My official p.pardalis leopard tort page

[Linhdan Nguyen]

Theyre gorgeous!
Cant wait until im settled and am able to raise my own pp !

 

[diamondbp]

Here is a young male that revealed his sex a few months ago and now is fully embracing it lol. He is really starting to hit a good stride with growth and is quite fearless for his age

 

[diamondbp]

This one is what I was HOPING would be a young female based on the misscute pattern and round shape. But just a few weeks ago it flashed me during a soak and the tail is beginning a noticeable growth spurt. He has a unique skin color which may not be apparent in the photos

 

[diamondbp]

This one is my last unknown PP. It's be far my smoothest one because I raised it from a hatchling. The sex is really a tough one with this individual. Although the anal scutes are flared, they have always been strongly flared, even as a hatchling. The flaring has actually become less flared as it's grown. Plus I never see any suspicious movement above the cloaca during soaks but I wouldn't be surprised if that changed quickly. But for now I'm holding out hope that it's a female. The tail is typically held strait out. Any opinions and guesses are welcomed @Tom

 

[diamondbp]

The next two are my babcocki mixed males. They are unique specimens that have me puzzled on exactly what genetics they might contain. There dark heads, big freckles, and very oblong shape are very different than virtually every other leopards I have seen on the market. This is is showing some mating activity on my babcocki females




And this is his lighter smaller clutchmate

 

[cmacusa3]

Thanks DP great stuff and pics!!

 

[Slow and steady]

I love the thread and the pics. As far as the "unknown" is concerned, I'm thinking male. The tail is short, but the cloaca seems a little far from the body. I hope I'm wrong, and you get your girl.

 

[KateZ]

I figured since I post pictures of my leopard tortoise group quite often it might be best to create my own thread that way a story is told over time. So here is my group minus two more 3month olds I will be receiving once it warms up.

Now I will be the first to admit that I have mistakes over the last 2 years working with this species that I wish I could go back and correct, but unfortunately sometimes we simply have to live and learn. I would love to say that every tortoise I acquired lived and was flourishing but I have lost a handful over the last two years for various reasons.

First and foremost I'm certain some of my babies that didn't make it were simply victims of hatchling failure syndrome. They would look great for a month or so then turn south in a flash while others in the exact same care were flourishing. Others were lost to a vicious ant invasion last winter that broke my heart.

I hope to share what I've experienced over the last few years to help others avoid the same heartache.

I'm by no means an expert on this species yet, but I feel that my experience is starting to narrow down a good path of raising these beautiful tortoises. I owe A TON to the loyal members of TFO that have raised and are currently working with this species and sharing their knowledge. My hope is that this thread can participate in the growing knowledge of this wonderful species so we can begin to see more and more babies reach adulthood.

Here is a quick (and honest) recap of my group with pictures below.

Hi,

They are all lovely. You have so many at or about one year of age. What is the average weight for my little guy? He was 173 g this morning. First time on scale. Just purchased him. He is just over one year.

 

[diamondbp]

Hi,

They are all lovely. You have so many at or about one year of age. What is the average weight for my little guy? He was 173 g this morning. First time on scale. Just purchased him. He is just over one year.

KateZ to be honest I didn't do a whole lot of weighing when they were young. So I wouldn't be much help in that arena. Sometimes when they are that young a good poop can change their weight lol. Sorry I wish I was more help with that question.

 

[diamondbp]

Hey gang. I wanted to let y'all know that I acquired a few additional pp babies from the Rodriguez breeders two weeks ago and have been very happy with their quality. Here are a few pics. I'm very curious to see how fast they grow with the newer methods I've adopted which I will give in detail soon. Enjoy these 3 little beauties all from different females.

 

[Slow and steady]

Beautiful PPs. Is there such a thing as an ugly one? I don't think so, they're all incredible in their own ways. Congratulations.

 

[cmacusa3]

Awesome looking! Can't wait to hear about the new method!

 

[BILBO-03]

Wow ! I like how all of their dots are kinda "combined" together very cool!

 

[Lincoln Michal]

Those are outstanding pp juveniles. If the breeder was Chris Rodriquez, others please be careful when buying from him. I had a bad experience with hatchling failure syndrome ( Failure to Thrive) with three pp babies I got from Mr. Rodriguez. All three died a slow death over 6 weeks. I provided ideal conditions and took them to a reptile vet multiple times. The three tortoises I received were runts nothing like the strong animals you show. I think Chris is producing a lot of hatchling and selling some unhealthy unthrifty animals. I wish he would have been kind enough to send me strong well formed animals in the first place or returned my $800. Be very careful who you buy your animals from. There are many self tortoise and turtle breeders

 

[diamondbp]

Those are outstanding pp juveniles. If the breeder was Chris Rodriquez, others please be careful when buying from him. I had a bad experience with hatchling failure syndrome ( Failure to Thrive) with three pp babies I got from Mr. Rodriguez. All three died a slow death over 6 weeks. I provided ideal conditions and took them to a reptile vet multiple times. The three tortoises I received were runts nothing like the strong animals you show. I think Chris is producing a lot of hatchling and selling some unhealthy unthrifty animals. I wish he would have been kind enough to send me strong well formed animals in the first place or returned my $800. Be very careful who you buy your animals from. There are many self tortoise and turtle breeders

They did come from Chris and honestly I was really impressed with the quality of babies. I'm not sure how long ago you purchased from Chris but it's possible that he and his wife have changed the methods in which they start their babies. I was going to wait about a month to post an update showing their growth but perhaps I'll do it at the 3 week mark to show how well they are growing already.

The understanding of how to properly start baby leopards is still a fairly recent development but I'm pretty certain that the Rodriguez's current methods are yielding good results. I don't see any signs what so ever that my babies would slow down in growth or fail. They remind me very much of my own babies that I raised up last year that are not even 9 months old and between 4-5 inches already.

I'm confident that these will prove to be a good buy and I would encourage you to dialogue with them again and see if any changes have been made that might give you a better understanding of what happened in the past

 

[Slow and steady]

Deftly handled.

 

[diamondbp]

Baby #1 (Fat Face) at 4 weeks since arrival

 

[diamondbp]

Baby #2 (Sparkles) at 4 weeks since arrival

 

[cmacusa3]

Baby #1 (Fat Face) at 4 weeks since arrival
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Looking Fantastic, Guess the new method is working?

 

[diamondbp]

Baby #3 (Addo) at 4 weeks since arrival