ReverendBob
New Member
Hello all. I am looking for advice as to whether the growth I am seeing on our Leopard "hatchling" is appropriate.
Some quick background before the specific details I am asking about. My wife adopted this Leopard hatchling a bit over two years ago. Frankly, she was unprepared and got a lot of conflicting advice online (much of which is bad). Shelldon basically did not grow for nearly two years; he hovered around 38-41g that entire time. I am thankful he doesn't appear to have suffered any disease during that period.
I stepped in this summer, found this forum, and started implementing changes based primarily on the excellent posts by Tom. I have him in a much larger enclosed-chamber bioactive habitat (cool side/nighttime 80F, basking 95-100F, humidity 50-70%) with slight rolling terrain (coco coir substrate), two available hides, a terracotta shallow water dish inset into the substrate, and a fern to help block sight lines. I grow bermuda grass and clover in his enclosure until he eats it or tramples it, at which point I give it a week or so and reseed when he is soaking.
He eats a steady diet of mazuri, dandelion greens, opuntia, mulberry leaves, escarole, and endive. Two cuttlebones available at all times. Occasional Herptivite vitamin dusting on his food. He gets out to our backyard in a secure area to roam and nibble on grass/weeds about 2 days a week for about 2 hours at a time. He soaks in 85-95F water for 30-40 minutes ~5 days a week.
Since I have implemented these changes, I have seen the growth documented below. I keep a spreadsheet of his weight and I took a picture this morning of the growth-lines on his shell and plastron. I think this is good healthy growth, but I lack experience and want to make sure we have him on the right track. Based on everything I read, his behavior, pooping, eating, energy, etc. all seem to be on track. No signs of illness or disease that I can detect.
I am hopeful we have our tortoise on the right path, but I wanted to seek advice to make sure and to correct anything we need to correct.
I sincerely appreciate your time and any feedback you have.
Some quick background before the specific details I am asking about. My wife adopted this Leopard hatchling a bit over two years ago. Frankly, she was unprepared and got a lot of conflicting advice online (much of which is bad). Shelldon basically did not grow for nearly two years; he hovered around 38-41g that entire time. I am thankful he doesn't appear to have suffered any disease during that period.
I stepped in this summer, found this forum, and started implementing changes based primarily on the excellent posts by Tom. I have him in a much larger enclosed-chamber bioactive habitat (cool side/nighttime 80F, basking 95-100F, humidity 50-70%) with slight rolling terrain (coco coir substrate), two available hides, a terracotta shallow water dish inset into the substrate, and a fern to help block sight lines. I grow bermuda grass and clover in his enclosure until he eats it or tramples it, at which point I give it a week or so and reseed when he is soaking.
He eats a steady diet of mazuri, dandelion greens, opuntia, mulberry leaves, escarole, and endive. Two cuttlebones available at all times. Occasional Herptivite vitamin dusting on his food. He gets out to our backyard in a secure area to roam and nibble on grass/weeds about 2 days a week for about 2 hours at a time. He soaks in 85-95F water for 30-40 minutes ~5 days a week.
Since I have implemented these changes, I have seen the growth documented below. I keep a spreadsheet of his weight and I took a picture this morning of the growth-lines on his shell and plastron. I think this is good healthy growth, but I lack experience and want to make sure we have him on the right track. Based on everything I read, his behavior, pooping, eating, energy, etc. all seem to be on track. No signs of illness or disease that I can detect.
I am hopeful we have our tortoise on the right path, but I wanted to seek advice to make sure and to correct anything we need to correct.
I sincerely appreciate your time and any feedback you have.
