My "leopard factory" deposited 10 eggs in the ground back in May, and during the first week of September all 10 of them hatched! I received this female Babcock leopard from a school teacher in Cincinnati back in August of 2010. Someone had left her in a box outside the teacher's school room door over a week-end. The box had the tortoise and several cut up green apples. The teacher went online looking for someplace that she could take the tortoise, and found my web site. She and her fiance took a road trip when school let out, and drove the tortoise all the way from Cincinnati to California. Evidently they had wanted to take a vacation trip to California and this gave them a good excuse.
Cincinnati has been a good producer for me. She lays three clutches of eggs a year. Most of the eggs in the clutch hatch, but only a couple times have I had 100% hatch.
My male is the first leopard egg I ever hatched (of course, not related to Cincinnati), and I kept him for that reason. He hatched during my ignorant period, and he was raised on alfalfa pellets. Besides being pretty pyramided, he's stunted, at about a third of the size of the female. But he gets the job done. I've seen a few of the babies from this pairing at about two years of age, and when raised right, they are beautiful tortoises. The fact that their parents weren't raised right makes no difference at all in the way they grow and develop.
This is a picture of my current babies. Some are a week old, some are a day or two old. They start eating on their own, with no help from me, at about two days:
Looks like there's one with an extra scute. I'll have to go check that out (the one upper right at 1 o'clock??)
Cincinnati has been a good producer for me. She lays three clutches of eggs a year. Most of the eggs in the clutch hatch, but only a couple times have I had 100% hatch.
My male is the first leopard egg I ever hatched (of course, not related to Cincinnati), and I kept him for that reason. He hatched during my ignorant period, and he was raised on alfalfa pellets. Besides being pretty pyramided, he's stunted, at about a third of the size of the female. But he gets the job done. I've seen a few of the babies from this pairing at about two years of age, and when raised right, they are beautiful tortoises. The fact that their parents weren't raised right makes no difference at all in the way they grow and develop.
This is a picture of my current babies. Some are a week old, some are a day or two old. They start eating on their own, with no help from me, at about two days:
Looks like there's one with an extra scute. I'll have to go check that out (the one upper right at 1 o'clock??)
. Although that would have been hard, I try to hide
