Leopards in their outdoor enclosure

[Berkeley]

I wanted to share a couple of pictures of some of my leopard tortoises and their outdoor enclosure. All of my leopards are rescues, so unfortunately they all have varying degrees of pyramiding. I like to do naturalistic enclosures, and to try and replicate the inhabitants' natural environments as closely as I am able.

This pen is 12x15 feet, with a 4x4 offshoot for the juveniles. It is made of 1x6 decking boards, and it is heavily planted with grasses and thorny bushes.

Here is one of the females.




A shy male. This one is probably my favorite. I really like the smoothness of his shell, as well as the perfect leopard spotting. In my mind, that is just textbook!

Same one, just from a little farther away.

One of the juveniles in the separate pen.


Enjoy!
--Berkeley

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

you have amazing enclosures! do you get any eggs from any of your torts?

 

[gingerbee]

Wow beauties. I would love one!!

 

[bouaboua]

Very nice indeed! ! ! ! !!

 

[bouaboua]

Can you add a bird eye's view of this enclosure?? I love to see how the overview looks like. Thanks! ! ! !

 

[Jodie]

Great enclosure. Beautiful tortoises too.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Wonderfully planted. I too would love more photos of the enclosure.

 

[J.P.]

nice! i like how they have all those hiding places. i bet it also does wonders for the humidity.

just concerend though. won't you be having trouble with the sand and pebbles? i spent a lot of time picking those up when i made my leopard pen, i couldn't get everything out, but it's all coveren in grass now so i'm not too worried.

 

[Berkeley]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I'm glad you like it so much! Once the sun comes back out and everything is green again, I'll see about taking some more pictures.

you have amazing enclosures! do you get any eggs from any of your torts?

I do from other species that I keep, but I have not gotten eggs from the leopards yet.

nice! i like how they have all those hiding places. i bet it also does wonders for the humidity.

just concerend though. won't you be having trouble with the sand and pebbles? i spent a lot of time picking those up when i made my leopard pen, i couldn't get everything out, but it's all coveren in grass now so i'm not too worried.

It does really hold the humidity, J.P. That was my goal with the plantings. In regards to the sand and gravel, no, I'm not worried about it. I deliberately added bags of sand and gravel to each of my pen. It helps with drainage. I usually feed on plates, so that minimizes the amount that they could ingest. And most of the time, if they get a small rock or piece of gravel in their mouth while they are eating, they will maneuver it around and back out so that they don't swallow it. However, I know that they eat a lot of it on their own -intentionally, I would guess- because it passes in their feces. As long as the animals are well hydrated, impaction is not really an issue. It is amazing the size of a piece of gravel that they can pass!

--Berkeley