Leopard Yard Enlargement Project

[Yvonne G]

My Babcock leopards have a 45' long yard and about 3/4s of it is only 10' wide, opening up to about 25' wide the last quarter. They eat the grass down to the dirt. This first picture I'm standing just behind their south fence. Hard to see because of the bushes. It goes up to the wire fence:



Now I've walked up past the bushes. The wire fence just in front of me is a temporary dog kennel fence just put in place to keep the tortoises away from the bushes. It's too hard for this old body to climb under the bushes to gather up the strays in the evening to put them into the shed:



This last shot shows the 40' square section of the pasture I've got strung. @Will will cut the wire fence and make an opening for the tortoises to go out into the new section. The string line shows where Will and I will be building the wooden perimeter fence to contain the tortoises:



Once we have the new section open, I'll remove the separating fence between the Babcocks and SA's, and I'll fence straight across from the shed, where the temporary dog fence is now, giving the SA's the whole yard south of the shed.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Wow......now that's a lot of pasture nice job

 

[diamondbp]

Nice work and I'm sure the tortoises will be more than happy to have even more roaming room. Especially since they are all getting larger by the day. I'll be expanding my area come springtime. Keep us updated @Yvonne G . TFO is always better seeing post from you . Did you ever end up with any luck hatching out your PP eggs?

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Maybe we could make two pens there with the ability to switch one for use and one for rest? Just thinking out-loud with that.

 

[Neal]

That looks like a good space to upgrade.

Are you going to add any plants or just leave it as a pasture-type space?

 

[Yvonne G]

Nice work and I'm sure the tortoises will be more than happy to have even more roaming room. Especially since they are all getting larger by the day. I'll be expanding my area come springtime. Keep us updated @Yvonne G . TFO is always better seeing post from you . Did you ever end up with any luck hatching out your PP eggs?

No. They're still in the incubator, but I'm sure they're all duds.

 

[Yvonne G]

Maybe we could make two pens there with the ability to switch one for use and one for rest? Just thinking out-loud with that.

Pasture management? it didn't work with the Sulcata. Once he knew there was another yard beyond the fence he kept breaking it down to get over there. But it might work with the leopards. We could fence across the middle with a gate at one end that goes into either pasture.

 

[Yvonne G]

That looks like a good space to upgrade.

Are you going to add any plants or just leave it as a pasture-type space?

I may add a big shrub in the middle for hiding under, but other than that, no plants. Last week I raked it all up (roughed it up) and sprinkled seeds - a winter forage mixture plus a broad leaf Testudo mixture. There is also Bermuda that is dormant right now. The seeds are starting to come up.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Maybe some cold tolerant hibiscus, or a mulberry tree that gets pruned low every year, a grape vine without a trellis??

 

[dmmj]

we're moving on up, to the east side

 

[Robber]

we're moving on up, to the east side

...to a Deee-Lux apartment...

Looks like a promising project; it will be cool to look out there and see them all moving about in that space.

 

[Yvonne G]

Over the past few months Will and I have accumulated several SA leopards, unrelated to each other, and it has become necessary to open more space for them. At this point, I only have two that are big enough to need the larger space, as the rest of them are still pretty small. So, here's mine and Will's new project:

This is the pasture we're going to extend their yard out into. I'm standing at the end of the current lepard yard and the new gate will be right at my feet here:



Will got here early afternoon Friday and immediately went out and dug post holes. He was able to get all of them dug before dark on Friday. Then Saturday he put up most of the boards, and this is what it looked like Saturday night at dusk:



Disregard the railroad ties. I just pulled them away from the fence So Will could get the boards put up. The RR ties will be removed at the end of the project.

This is a look at the new area from the other end, and you can see the old vacant house I'm always referring to in the last picture, with my lovely supply of scrap lumber in front of it.



It started to rain this morning, so we had to quit as it's just not safe operating an electric saw in the rain. But I have several clumps of zebra grass planted, a honeysuckle along the fence on the left, and there's not much left to do but cut the wire fence to the old leopard yard and make some inner yard fence adjustments. Will is coming back up in March and the project will be ready for its inhabitants.

 

[Tom]

That's awesome!

So they will be able to walk from their current yard into this new area? What a great way to do it!

I want pics of the new tortoises!!!

 

[Yvonne G]

Yes, there's be an opening from their current yard directly into the new part. I'll then fence off from the shed to the privacy fence along the property line and the Babcock leopards will have that area. So, I'll have the Northern pasture for the SAs and the Southern pasture for the Babcocks. Ok, these are my SA leopard tortoises:

From Tom:

I'm not sure of where this blood lines from, and they may even be related, so I'll breed this female (the bigger tortoise), with BenAwes.

This one comes Randy Limburg lines:


These three come from Randy Limburg lines too, but from a different seller. They're about as big as a small adult Russian:



Then there's BenAwes, who I thought was female, but is definitely male. I think he comes from Price and Fife bloodlines. So he'll be a good male to go with Tom's female. I've put one of the three from above in with him only for size comparison for this picture:

 

[Momof4]

Awesome!!! It's looking great!!!
Thank you @Will for helping your tort wife

 

[cmacusa3]

I'm not sure they will like it, you better send those beauties to me...jk looks great

 

[Gillian M]

V nice pics @Yvonne G thanks for posting.

 

[bouaboua]

WOW. Very nice......

More to see next time when we visit! ! !

 

[BILBO-03]

Looks good !

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

That's awesome!

So they will be able to walk from their current yard into this new area? What a great way to do it!

I want pics of the new tortoises!!!

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/live-naked-people.126107/page-15#post-1441269 and the following post