Hybrids?

[Badgemash]

How would you recognize a leopard hybrid? I've noticed that Octavia looks a lot more like Tom's soon-to-be-smooth-shelled babies (pretty much identical, except only one spot per scute) than she looks like Mr.T (her housemate). His shell is much more rounded and high-domed than hers, he has a lot of brown, but she's all yellow. She's also growing faster, but they share the same habitat/soaking/food, and I haven't seen any evidence of bullying (they both happily eat like little pigs together). Is it possible that I may have accidentally gotten one babcocki and one babcocki x pardalis cross? They were sold as generic leopard tortoises so I just assumed they were both babcocki.

-Devon

 

[Yvonne G]

I have limited experience, but I've noticed that the pardalis baby has speckled skin, while the babcock baby does not. ???

 

[Tom]

It is very possible. There has been a tremendous amount of mixing the two subspecies over the decades. Sometimes you'll see very mixed characteristics like what you describe. The only way to really know for sure is to deal with someone that you know has direct imports or offspring of direct imports and has never mixed them with any other leos. In their pure form, its easy to tell the babies of the different subspecies apart. Once they start hybridizing it really can get confusing. Some unscrupulous breeders/sellers would try to pass off the ones that look like Ocatavia as pp. Happens all the time. I'm glad to hear that yours didn't. IF (big IF) you do have a hybrid, it won't hurt anything. Hopefully you will get some of the hardiness, cold tolerance and personality that make the Gpp so special. Nothing wrong with babcocks either though.

 

[TicoTheTort]

Would this be an example of what a hybrid might look like?

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=50&de=812634

You can really see the speckling on the skin in the third picture, as well as small signs of multiple spots on the scutes. These are from Richard Fife.

So a quick question about breeding these guys (not that I'm anywhere near doing this) but does mating a GPP and GPB together bring any discredit upon the true GPP's bloodline for future breeding? Is she "tainted" after laying hybrids?

 

[TicoTheTort]

Would this be an example of what a hybrid might look like?

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=50&de=812634

You can really see the speckling of the skin in the third picture as well as small signs of multiple spots on the scutes. These are from Richard Fife.

Quick question on the topic of hybrids. If you were to mate a GPP and GPB together, does this bring any discredit on the true GPP for future breeding? Is she "tainted" after laying hybrids?

 

[TicoTheTort]

Would this be an example of a hybrid?

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=50&de=812634#

You can see the speckling on the skin and small signs of multiple spots on the scutes. These are from Richard Fife.

Also on the topic, does mating a Gpp and Gpb together bring any discredit on the pure Gpp after she lays hybrids? Is her bloodline "tainted" if she is not kept exclusive to Gpp breeding?

 

[Neal]

It's pretty much impossible unless you know where the parents came from, if you're buying from a pet shop you're about outa luck on that.