a couple questions :)

[tortoiseforum1]

Hi! I was just wondering if anyone knows if watermelon rinds are okay for leopard tortoises to eat? Also about how often can they eat fruits and treats? My tortoise also has a kind of a lot of pyramiding (he had it when we got him about a month ago). Any suggestions on what to do to fix it, or is it okay how it is? Thank you!

 

[Lokkje]

Hello, and welcome. You are going to get a lot of information from members that are a lot more experienced with leopard tortoises than I am. Start by reading the pinned threads on the top on keeping Sulcata and leopard tortoises. Many of the questions you might have about things like pyramiding are answered and you want to address your enclosure, your light source, your heat source, your humidity and so forth and it’s all in those postings. I’ve never tried to feed my leopard watermelon rinds and the only fruit that I can recall ever feeding him is an occasional fruit from my cactus. I know more about desert tortoises and in general tortoises don’t handle sugar very well. Kind of like humans. You might consider a different type of treat. Will at Kapidolo Farms sells food that are excellent for your leopard and easy to keep and store. I had been struggling with a failure to thrive leopard tortoise that was “gift“ to me by someone who didn’t want to take care of him anymore and he was really looking like he was not going to survive. By following the postings on the forum, taking the advice of everyone on the forum and carefully applying it, and by getting some supplements/food from Will my tortoise is now well past 250 g when he sat at 50 g for months. He looks at certain foods as a major treat and go straight for them such as the nettle and the raspberry leaves from Will and I forage for food as I live on the side of a mountain in the desert in Phoenix and I have weeds and grasses in the backyard as well as rose, hibiscus, strawberry and other plants that I planted for the desert tortoises. A great favorite for my desert tortoises is hibiscus flower but the leopard doesn’t like it for some reason. I just periodically introduce healthy foods and the tortoise treat is more a perception on the part of you than the tortoise than so I would try taking healthy food and introducing it and creating a really healthy diet and I found that to be fun, fascinating and entertaining. Can you post a picture of your tortoise? I would love to see what he looks like. Finally, if you go on the search and type in pyramid you will get quite a bit of information on the different threads that have discussed it.

 

[tortoiseforum1]

Thank You! I'm glad to have any advice! This is Herb. Also, does anyone know what type/subspecies he is? I've read the descriptions of both, but I'm still not sure.