Rescued leopard tortoise - need help.

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Stephanie Logan

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Wow, his front legs look very strong and I love his coloring! His shell looks very heathly and unpyramided to my inexperienced eyes. If you do bathe him I'd love to see what his shell looks like then, and if Danny's able to calculate an age we'd know how much of his life was "wild" before he was caught. I am guessing that scute was damaged somehow or maybe injured in a fight with another tortoise?

Keep us updated! :D
 

egyptiandan

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He's about 10 to 12 years old.

Here's what a female looks like
P115082520leopard20tortoise20plastr.jpg


Here's a great caresheet done by Misty Coton who lives in Africa. http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/Mistypardaliscare.htm
Here's a great website for South African tortoises
http://www.dewsburycrafts.co.za/index.htm

Danny
 

Yvonne G

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I'm thinking that the tortoise isn't eating because he isn't warm enough. Two reasons, really...he's a wild animal and not used to human intervention (stressed because of being in the house with people), and he's not warm enough.
 

samstar

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Also you might want to take him to the vet if you plan on keeping it.
 

wildheart

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I honestly do not think that he is wild because the closest area where he could have survived is more than 100km away from Johannesburg. The only way that he could have ended up here is if somebody stole him from a National Park. You can not buy tortoises at any petshop in Gauteng nor are there any breeders.
 

Tom

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Here in California that happens all the time. People go to, or just drive through the desert, see a tortoise walking around, pick it up, load it in the car and bring it back to their home in the city with the intention of letting it live in their backyard as a pet. Sad, but true. Also very illegal!

BTW, he looks exactly like all the other ones I saw in S.A. I didn't even recognize it as a leopard when I was there, because they all live outside and are smooth and a bit weathered and dirty. I was used to seeing the other subspecies, all clean and pyramided from being captive raised here in the States. I've learned a lot since then.
 

wildheart

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wildheart said:
I honestly do not think that he is wild
Correction, I meant to say "I honestly think that he is wild":rolleyes:

Roachman26 said:
I was used to seeing the other subspecies, all clean and pyramided from being captive raised here in the States. I've learned a lot since then.

I had to google pyramided and it is terrible! I suppose then that my guy is healthy to the eye and must have been picked up recently, do you agree? I cant think that somebody could have taken proper care of him for 10-12 years and then loose him. The previous people who had him from Nov 09 even placed an add in our local paper to try and find the owners, but no luck.

There is no way that he could have lived in Gauteng in the winter because we have severe frost and it drops to -1C+ at night and only 10C day time.

I do not need permission to release him on my other property, it is mine after all. But, what worries me - will he cope? They are territorial and their range covers 1-3km. What will happen if I release him on another torts territory? Will it be fair to either? It will also not be fair to keep him captive while I have his natural environment on my doorstep.

What do you think?

Here is my boy's first bath. He was hissing, sighing and complaining, he definitely hated it! :rolleyes: He pooped so I drained the water and as soon as the fresh water was in he pooped again. He also pooped after the bath. He did not drink, will he not get dehydrated with all this pooping? Is it normal?

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Nice and clean.
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20100115_7.jpg

How often should he get a bath if I do not have a soaking area available?
 

Tom

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This is all normal for a soaking tortoise and all the pooping is a good thing. Supposedly they can absorb water through their cloaca without drinking, but to what degree is a matter of debate. I do this once every two weeks or so in the winter and once a week in the summer, but everybody has their own way of doing it.

Temps get much cooler than that down in the Cape(at least they did when I was there) and I saw literally dozens of this exact subspecies living outside there with no supplemental heat or shelter of any kind. You could always set-up some sort of a "dog house" with a pig blanket for him. I don't know whats available in SA, but do a google search for "Kane Heat Mat" to see what i'm talking about. The temps here drop to -7C in the winter and my sulcatas(which can't take cold as well as your subspecies of Leopard) have been doing just fine for years with that set-up.

If you just turn him loose on your property, you will almost certainly lose him. You'll need to build some sort of pen for him and put his warming shelter in it. The bigger the pen the better. You've got a dilemma there about what to do with him. Not knowing his history, I wouldn't release him into the "wild". You could be introducing captive diseases into the local wild population. Sometimes they can carry disease and parasites, but be asymptomatic.

He's a great looking fellow. Good luck, whatever you decide.
 
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