Curious...

[Elohi]

So I went with the advice of some of you awesome TFO members and got 3 Leo's instead of a pair. I have a while before I have to worry about this but what if I don't have 3 females? What if I have 2 females and 1 male or if I have 2 males and 1 female. Or what if I have 3 males? How will they get along when they are mature? I assume 3 females would be the least troublesome...maybe LOL. Thoughts? Experiences?

 

[wellington]

Hope for three females or two females and one male. If you end up with more then one male, you will have to wait and see how they get along. So far people that have been raising multiples together from hatchling age has had good luck of them getting along. If this doesn't happen to you, you will have to separate them.

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Oh, hey, good luck on getting the sex ratio you want.

 

[Yvonne G]

At one time I had two males and four females (babcocki) in my leopard yard. The males never caused any trouble. I had trouble between the two largest females, with lots of pushing and butting. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you don't have to worry about it. I'm thinking they're going to get along when they grow up.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

I have wondered, too. But I don't think we will have too much to worry about with the Leopards.

 

[Elohi]

Thanks for your thoughts y'all.
I guess best case scenario would be that I have 3 females. Second best would be that freckles is male and the other two are female, then they could breed. If either Beans or Watson is a male, I'll have to separate him from his sister right?

 

[Tom]

Most of the time the non-South African leopards get along fine regardless of sexes. If any of yours are mixes, only time will tell. By around 2 or 3 years old, you should start seeing signs one way or the other.

If they are clutch mates, my preference would be to not allow them to breed, but geneticists have told me that this is not nearly as big of a deal in reptiles as it is in mammals. Its even less of an issue for insects. I was told that a pair of roaches and their resulting offspring could interbreed for at least 99 generations, and there would not be any genetic anomalies due to lack of genetic material. Adding a third roach would increase that to 999 generations.

 

[Saleama]

Thanks for your thoughts y'all.
I guess best case scenario would be that I have 3 females. Second best would be that freckles is male and the other two are female, then they could breed. If either Beans or Watson is a male, I'll have to separate him from his sister right?

That was exactly what I was going to say. I have four, two from Kelly and two from Greg T. So unless I hit the lottery and got two males from one and two females from the other I already know I will be seperating mine. Three of my Sullies came from different sources while two were a same father different mother situation. It looks like I am going to have a whole bunch of pens set up in my yard one day soon! I do know of a person who has an open back yard that houses two male Leos and a breeding couple of Sullies without a single issue. They have all been raised since hatching and she never had a single issue in 15 years. Still, I think I will take the better safe than sorry approach when the time comes.