Leopard hatchlings

[Yvonne G]

Oh, wow...so sorry to read that all the babies except one have died. Did you ever figure out why?

I don't think leopard tortoises make urates. I've never seen any with my leopards.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

I don't think leopard tortoises make urates. I've never seen any with my leopards.

Recently someone shared a photo of their leopards urates. They were gritty, too.
So, they must be able to produce them.

Interesting you've never seen urates from a leopard either. You've probably encountered a good #of them.

 

[Amanda81]

Oh, wow...so sorry to read that all the babies except one have died. Did you ever figure out why?

I don't think leopard tortoises make urates. I've never seen any with my leopards.

No I never figured out why all of em died except Ivory. I had one of the quads do the same thing. I provide the exact same care to everyone, keep their enclosures set up just the same, I fed all the leopards the same diet and all the Sulcata the same. The rest of the quads are doing great and Ivory is doing great. She doesn't grow but other then that she's great. The sudans are doing great as well.

As for Ivory and her lack of urate, I didn't know leopards didn't have urate, I thought maybe that could shed some light on why she doesn't grow but if that's a normal thing then she looks to be normal there too. Lol.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Amanda81]

So I have been noticing that Ivory is laying in her water ALL the time. I have 2 dishes in her enclosure, a small 4" that is her drinking water and then a larger one maybe 7-8" that I call her "pond". Now she will usually play around in her pond, she likes to run in and out of it and some days she will even self soak for awhile. Even if she self soaks I still soak her daily for 20-30 minutes. But here lately she is staying in one of the two dishes. She sleeps in the water all night, she lays in the water all day, the only time I see her out of the water is when I feed her. I give her food, sit her over at it, she eats, and goes straight back to her water dishes. She has always slept on top of her log hide, so the first couple nights that I noticed her sleeping in her water I figured perhaps she just didn't make it to her sleeping spot before the lights went off (even though she is usually in her sleep spot hours before the lights go out) so I took her out the water and put her in her spot. With the lights off and the room completely dark I came back 15 minutes later to check on her and she had went straight back to the water. After 3 nights of me moving her to her regular spot from the water (I moved her multiple times each night, she always went back) I finally gave up and have been letting her sleep in the water. This has went on long enough now that I'm concerned. Today I started monitoring her about an hour before the lights popped on and I have watched her through out the day, she hasn't moved from the spot she slept in. She has turned around a quarter of a turn but that's it.
Nothing else seems to be different. She is eating fine, no more no less, she is pooing properly, she is active when we go out for our sunning/soaks everyday, nothing has changed in her enclosure or outdoor area, we have a routine and it's all the same.

Has anyone seen their tortoise start doing this? Is this something normal or is something perhaps going on with her? I worry a little extra about her because she already isn't growing. So when something else is noticed I wonder. Any and all advise would be greatly appreciated.




This is her basic day for the last week or 10 days.

 

[Turbotort]

Really sorry to hear about your losses. My tort isn't growing either but that's a whole different story. I wanted to start a multivitamin as well. Which do you use?

 

[Amanda81]

Really sorry to hear about your losses. My tort isn't growing either but that's a whole different story. I wanted to start a multivitamin as well. Which do you use?

Hello. Why do you think your tort isn't growing? My Ivory grew some and then stalled out at 70 grams. As for a multivitamin I use 2 different types. I use a powered type and then a spray type. I only got the spray type because when I first got my leopards they refused to eat anything that has the powered type on it. These days I mainly just use the powder type tho. I have used it for about a year and it seems to be doing fine. I think I got the multivitamin and calcium in a combo pack for like $14 at petmountain. This is what it looks like

 

[Turbotort]

We suspect poor husbandry for the 3 months after birth before I got him. Also I was horrible miss informed on how to care for my leo. 7 months old and still 30-34g. I'm still adjusting my setup and diet. I'll be getting a mvb, liquid vitamins, and a full spectrum light to grow tetsudo in the enclosure.

Given time I'm sure both our torts will pull through!

 

[Amanda81]

We suspect poor husbandry for the 3 months after birth before I got him. Also I was horrible miss informed on how to care for my leo. 7 months old and still 30-34g. I'm still adjusting my setup and diet. I'll be getting a mvb, liquid vitamins, and a full spectrum light to grow tetsudo in the enclosure.

Given time I'm sure both our torts will pull through!

Ivory is a year now and she has stalled out at 70 grams. I'm not sure of her history before she came to me last August. When I decided to get a tort I started researching and at first I found a lot of stuff online but none of it was the same. One article would say to do this way and then another article to say to do it totally opposite. So finally I found this forum and I figured it would b my best bet since the people on it are actually doing it themselves. So after a few days of scanning threads and seeing people refer to Tom a lot I checked out every thread tom had done and then the caresheet. I decided to follow his advise since he has been successful with his methods. So I made sure I had the enclosure set right and everything, before I got them. I of course adjust a few things cause mine and toms climates are different but I basically raise my Sulcata and leopard the exact same. The Sulcata are doing great, their growing like weeds but for some reason Ivory doesn't. I lost all my other leopards back at the beginning of the fall last year and I just assumed she had pulled through and when stuff settled down she would take back off. She does great in every place except growth. She is active (was up till this "living in her water thing") eats like a horse, she seems completely normal everywhere except the fact that she has been 21/2" since last October and weighted 70 grams since this past April. I don't really care
That she is little, she can be my mini leopard forever as far as that goes, my concern is that she is going to just die one day. Hatchling failure or something, if I could eliminate that issue there then I would be fine with her not growing.

 

[Turbotort]

Yeah I basically feel the same way. I just worry he will up and die randomly one day. I didnt find this forum for the first month so I was following all the old outdated caresheets with open enclosures and what not.