Leopard Tortoise……Geochelane Pardalis, The Leopard Tortoise is the fourth largest species of tortoise in the world and gets its name from its appearance, its body is covered in squarish scales that are dark brown on its outer edges and light brown to yellow on the inner area with a darker spot in the middle, these have a look of leopard spots ant thats how the tortoise gets its name. It is a beautiful leopard pattern.The Leopard Tortois can grow to appox twenty four inches, although the average size is usually between sixteen and eighteen inches and its height can be up to fifteen inches tall. They have a high rounded shell that makes up the bulk of their body, and have a small tail, four short legs and a rounded head. The male Leopard Tortoise has a slightly concave plastron near the tail and has a longer tail than the female, males should not be housed together because they may fight for territory. It is best if your tortoise has an indoor and an outdoor habitat, tortoises need a lot of natural sunshine, so during the warmer summer months your tortoise will benifit from being in its outdoor habitat during the day, please make sure that there are no harmful toxic plants or harmful obsticals were it can hurt itself. The outdoor habitat needs to be a good size( around 10 foot x 10 foot for an adult)and needs to have a variety of aspects including, shade, shelter, edible plants a sunken water dish and a sunny spot. The indoor habitat also has to be a good size and a good substrate should be used, please give us a ring at Appleton Exotics petshop and we will advise you as to which one is the best to use for your Leopard Tortoise. As always with tortoises their diet needs calcium supplements which are easily obtained and you just sprinke onto their food , as well as calcium a vitamin d3 supplement is needed due to the fact that vitamin d3 is produced from regular contact with sunlight, and this isnt possible all year round. Thier diet is wild grasses and wild flowers and a high fiber diet of vegatables and leaf greens.
