We know the source, the hatch date (within a few days), precisely how they were cared for in their first few days and weeks, what they were fed, etc... Since they've all been shipped off to different parts of the states, and we'll all do things a little differently, the whole world can watch them grow up and see what works best for their area. A tremendous amount of info will be able to be extrapolated from all of this. It can be one giant "End of Pyramiding" thread for us all to share. I really loved each and every one of these little guys and it was really difficult to decide which ones to part with. It ended up being pretty arbitrary as they were all cherry picked by me in the first place. I'm really looking forward to getting to watch so many of them grow up, with regular updates.

They all hatched between mid-August and the first week of September. All weighed 32-36 grams when I got them. They are all between 60-80 grams now. They are from several different clutches in several different pens, so they are also different ages and sizes. I tried to go get them right after they hatched, so most of them were in my care and receiving the "wet" routine within days of hatching. Next to hatching them myself, this has been about as close to a perfect situation as I could get.

Here's a few current pics of mine to get things started:
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johnhutch2000

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Amazing, I love it. How did you 'aquire' the eggs? were they wild or from a known background?
Best of luck with looking after these guys, they look great, it must have been impossible to decide which to keep and which to re-home.
:)
 

Tom

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johnhutch2000 said:
Amazing, I love it. How did you 'aquire' the eggs? were they wild or from a known background?
Best of luck with looking after these guys, they look great, it must have been impossible to decide which to keep and which to re-home.
:)

The original stock are direct imports from 20 years ago. My friend hatches them out and I just go pick up the babies.
 

J. Ellis

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Very, very jealous. I definately want a few GPP 'round my place!
 

ChiKat

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What a great idea for everyone to add updates/pictures to one thread! I think it's important enough to be stickied ;)
 

Edna

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It's awesome to see some of the pretty little sibs/cousins together on one thread! I'm not going to add mine now, but this is where I'll put the pics in a month when I take my next set.
 

Nofx

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Wow, great topic!

I just wish to say one thing. I have a Leopard tort, i have him for 8 month now, and before i got him he was cca 6 month's ( i think.. ) old and 2.8 inches ( i hope the converter cm to inch did it right :p ). The first few months i gave him food every second day and he had the RND ( runny nose.. ) and was capt on a 30 and lower % of humidity, and the only food i was giving him were the grasses that grow on my yard, with a once per week 5 min souping. Then the summer came, he was out and he got a bit bigger ( just a bit, really..A BIT! ) and still had the RND. Then a ''miracle'' happened.

On the 2nd of this month ( 2.11 ) i fist saw your 'How to raise a baby Sulcata' and i was like..Hmm seems reasonable.
Since then I keep him in a 70-80% humidity housing, i feed him with spring mix and allso yard weeds, and I water him 3x a day + 10-15min of souping every day. And the little dude is getting bigger! I just cant believe it, I can ''see'' him grow in front of my eyes lol. And the RND is like 85% gone!! In 9 days he grow that much, that he did in 8 moths lol.
You just can't believe how happy I am, the poor guy is 1 year or maybe a bit more old and he is 3.1 inches. But not for any more, every day that passes he get's bigger!
Even tho, when i got him he had a bit of pyramiding, still not much but it was. But now, the new ''skin'' is smooth and it seems its not pyramiding any more.
Tomorrow i will go to the store and buy that gosh darn cable for the camera, cuz' i just cant find it,..and i will post some pic of him.

Sorry for overtyping, i just dont know when to stop hah :)





Ps. Oh crap how did this happen, i didn't mean to post here lol, wrong topic xD I wanted to post in the End of pyramiding topic..Uppps :)
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Nofx (May we know your name?):

Don't worry about the length of your posts. Just post as much as you want/need to. It was a great post and I'm so glad that Tom's words of wisdom have helped you with your little tortoise.

I know you meant to post this in the other thread, but it works well in this one too. Maybe one of the other moderators will move it for you. I haven't figured that one out yet. :shy:
 

Floof

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Oh my gosh, Tom (and everyone else), your babies are absolutely gorgeous!!! I really hope you have some for sale again next summer (and if I can't get a tort by THEN, at least, I will be very, very upset). Gpps have become my dream torts!! :D

Here's looking forward to seeing how all these little guys and gals grow!!!
 

Tom

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Floof said:
Oh my gosh, Tom (and everyone else), your babies are absolutely gorgeous!!! I really hope you have some for sale again next summer (and if I can't get a tort by THEN, at least, I will be very, very upset). Gpps have become my dream torts!! :D

Here's looking forward to seeing how all these little guys and gals grow!!!

Thanks Floof. I really think they are a great tortoise for anyone of any experience level. They do get kind of big, but nowhere near as bad as a sulcata. Also their hardiness and cold tolerance makes them pretty easy to house outdoors when the time comes.

Nofx said:
Wow, great topic!

I just wish to say one thing. I have a Leopard tort, i have him for 8 month now, and before i got him he was cca 6 month's ( i think.. ) old and 2.8 inches ( i hope the converter cm to inch did it right :p ). The first few months i gave him food every second day and he had the RND ( runny nose.. ) and was capt on a 30 and lower % of humidity, and the only food i was giving him were the grasses that grow on my yard, with a once per week 5 min souping. Then the summer came, he was out and he got a bit bigger ( just a bit, really..A BIT! ) and still had the RND. Then a ''miracle'' happened.

On the 2nd of this month ( 2.11 ) i fist saw your 'How to raise a baby Sulcata' and i was like..Hmm seems reasonable.
Since then I keep him in a 70-80% humidity housing, i feed him with spring mix and allso yard weeds, and I water him 3x a day + 10-15min of souping every day. And the little dude is getting bigger! I just cant believe it, I can ''see'' him grow in front of my eyes lol. And the RND is like 85% gone!! In 9 days he grow that much, that he did in 8 moths lol.
You just can't believe how happy I am, the poor guy is 1 year or maybe a bit more old and he is 3.1 inches. But not for any more, every day that passes he get's bigger!
Even tho, when i got him he had a bit of pyramiding, still not much but it was. But now, the new ''skin'' is smooth and it seems its not pyramiding any more.
Tomorrow i will go to the store and buy that gosh darn cable for the camera, cuz' i just cant find it,..and i will post some pic of him.

Nofx, I'm glad the info helped you, but I never intended it for an animal that is already sick. Your experience might help all of us learn a thing or two, so THANK YOU for sharing it. Just make sure you keep those temps above 80F (or 27C) ALL the time every where in the enclosure. Even at night. Ordinarily, people try to dry them out and keep them out of humidity in your situation, but maybe that has been a mistake on everyones' part. Including mine. Please keep us posted on this and be careful. I'd feel awful if anything bad happened because of something I recommended.
 

Badgemash

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I'm loving these little guys, and it's so neat to observe how different their behaviors are compared to our other two. For example they love to dig, I caught Spartacus burrowing through the substrate and going underneath the wall of the hide. I guess he just doesn't like going through the front. Gunny bulldozed a trench last night to connect the two little nests they've made, which they also like to sleep in. And they both love to root around in the hay, while our other two couldn't care less.

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Tom

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Badgemash said:
I'm loving these little guys, and it's so neat to observe how different their behaviors are compared to our other two. For example they love to dig, I caught Spartacus burrowing through the substrate and going underneath the wall of the hide. I guess he just doesn't like going through the front. Gunny bulldozed a trench last night to connect the two little nests they've made, which they also like to sleep in. And they both love to root around in the hay, while our other two couldn't care less.

So funny you say that. In the past when I had babcocks they never burrowed or dug at all, but these Gpp all like to dig in a bit. There have been two times where I thought I lost one because they dug down entirely UNDER the substrate in the outdoor sunning cage. I had to run my fingers through all the substrate to find them. My sulcata babies never did that, but my young box turtle did.
 

Badgemash

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It's crazy, I keep getting paranoid they're going to suffocate themselves they way they dig in and fall asleep. I kept digging them out to check on them and they get the funniest look like "why did you wake me up? Is it time for more food?"
 

ticothetort2

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Tico: Received 5-Nov-10
Length: 2 1/4" (SCL)
Weight: 50 Grams

He weighed in last night (12-Nov-10) at 54 Grams.

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Mr. Tico stylin in his cool shades...
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Tico is also a burrower, he loves to dig himself down in the sphagnum moss in the humid hide as well as his dry hide. My wife called me the other day at work asking if I had seen him that morning because she was worried he pulled a Houdini!! It is amazing how fast the marbling is changing on him, everyday he show's a little more cream in between his scutes.
 

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