# Cracking jaw



## johnkarabas (Jan 10, 2012)

Every time my baby spur thigh opens his mouth there is a cracking sound, is this normal?


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## ascott (Jan 10, 2012)

Is it a cracking noise or more like a clicking sound? Not a gasping for air sound right?


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## Weda737 (Jan 10, 2012)

Mine makes gritty, grindy sounds sometimes.


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## GeoTerraTestudo (Jan 11, 2012)

Might just be stridulating the upper and lower surfaces of its beak together. That would be normal, and many turtles do this. Do you hear it when the tortoise is just opening his mouth a little bit, or when his mouth is gaping? If you hear it when the mouth is wide open, it could be a problem with the jaw joint. But if it's only a little, it's probably just normal stridulation.


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## johnkarabas (Jan 11, 2012)

It's more of a grinding sound,not gasping for air

Thanks


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## GeoTerraTestudo (Jan 11, 2012)

johnkarabas said:


> It's more of a grinding sound,not gasping for air
> 
> Thanks



Yeah, that's what I mean. Your tortoise is probably just rubbing its top and bottom jaws together to make a sound intentionally. They do this all the time. Nothing to worry about, although I don't think anyone knows exactly why they do it. The sound is variously described as a creak or a croak, but it's just the beak scraping. Other animals do a similar thing, except they grind their teeth instead of a beak.

I wasn't concerned about gasping for breath; that would be a respiratory tract infection. What I said was _gaping_, meaning holding the jaw wide open. If the sound is still produced when the top and bottom beak are no longer in contact, then it couldn't be stridulation, and might be something else. But if the jaw is not opened very much, then your pet is probably just making noise on purpose.


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