Pyramiding?

[Eduartonio]

Does she have pyramiding going on? I try to feed her weeds in the spring, but right now in the summer I have to feed her green leaf lettuce, dandelion, and arugula. She won't eat hay no matter how many days she goes without eating. Occasionally I see her grazing on my grass. She also gets a good drenching with the hose everyday. She's a out 4.5 years old.

[Nina]

Hi Eduartonio and welcome to The Tortoise Table! What a lovely little Leopard tortoise.

I think her shell actually looks pretty good, and although I can see a few tiny 'bumps' on the shell, I don't think you have to worry on that account, but I'm not an authority on Leopard tortoises and I'll ask my colleague, Lin, to come in and have a look too.

Her diet does need adjusting though, because as I'm sure you know, a Leopard's diet should be 75% - 80% grasses (and hay counts as a grass).
What kind of hay are you offering her? Some of the finer hays like Timothy hay, orchard grass and bermuda hay are good, and easier to eat than a coarse hay.

Tortoises can be very stubborn, as I'm sure you have discovered, and the best way to get her to eat hay, if she doesn't like it, is to trick her. Take a very small amount of hay and cut it up into very small pieces. Then wet some of the leaves that she likes and sprinkle that small bit of hay onto those leaves, and it will stick to the leaves because they are wet. That means that when she goes for the arugula, lettuce, etc. she will also get some of that hay. Then really gradually increase the amount of hay that you are sprinkling on the wet leaves (take it slowly), until there is a lot of hay on them, and she is still eating happily, and then you can gradually reduce the amount of leaves and keep increasing the hay. That usually works.

If she happily grazes on grass that is great too.

Hope that helps,

Nina

[lin]

Ahh, she is gorgeous, no doubt about that.
Regarding her shell, as Nina has said I wouldn’t worry about it as it is and I know it is very hard to stop a leopard becoming pyramided (they’re often like it in the wild too) but it is really important to stick with the grass and hays, there is also a grass that is available called Ready Grass and it is just that, dried grass and I used to use it in the bedding area and indoor tortoise house so they always have something to nibble on that was good for them, day and night. It is available, a huge bale is quite cheap if you have room to store but I’m sure you could get a smaller amount. Leave it in the enclosure and she will eat it, it might take her a long time but she will. If she is fit and healthy she or any other tortoise is not going to starve themselves but a Leopard will do it’s best to make you think it will leave her to graze naturally for as long as you can and she will developer a liking for what is better for her.
If you make a pie chart and look at the percentage it should be like 80% fresh lawn grass or dried grass seperate of mixed, the dried grass can be moistened to make it smell nice and more appealing. 15% leaves and 5% flowers. That really is all a Leopard needs and along with the usual supplements they really are very economic to feed.
Do you find she drinks a lot of water. Mine loved a soak and would hold their heads underwater to drink for a few minutes a time. It scared me at first because I thought she was drowning.
Are you in the uk. If you are we do have enough weeds that grow all year round but finding then might be hard if your not used to foraging.
If you don’t already have one, here’s a caresheet we use for Leopards.
https://www.tortoise-protection-group.o ... 202016.pdf

If there’s anything else we can do for you just let us know.
Regards
Lin