Leopard tortoise care sheet

Housing We house our leopard hatchlings in plastic, Sterilite bins, increasing the size of the bins as the babies grow. Once our babies are approximately 2 years old, we move them into custom-made glass enclosures, 5x2 feet. Our adults are kept in a wooden enclosure, 10x5 feet. Our enclosures are 18 inches tall.

To keep humidity up for babies and juveniles, we cover the enclosures with Sterilite lids or plexiglass and provide humid hide boxes (see Humidity/Hide Area below), creating a closed chamber environment.

Hatchlings and babies do much better in a small space, where it’s easier to control temps and humidity. Babies also seem to feel more secure in a small space.

During the spring and summer, our leopards are outside during the day. We use bottomless, stainless steel dog runs connected together to create a huge area for grazing and basking. We move the outside pen regularly to allow the torts to graze on fresh grass and weeds. We protect our baby enclosures with a wire screen.

Substrate We’ve tried many substrates over the years but prefer coarse grade coconut husk. It holds moisture well, is mould-resistant and looks good. It’s also less messy than soil or fine grade coco, which and gets in their eyes and sticks to their food. We keep our substrate moist for babies and juveniles and dry for adults. Substrate should never be wet.

Lighting/Heating We use mercury vapour bulbs to provide UV and heat during the day. For hatchlings and babies, we use 125-watt mercury vapour bulbs. For juveniles and adults, we use 160-watt mercury vapour bulbs. Our lights are set by timers to go off at night.

It’s important to provide a temperature gradient. For hatchlings and babies, our temp gradient ranges from approximately 120F directly beneath the basking bulb to 85F in the cool end. For adults, our temps range from approximately 110F degrees directly beneath the basking bulbs to 80F in the cool end. Ambient temp in our reptile room never drops below 80F. Babies must always be kept in a very warm and humid environment. For babies, we provide supplemental night time heat with a 100-watt infra red bulb when the daytime bulb is off. We can’t use ceramic heat emitters because our reptile room is humid and heat emitters rust easily.

During the spring and summer, in lieu of the mercury vapour bulbs, our leos spend their days outside in the natural sunlight.

Humidity/Hide Area The ambient humidity in our reptile room fluctuates between 60-70%. To keep humidity higher in the enclosures, we create a humid hide area for our hatchlings, babies and juveniles. We do this by using an upside-down Tupperware bin with a hole cut into one side as an opening. Alternatively, we cut the lid of the Sterilite container in half and use the entire covered area as a hide. For substrate inside the humid hide, we use damp sphagnum moss. The moss should be moist and fluffy but not saturated.

For hatchlings, babies and juveniles, we place under tank heat pads directly beneath the hide area. The heat pad should be warm to the touch and not hot. This creates a mini microclimate within the hide area. Moisture evaporating from the moist sphagnum maintains 100% humidity inside the hide. Moisture condenses on the sides and trickles back into the sphagnum. Temp inside the hide area should be approximately 100F. It feels like a mini steam room when you stick your hand in! Babies absolutely love being inside their hide area and when they emerge from their hide, their shells are glistening!

The humid hide area is essential for smooth shell growth.

We don’t use humid hides for our adults because of their size and because most of their shell growth is complete.

Water Leopard tortoises drink a lot and should always have access to fresh drinking water. We soak our hatchlings and babies daily. This is essential to ensure they stay well hydrated as they usually drink during their soaks. Soaking water must be very warm and babies should be removed when the water cools to room temperature. Our juveniles are soaked every other day. Our adults are soaked twice a month. Soaking also keeps the enclosures clean as the torts usually defecate while soaking.

Cleaning We spot clean our enclosures daily for food, faeces and urine. We do entire substrate changes whenever necessary, usually every few months.

Feeding Our leopard tortoises are fed daily and given the same food, regardless of their age.

The majority of their diet consists of dark, leafy greens (dandelion, different varieties of kale, collard greens, broccoli leaves, arugula, watercress, yam leaves, grape leaves, etc) grass and spineless cactus pads. We feel cactus pads are the closest thing to being a perfect food for all species of tortoises. For babies, we dice the cactus. Adults are fed whole pads. We don’t feed lettuce of any kind, although most keepers do.

We also feed butternut squash, pumpkin, zucchini, carrot and yam. All veggies are shredded and fed raw. We don't feed fruit to our leopards.

During the spring and summer, our leos consume huge amounts of grass, clover and other weeds from our lawn.

Being a grassland species, leopard tortoises should never be fed a meat-based protein source.

Once a month, we offer processed tortoise food. The ones we use are Mazuri Tortoise LS (low starch) and ZooMed Tortoise Grassland.

We never supplement with vitamins and minerals. Twice a month, we supplement with Repashy Super Veggie and Super Food Blend. Both are natural, herbal supplements consisting of ground whole superfoods and not vitamins and minerals, per se. To provide a calcium source, we give cuttlebone to all our torts. Babies constantly gnaw on small pieces and adults nibble on whole cuttlebone at their leisure.

Handling/Interaction Our leopard tortoises are very personable and enjoy human interaction. Although tortoises don’t enjoy being picked up, they run to the sides of their enclosures to greet us and will immediately surround us when we sit in their outdoor enclosure with them.

They love head scratches, chins rubs and having their shells stroked.

We hand feed our leopards as hatchlings and our babies are very outgoing and not shy at all. Babies spend most of their time sleeping but this will decrease as they grow. Our adults are extremely trusting, charming, beloved family pets. There’s a video on our Facebook page of Mort, one of our adults, running across the lawn to our kids when they call him!

Potential Health Problems Leopard tortoises are a hardy species if the proper environment is provided. Babies and juveniles must be soaked daily and have access to a humid hide area.

Leopards are much more cold sensitive than most species and hatchlings are very delicate in this regard. Cool temperatures combined with high humidity is a dangerous combination for leopards, leading to respiratory issues and potentially death.