# Overgrown beak



## FGCinHB (Jul 19, 2008)

I'm adopting a 4 year old male leopard tortoise from someone and it has an overgrown beak (looks like an overbite). What causes an overgrown beak, and what can be done to fix the situation? here are some pictures of it


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## Crazy1 (Jul 19, 2008)

Feeding it on slate or a flat rock helps wear down the beak. Also cuttle bone for calcium will help a bit. A vet can trim the beak if it is hindering its eating.


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## Yvonne G (Jul 19, 2008)

That beak really isn't too bad. The reason they grow like that is because that type of tortoise is a grazing animal. Their beak is made to be able to bite off grasses and weeds. When a tortoise is fed foods from the grocery store he just "tongues" them into his mouth and doesn't actually use the biting factor. Think about it: When he's fed a handful of Spring mix, he takes a bite of the leaf, and because the leaf is not connected to a root or to the plant there is no tension from the food, so there is nothing for him to pull or bite against. Watch him eat and you'll see that he just keeps tongueing it into his mouth. If you feed him something he has to bite off, like zucchini, cactus pad, partially cooked carrot or squash it will help to wear down the beak. Also cuttlebone and feeding him on a rough surface. But get him outside grazing and it will improve.

Yvonne


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## Redfootedboxturtles (Jul 20, 2008)

I had adopted a Russian tortoises. He had a really bad over grown beak. And what I thought was really cool was that I had a couple rocks in the enclosure for drainage. And I went out one day and he was biting them and it was really grinding down his beak. It was awesome , we dont give our animals enough credit. They really know when something is wrong. Any ways cuttlebone should work well.


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## agiletorts (Jul 20, 2008)

FGCinHB said:


> I'm adopting a 4 year old male leopard tortoise from someone and it has an overgrown beak (looks like an overbite). What causes an overgrown beak, and what can be done to fix the situation? here are some pictures of it



The beak looks fine to me as a cb leopard tortoise. I don't think you need to do anything special as long as it doesn't get worsened.


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