What is the deal?!?

diamondbp

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I ask this to all the leopard tortoise veterans out there,,,

What on Earth is the deal with all these breeders offering so called pure "p.pardalis" (South African)babies all of a sudden??!?

It's like virtually overnight people "supposedly" have all these breeder South African adults?

In my humble opinion, far to many breeders are seemingly trying to jump on the p.pardalis "price bandwagon" and profit on it with a bunch of pardalis/babcocki mixes. The trend seems to be to buy a true male p.pardalis and breed them with babcocki females in attempts to sell the babies as pure p.p.

I honestly think it's getting out of control. I'm not necessarily against the breeding of the two varieties but to take those obvious mix babies and claim them as pure is really REALLY getting on my nerves. I have much more respect for those who admit that their babies are just mixes and sell them at a fair cost.

Any thoughts from anyone else? Or aim I losing my cool over nothing?
 

Tom

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I haven't seen any more of this than usual. Definitely not cool to sell mixes as real SA leopards.
 

Tidgy's Dad

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I ask this to all the leopard tortoise veterans out there,,,

What on Earth is the deal with all these breeders offering so called pure "p.pardalis" (South African)babies all of a sudden??!?

It's like virtually overnight people "supposedly" have all these breeder South African adults?

In my humble opinion, far to many breeders are seemingly trying to jump on the p.pardalis "price bandwagon" and profit on it with a bunch of pardalis/babcocki mixes. The trend seems to be to buy a true male p.pardalis and breed them with babcocki females in attempts to sell the babies as pure p.p.

I honestly think it's getting out of control. I'm not necessarily against the breeding of the two varieties but to take those obvious mix babies and claim them as pure is really REALLY getting on my nerves. I have much more respect for those who admit that their babies are just mixes and sell them at a fair cost.

Any thoughts from anyone else? Or aim I losing my cool over nothing?
I've not seen this of course, but if so it seems frightfully dishonest.
Is there not a law to prevent it in your country?
 

Greg T

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It seems to come around in cycles every few years. Frankly, I wouldn't trust anyone of them unless I had full proof they were in fact true bred. I'd bet over half are not true P.P., but rather a mix.
 

Neal

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I haven't seen a whole lot more than usual, but the ones I have seen I definitely would question the legitimacy of their claims. I can't be sure all are being intentionally dishonest, I tend to think they lack an understanding of leopard tortoise localities and the extent that the pet trade has had in mixing the localities in the US. I've been studying this for several years now and don't fully understand it, but it seems to me that a lot simply believe that because their tortoise is large and produces babies with double dots that they are SA variants.

They may very well be pure South African leopards. With a high amount of SA leopards remaining in the US in recent years as opposed to being sent overseas, many are reaching breeding size and I expect we will see this more and more in the coming years. Asking questions such as the sources of the producing adults would help substantiate their claims of being pure SA leopards, but there is simply not much one could do to really be absolutely certain unless they buy from one of the few sources that have a history of selling pure SA leopards..
 

diamondbp

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Perhaps I notice it a good bit because the avenues of selling babies is starting to shift to facebook and social media and so many people are trying to sell obviously mixed babies as pure SA's. The difference is so apparent to me but perhaps I am extra sensitive because I've been raising them for a few years now and have both pure and mix leopards.

I agree that a good bit may be simply from ignorance of how to distinguish between pure and mix babies, but I think far to many are from breeders that are simply trying to "cash in".

I just love working with my pure SA's. They are truly unique in so many ways.
 
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