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I know of whom you're referring to. We had also received animals from a person who had 2 galops in his personal collection, originally from this person, I assume. The SSP wasn't created until 81, I am glad to hear this person has adapted. I have not worked on the SSP related side of things...

I spray his enclosure daily but will look into a sort of misting system. Thanks for the input!!

This was shared amongst a professional zookeeper page. I do think slower growth is healthier than fast growth. This goes for most animals.

Thanks Tom! I was actually just googling if he can eat Jade. He has ton of Jade growing in his enclosure but has never shown interest. I will clip some to offer. I did not mention succulents but we do offer him succulents. I have tons of succulents growing on my property, and can definitely...

Definitely- I spoke to another keeper about this and she mentioned the same thing. In my care he has been outside full time. I soak him, but could do it more frequently. He is pretty good about soaking himself. I also hose down his pen daily. We soaked our tortoises at work daily. Even with...

Hi all, attached are pictures of my 11-15 year old leopard tortoise. Some background information; I am actually a former zookeeper and specialized in saltwater aquatics and reptiles. I've worked with many shelled friends, from sea turtles to baby desert tortoises. For my husband and my 1 yr...

Interesting, I have never heard of that as a concern. Only that once upon a time we thought they could not see red light which is false. I think in most cases a red heat bulb is more important than not, especially if the tortoise is being temporarily housed inside. I suppose blue could be the...

Always open to new perspectives- why no red bulbs? Yes, they can see it, blue may be preferred but blue is usually not as accessible in stores in proper wattage

Romaine lettuce has little nutritional value to reptiles that require high fiber and/or dark leafy diets. It causes watery, loose stools and often times tortoises want romaine over the greens that are actually good for them and it can be hard to ween them off. It is best not to feed romaine...

Hi there, I am an animal keeper, live in San Diego and also have a leopard tortoise. If the tortoise will not use the heat, the heating is inefficient- either too hot or too cold. He should have a basic 50-100w red heat bulb with a ceramic dome. If he is inside during the day he will also need a...

Also, no romaine, under any circumstance!

Hi there! I am an animal keeper, I also have a leopard tortoise at home, three deserts where I work and live in San Diego. One thing I'd want to address right away is that if your tortoise is in your garage for any extended period of time (2 weeks+) it will need a power sun bulb- something that...

Tom: I am not sure how my current set up is a fire hazard? I have an outdoor heat pad, made for the outdoors, which is also made to have a sheep skin cover on it and is safe to be on the surface of my tortoise house. I have it connected to an outdoor extension cord. It is all weather safe and is...

Earlier in the year we purchased a home in Eastern San Diego. This is our first winter season here. Because we are in eastern county, it gets very hot during the summer and very cool during the winter (in comparison to the rest of southern california). My Leopard has always lived outdoors in a...

I did not post pictures, but will tomorrow. I was hoping someone would know based of the orange coloring.

I work at a small nature center that has two Desert tortoises... or so we think. They are both adult males, approx. 20 years or age. The facility has had them since before I have worked there and they acquired them through a person that was relinquishing them. One of them is for sure a...

As you can see in the picture, I already have a hut in there for him that is almost identical to the ones you provided the link to, only it's larger. I am always putting plants in there but he gobbles them up and I end up tossing the wad of roots that's left over. I added a large stone and...

All fantastic ideas- love it One thing I do have to be very careful with, is that whoever raised him originally, did not feed him a proper diet, so his shell has quite a bit of pyramiding- he isn't able to flip himself over if he rolls on accident. Also, anything I plant needs to be able to...

great ideas:) I have added plants but they die right away because he tramples anything I plant it seems. Maybe I will try to plant some larger plants. I was thinking about just making the entire enclosure dirt, but I'd love to keep trying to grow the grass back.

I have had my male leopard tortoise for 1 year now, he is approximately 5 years old. He lives outdoors full time, except for during the winter time where he gets to stay in the guest bathroom, and even then... it's SoCal. I am wondering what I can do to spruce up his enclosure. It used to...