Hi,
this is my first post here and I hope to get some help as we are quite worried by now that something is wrong with one of our young Leopard's. I have read the Forum's caresheet (from Tom) and I am aware that not everything we provide them is perfect. From the reading, we will probably change the setup of the hide to be more humid and maybe slightly warmer.
We (living in the UK btw) got the two (Henry and Henrietta) from a shop end of May (probably not a "great source"). They were described as 1-year olds, but appeared rather small according to various sizes/weights we found around different forums and sites. Their shell measured around 54x48mm and both weighed 44g.
We have them now for almost four months in an open tortoise table on coco substrate. In their hide there is an edible bedding of hay and flowers (and we will change this now). They take a daily bath and have a terracotta saucer with water. They feed on a mix of dandelion leaves plus some lawn grass from the garden and various shop-bought leaves/salads (corn salad or lambs lettuce, chicory, pak choi, watercress, lettuce). We give alternating vitamin powder and calcium powder sprinkled on the leaves. They always get a mix of things and seem to be rather picky with the food, largely eating their favourites. So far they didn't seem to have problems with digestion.
We have a 100W D3 basking lamp (Mercury vapour UVA UVB lamp) approx 20cm above the substrate. Measured with infrared spot thermometer, the shell reaches around 32°C (90F) when they sit directly under it. The lamp is running 10h a day. Usually they come out of their hide in the morning, warm up under the lamp and then go to the food and feed for a while. Then they tend to sleep around the lamps basking area (but rather not directly under it).
Both of them eat and put on weight (Henry is at 73g, Henrietta at 66g), they have largely constant daily rhythms of sleeping, feeding and activity. They seem to get along well and usually sleep close together or pick the other one up to go to bed.
To the problem. Henrietta's shell has not grown a bit, but her legs and head have and are somewhat oversized now. Yesterday one of her hindlegs got stuck between the upper and lower shell for some minutes and she got extremely agitated and was running around and trying to climb everywhere (which she never did before). We were quite scared to see her like that. We bathed them then and this seemed to relax her and she is behaving normally since. For Henry it is the opposite, his shell started growing soon after we got him and has expanded quite a bit. His head and legs are rather small in comparison to Henrietta.
Are there any known reasons that would prevent the shell from growing? Any other ideas what we could try?
I am happy for any suggestions, thank you
Sebastian
this is my first post here and I hope to get some help as we are quite worried by now that something is wrong with one of our young Leopard's. I have read the Forum's caresheet (from Tom) and I am aware that not everything we provide them is perfect. From the reading, we will probably change the setup of the hide to be more humid and maybe slightly warmer.
We (living in the UK btw) got the two (Henry and Henrietta) from a shop end of May (probably not a "great source"). They were described as 1-year olds, but appeared rather small according to various sizes/weights we found around different forums and sites. Their shell measured around 54x48mm and both weighed 44g.
We have them now for almost four months in an open tortoise table on coco substrate. In their hide there is an edible bedding of hay and flowers (and we will change this now). They take a daily bath and have a terracotta saucer with water. They feed on a mix of dandelion leaves plus some lawn grass from the garden and various shop-bought leaves/salads (corn salad or lambs lettuce, chicory, pak choi, watercress, lettuce). We give alternating vitamin powder and calcium powder sprinkled on the leaves. They always get a mix of things and seem to be rather picky with the food, largely eating their favourites. So far they didn't seem to have problems with digestion.
We have a 100W D3 basking lamp (Mercury vapour UVA UVB lamp) approx 20cm above the substrate. Measured with infrared spot thermometer, the shell reaches around 32°C (90F) when they sit directly under it. The lamp is running 10h a day. Usually they come out of their hide in the morning, warm up under the lamp and then go to the food and feed for a while. Then they tend to sleep around the lamps basking area (but rather not directly under it).
Both of them eat and put on weight (Henry is at 73g, Henrietta at 66g), they have largely constant daily rhythms of sleeping, feeding and activity. They seem to get along well and usually sleep close together or pick the other one up to go to bed.
To the problem. Henrietta's shell has not grown a bit, but her legs and head have and are somewhat oversized now. Yesterday one of her hindlegs got stuck between the upper and lower shell for some minutes and she got extremely agitated and was running around and trying to climb everywhere (which she never did before). We were quite scared to see her like that. We bathed them then and this seemed to relax her and she is behaving normally since. For Henry it is the opposite, his shell started growing soon after we got him and has expanded quite a bit. His head and legs are rather small in comparison to Henrietta.
Are there any known reasons that would prevent the shell from growing? Any other ideas what we could try?
I am happy for any suggestions, thank you
Sebastian