Feeding questions and concerns

[Elohi]

I have my little leopard hatchling and purchased her with one for my friend. When they were together I noticed the larger one would quickly devour everything put in front of him, but my hatchling, while a good eater, is slower and she seems to struggle with biting off pieces of the lettuces. She bites and bites and it takes her a while to successfully bite pieces off, whereas her larger sibling had no issues at all with the same task. Is this a concern or is it simply her size since she incredibly tiny? I usually put full leafs of spring mix with shredded smaller pieces on top, then bit of softened zoomed tort food.
So is it just size or could she have a jaw alignment issue I should be watching for?
I'm planning on getting another one in the next few days and I'm sure it will be even smaller!

 

[wellington]

When I first got my leopard a couple years ago, he would do,the same thing you are describing. It's kinda sad to see, I found myself actually taking bits for him, you know, like you do when your feeding a baby, you go through the motion. If no obvious physical mouth problems, then it's normal.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

I wouldn't worry about it, either.

One suggestion OT I would make is to bring home 2 more babies instead of just 1. If you house the 2 separately then, great. But if you want them to live together a trio will have much better dynamics then a pair. Just what I would do

 

[Elohi]

I wouldn't worry about it, either.

One suggestion OT I would make is to bring home 2 more babies instead of just 1. If you house the 2 separately then, great. But if you want them to live together a trio will have much better dynamics then a pair. Just what I would do

I had always heard 3 or more with many torts but thought for some reason if be fine with 2 Leos. Did I dream that up or is that somewhat true for them? I may have dreamed it up LOL

 

[Levi the Leopard]

3 or more is good practice with all species IMO.

I have 2 yearlings that spent a whole year together before coming to me and are now part of a group. They didn't bite each other, didn't ram, didn't mount or head bob. BUT one is clearly more dominant than the other.

I can only compare keeping multiple Leopards to keeping multiple Russians. And boy are they a night and day difference. The Leopards never the show the feisty, outwardly aggressive behavior. But even though they don't ram and bite, they do show different behaviors when I keep 2 together vs keeping them solo or in a group.

Pair dynamics are just different than in a group. Even with kids. I have 2 boys and I can't believe how different it is when I watch a 3rd kid.

 

[wellington]

As Heather said, three is better. There are some that have two together and are doing fine. Once they get older though, who knows. But, yes you have heard that, but it's still taking a chance. I think there will always be a more dominant one, more so in a couple then in a group. The two little ones I was caring for, did have a more dominant one and s/he was also the larger one.