Care and Feeding of  Young Leopard Tortoises

• Keep them in an aquarium, indoors.
• Use of full spectrum lighting, 14 hours per day.
• In addition, a few hours of sunlight per week is good for them.
• Daytime temperatures from 80 to 85 F.
• Night time temperatures from 75 to 80 F.
• Low humidity.  Remember these are desert animals. Be sure their aquarium is well ventilated with no spilled water.  High humidity can lead to respiratory infections.
• Use a reptile heating pad under one side of the tank for 24 hour heating.
• A shallow dish with fresh water should be placed in the aquarium for a few hours every other day.
• Rabbit pellets as a floor covering.
• Two tortoises can live in a 60 gallon aquarium until they reach about six inches in length (two to five years old).  Then you have several options: moving them to a larger aquarium, a large indoor cage, even a large outdoor cage (but they must be kept warm). You should not keep them outdoors when they are smaller because there are many predators (birds, dogs, raccoons, etc.) that would love a small tortoise.  But if they are properly protected and brought in at night, they could be outside during the day.

Food:

• High-fiber diet. (We use frozen mixed vegetables, thawed out and chopped up, twice a week. Every day we give them dandelion greens and fresh, dark, leafy greens like kale, endive, and romaine.)
• Reptile calcium sprinkled  generously on every meal (this is an absolute must).  Also give them reptile vitamins a couple times a week.
• Tomatoes and fruit (wet foods) only occasionally. Excessive fruit or soft foods leads to flagellates and other gut problems like colic.