You can pretty much cut a leather any way you want and it will be fine. I've chopped up several. The first few I took my time and made precise and exact cuts.... Now I just chop them up into cubes, doesn't seem to matter. For the mother you can actually cut the entire head off with no adverse effects. In less than a couple of weeks you will begin seeing polyps coming out of the end of the stalk.
Good Luck!! With an 18"-20" diameter leather you're gonna get a million babies