The Minority Report

[SteveW]

Thank you for sharing your experiences.

I have had good, but inconsistent success raising leopard tortoises without enclosed chambers or high humidity. A couple of years ago I switched to using closed chambers and consistently high amounts of humidity. I am still receiving the same mix of inconsistent results. That's not to say, I have a mix of smooth and horribly pyramided tortoises. It's more like I have some that are near perfect and some that are about 80% - 90% of the way there. Still successful though, but questions and further trials for me still remain.

Husbandry demands for tortoises kept in closed chambers is significantly less, I have found. I don't think I will ever go back to not using closed chambers if only to save me lots of time.

Do I understand correctly that your leopard tortoise has been exposed to no less than 50% RH consistently?

I hear you on the taking less time part. I have a clump of sphagnum moss in the middle and on the hot end that I rehydrate 2x a day. And no, that doesn't get old at all
In regards the humidity, there are locations on the flagstone in the hot end that can drop to even 30% RH, but literally inches away it climbs right back up.
Every zone seems to be utilized, the hot/dry part regularly, but not long duration.
It's interesting that you are having mixed (within the parameters) results even in closed chambers. Are you seeing that with other species?
I have a redfoot with some shell issues but he had the dry start to life that may or may not be causal, but is at least adding some doubt to the results.

 

[Neal]

No only mixed results with the leopards. I've raised sulcatas, stars, and a few Mediterraneans in this way and the only inconsistencies were with the "normal" type leopards.

The South African variants all grew smooth for me.