My second tortoise: (Baby) Leopard Tortoise

[Zamric]

I keep my yearlings in a closed enclosure between 50% and 80% Humidity but thier ambiant temp. never drops below 80* and the coolside of the enclosure has a ground temp of 75*, Hot side has a spot (directly under MVB) 115*.

I have very nice results after 10 months of keeping in this enviroment.

those are some great looking, smooth leopards!

Thanks!

 

[Tortus]

The Austrian study done on sulcatas did use different levels of consistent humidity for several groups of sulcatas during the course of the experiment. Basically, the more humid it was, the less they pyramided. The ones that were at 80% or higher simply did not pyramid. The ones at 50% pyramided more than the ones at 80%. My experiments over the last three years affirm the same thing. I am having the best results ever using closed chambers where the humidity is always above 80%. I am now housing my leopards this way too, but they were started in partially open topped enclosures with fluctuating humidity. This spring I intend to start some brand new hatchling regular leopards in a closed chamber, using my style of keeping and showing the results. When I'm satisfied with the results, I will sell off the well started smooth babies.

It should be noted that hydration, diet, calcium and mineral supplementation, exercise, warm temps, shell spraying and UV, are all part of my strategy for starting smooth, healthy hatchlings.

I may have amped up my humidity a little late (although it has never been below 55%), but even with a half-open enclosure I'm able to keep the drier open end at 70% or more always, and the covered end at 90%. The entire thing is over 90% at night when the lights are off and it's all covered. It actually rains in there at night. Tort sleeps on top of the heat mat area and stays above 80 degrees. No RI issues at all.

What I'm wondering is, how much time in the really high humid area is necessary for smooth growth? I mean could they spend the day in 50% or less humidity, then nights in 80% or more and still be good? As of now all the new growth has been smooth. I think mine had some shell issues out of the egg since the black rings around the scutes were never completely flat, but they seem to be getting flatter as new growth comes in.

 

[Tom]

Tortus, no one knows this specific answer. My observations from the hundreds of sulcatas and leopards that I have raised is that the more time they spend in high humidity with warm temps, the smoother they grow and healthier they appear to be.

Pyramiding literally starts as soon as they start growing in the days right after hatching. Any raised rings are the result of growth in the wrong conditions. If your tortoise was started in the typical dry fashion, then I would expect the initial growth rings to be a bit raised depending on how long he was in those conditions and how much he grew.

 

[Tortus]

That makes sense. I wanted to include these pics in my other post, but this is what I was talking about:

Night "rain""

Slightly raised black rings:

As you can see the scutes themselves appear to be flat, but the black rings are a little higher. I got it at 3+ weeks old and that's how it was. But they are getting flatter. I'm really not sure if this is pyramiding or just a part of its growth. When I got it some of the scutes actually looked sunken in a bit.

And yes it still has that stupid calcium powder on its nose. It will be 4 months old on the 15th of December.

 

[Tom]

Every new growth ring is a permanent record of the conditions in which it was formed. Your tortoise looks great and those initial growth rings look pretty normal. They might be slightly more raised if the tortoise was in conditions that were a little drier than yours, but they aren't bad by any means.

I sometimes get that condensation on the front of my enclosures at night too.

 

[Tortus]

Thanks, Tom. What gets me is that the black rings actually appeared to be higher last month.

It could just be the new white growth playing tricks on me. I guess small imperfections get less noticeable as they grow.

 

[Yvonne G]

I have to apologize to russiantortlover12. We pride ourselves here on the forum that we allow everyone to have their own opinion. russiantortlover12 was expressing his opinion and I should have accepted it as his opinion. My "guess" is that he was just parroting what he had heard and not his own experience, so my suggestion for him to read up on the "new" way to keep leopards and sulcatas still stands. Sorry for jumping on you.

 

[LuckysGirl007]

I guess there's no way of currently knowing how many hours per day elevated humidity is needed.

Mine is in a large storage bin for now that came with a hinged lid that I cut in half. I always keep it half-covered, where the humidity stays especially high, but at night I've been covering the entire thing, turning it into a giant humid hide. So it gets at least 12.5 hours per day of 90%+ as it sleeps.

It seems like there are always improvements to be made.

This is also what I have been doing. I find it working well so far!