# Natural Beak Filing



## Neal (Jul 2, 2012)

We will often receive tortoises that have an overgrown upper beak. Instead of going to the vet to file it down, we let them graze on the grasses and other food items in their pens with very little greens or soft food supplementing. After a few months the tortoises file their beaks down to a good short length.

Here is one tortoise four months ago. This was taken about a week after we got him, and you can see his beak is starting to break and file itself down. 







Here he is today. Almost filed down to a good, healthy, strong beak. He can now bite through a raw carrot...something he had a difficult time of before.


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## wellington (Jul 2, 2012)

Hopefully I will never have that problem with Tatum. But, just wondering. Does it usually file down properly when left to being done naturally, through their eating, etc?


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## lynnedit (Jul 2, 2012)

Wow, that is amazing.

I have one Russian female; despite the fact that she has lived outside fulltime for a couple of months at this point, fed on slate or pavers initially and now eats off of the land with access to cuttlebone, her beak was a little long with a small crack.
I used nail clippers (she let me, sort of) to nip off about a millimeter or two, and shorten it up. 

The rest don't seem to have an issue.

Nice pics, thanks!


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## ascott (Jul 2, 2012)

Gorgeous little one......and I LOVE the second pic with the bulgy eye expression......

Fantastic on the beak....


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## Neal (Jul 3, 2012)

wellington said:


> Hopefully I will never have that problem with Tatum. But, just wondering. Does it usually file down properly when left to being done naturally, through their eating, etc?



We've seen it happen with a couple dozen tortoises. They have all been "grazer type tortoises" (sulcatas, leopards, and stars). I don't see why it couldn't work for any type of tortoise.


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## BowandWalter (Jul 3, 2012)

Neal said:


> We've seen it happen with a couple dozen tortoises. They have all been "grazer type tortoises" (sulcatas, leopards, and stars). I don't see why it couldn't work for any type of tortoise.



You can add hermann's to that list, after a little filling I just let Walters beak wear down from eating. It was his lower jaw not his upper, so hopefully it counts


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