leopard hatchlings!

[AzDesert]

Hi everyone,
Its been a while since I have posted.... but i still watch the forum almost daily! So..... I had a question about leopard tort eggs/hatchlings:
1) my girl laid 8 eggs-- 4 on Sept 7th and 4 on Dec 20. (warm climate area) all in incubator at 80% humidity and temps at 88 degrees. 2 of them hatched after only 97 days and are totally fine and gorgeous. 2 look to hatch soon, maybe a few more weeks and of course the Dec ones will be a while. So the question is, how on earth did they manage to hatch in just 97 days? I was expecting 6-10 months!
I've had torts for many many years but all started as hatchlings or yearlings, so now that they are of age and producing, this is my first time with eggs/incubating/actual hatching so I am super excited but a nervous "grandma". They are well started in their new enclosures and doing great.
Any and all advice on eggs/incubating is welcome!!!
Thanks all!

 

[wellington]

Congrats. I don't remember how long mine took. Seems like 3 months. But @Tom or @Yvonne G can likely tell you how long it should take.
I don't think it was anywhere near 6-10 months.

 

[NorCal tortoise guy]

Mine seem to take 3 months or so

 

[AzDesert]

Congrats. I don't remember how long mine took. Seems like 3 months. But @Tom or @Yvonne G can likely tell you how long it should take.
I don't think it was anywhere near 6-10 months.

Thank you!!!!!

 

[AzDesert]

Mine seem to take 3 months or so

Awesome thanks!!!!

 

[Tom]

Hi everyone,
Its been a while since I have posted.... but i still watch the forum almost daily! So..... I had a question about leopard tort eggs/hatchlings:
1) my girl laid 8 eggs-- 4 on Sept 7th and 4 on Dec 20. (warm climate area) all in incubator at 80% humidity and temps at 88 degrees. 2 of them hatched after only 97 days and are totally fine and gorgeous. 2 look to hatch soon, maybe a few more weeks and of course the Dec ones will be a while. So the question is, how on earth did they manage to hatch in just 97 days? I was expecting 6-10 months!
I've had torts for many many years but all started as hatchlings or yearlings, so now that they are of age and producing, this is my first time with eggs/incubating/actual hatching so I am super excited but a nervous "grandma". They are well started in their new enclosures and doing great.
Any and all advice on eggs/incubating is welcome!!!
Thanks all!

Leopards are a great big genetic mix from all over their range in this country, so there is a bit of variability with them, but 100-110 days is normal for them. Sulcatas and Burmese stars are 90 days, Russians are 60 days.

South African leopards require a cooling period, called diapause, before they can be incubated, so that might be what you were thinking.

Here are tips on starting them right:

How To Incubate Eggs And Start Hatchlings

I put my eggs in a plastic shoe box with a lid on it and put the shoe box in the incubator. You can drill a couple of very small holes around the top of the container, but not on the lid. I use vermiculite as an incubation media. I mix it in a 1 : 1 ratio with water by weight for Sulcatas and...

tortoiseforum.org

Questions are welcome!

 

[Maggie3fan]

@Tom ...why do Leopards require a diapause? How does that happen in the wild?

 

[Tom]

@Tom ...why do Leopards require a diapause? How does that happen in the wild?

They lay in spring and summer. Mine laid from May until November. Usually around 7 or 8 clutches each. There is not enough time for eggs laid in the summer to get hot enough for long enough to finish incubation and development, so they have evolved this method of delayed development. The eggs will not start to develop until AFTER they have had a long cold spell, like winter, and then they will begin to develop the next spring and summer once things warm up enough. So a clutch laid in May of 2024 and left in the ground will not even start to develop until late June of 2025 and then hatch in early October after a long hot summer.

We can dig up the eggs and give them an artificial cooling period with refrigeration, but even that takes two or three months before the 100 day incubation at warm temps begins.

Regular leopard eggs do not need this diapause, but due to the mixed genetics of the leopard tortoises in America, it will often increase hatch rates, and it does no harm to keep the eggs of regular leopards cool for a few months even if they don't "need" it.

 

[Maggie3fan]

They lay in spring and summer. Mine laid from May until November. Usually around 7 or 8 clutches each. There is not enough time for eggs laid in the summer to get hot enough for long enough to finish incubation and development, so they have evolved this method of delayed development. The eggs will not start to develop until AFTER they have had a long cold spell, like winter, and then they will begin to develop the next spring and summer once things warm up enough. So a clutch laid in May of 2024 and left in the ground will not even start to develop until late June of 2025 and then hatch in early October after a long hot summer.

We can dig up the eggs and give them an artificial cooling period with refrigeration, but even that takes two or three months before the 100 day incubation at warm temps begins.

Regular leopard eggs do not need this diapause, but due to the mixed genetics of the leopard tortoises in America, it will often increase hatch rates, and it does no harm to keep the eggs of regular leopards cool for a few months even if they don't "need" it.

Thanks...that's very interesting