my leopard totoise

charleneQ

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hi im new i need help urgently ! we have a leopard tortoise we found in the road he is a bit beat up thats why we took him under our wings we want to help him have a full recovery he is the sweetest little thing very tame and loves attention he has quite a personality now what i'm wondering is he hasn't been acting very well the last two days he doesn't come out of his shell that often anymore and sleeps the whole day not usual behavior for our little gizmo his are are still glossy not all puffy, his nose is not runny at all his actually a very happy turtle its just not like him to hide so much and so all of a sudden also i don't see him eat so much in don't know if it has something to do with the winter maybe (i live in south africa) if anyone has any ideas please help i'm very worried i love him so much and brought him this far his part of the family.IMG-20140624-00316.jpg IMG-20140624-00315.jpg IMG-20140624-00315.jpg
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Charlene, and welcome to the Forum!

That's not a leopard tortoise, but I'm afraid I can't figure out just what it is from your pictures. Any chance you can take some pictures that aren't blurry? And I'd like to see his tummy too. It might be a Lobatse hingeback tortoise, but I just can't see it clearly enough to know for sure.

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wellington

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Hello and Welcome:) I agree with Yvonne, doesn't look like a leopard, but I can't help you on what it is. If Yvonne can't help, once she gets back to this, maybe @tortadise can.
 

tortadise

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Best thing for these guys especially if you live in SA is to leave them outside. I would need to know exactly where you are so I can help you relocate it back into the wild. Which is the best option. They have pretty specific ranges. But these guys can be found in a large portion of the cape.
 

wellington

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Wow, I have never heard of that one Kelly. Pretty cool. Thanks for responding to her thread and my call out so quickly:)
 

tortadise

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Wow, I have never heard of that one Kelly. Pretty cool. Thanks for responding to her thread and my call out so quickly:)
There awesome. That's an adult too. They stay very very small. It's breeding season too as you can tell by the color. They turn brown when it's out of breeding season. Head and red nose too go away.
 

tortadise

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If they live in SA yes if not(they are only found in SA) they need to keep it or find it's owners. It's illegal to keep tortoises in SA many do it anyways though. They're not endangered but don't have hugely dense population in numbers. They are a large mapping tortoise. Always on the move looking to survive. So it would be better to release it and allow it to procreate. Especially knowing it's an adult.
 

charleneQ

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thank you all for your replies we have turtle permits i saw him eat this morning and he looks a lot more active
 

bouaboua

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So looks like you are going to kept him. Thank you for share the event but you do know how to take care of him? I'm bit worry because you thing this is a Leopard tortoise at first.

Is he on the endanger list??
 

charleneQ

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yes we know how to take care of him were more well known with the spurred turtles walking in and out of our garden day after day we never saw one like him and i googled south african turtles and found one that to me looked much like him on another forum and assumed it was leopard tortoise and hes only in the house in his pen when its excruciatingly cold outside other than that he walks around outside the whole day nothings stopping him to walk into the bushes for some reason he stays he loves the kids and he makes them happy so its not like hes captivated he just prefers to stay and until the day he decides to leave to leave the family we will keep caring for him and giving him love we are just making sure hes okay hes front right leg is bit dyslexic don't know if something happened to him in the wild before we got him i scrub his shell once a month just to make sure hes healthy we have lots of fynbos in the garden and seen LOADS of turtles come in and out all year round.
 

billskleins

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Wow what a cool tortoise to find.
I hope he does well.
I didn't know they got that big Kelly.
 

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