beak tips?

[hermantort]

i just took my tortoise to the vet to have his beak trimmed and the vet didn't really think it was necessary, just that we needed it to grind down/chip off naturally. so i was wondering what tips do you guys have to help keep a hermann's tortoise's beak down? he has a slate that he eats off of but i guess it's just not doing enough so any other ideas would be great. thank you!

 

[Yvonne G]

May we please see a picture of his beak?

Tortoise beaks are kept in shape be what they eat. . . biting off tough plant stems, etc. If you chop up your tortoise's food so he doesn't have to 'bite,' then his beak doesn't get worn down.

 

[hermantort]

May we please see a picture of his beak?

Tortoise beaks are kept in shape be what they eat. . . biting off tough plant stems, etc. If you chop up your tortoise's food so he doesn't have to 'bite,' then his beak doesn't get worn down.

i don't chop up his food but the vet was thinking that maybe i'm not incorporating enough harder foods into his diet or putting harder things in his enclosure for him to break it off on, but i'm not sure what to put in there or feed him that's hard enough to wear it down that's safe for him

 

[Sarah2020]

I use a terracotta plant base (rough surface) for food and helps with beak trimming,

 

[Yvonne G]

View attachment 341164 i don't chop up his food but the vet was thinking that maybe i'm not incorporating enough harder foods into his diet or putting harder things in his enclosure for him to break it off on, but i'm not sure what to put in there or feed him that's hard enough to wear it down that's safe for him

Both cactus and pumpkin are hard fir a tortoise to bite. Zucchini is medium hard.

 

[zovick]

View attachment 341164 i don't chop up his food but the vet was thinking that maybe i'm not incorporating enough harder foods into his diet or putting harder things in his enclosure for him to break it off on, but i'm not sure what to put in there or feed him that's hard enough to wear it down that's safe for him

The vet was mistaken. Your tortoise could definitely use a beak trim. It needs about 1/8" to 1/4" taken off to allow the tortoise to eat properly. I would suggest finding a good exotics vet to do this for you.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Id agree, that beak could use a bit of trimming.

A few things I do to keep our Sullys beak trimmed - no chopping of food, hard Mazuri pellets, i feed entire Hibiscus branches with leaves that are slowly chewed up, a large hard piece of slate paver, a terra cotta feeding/water dish, and a few large sedimentary rocks near the food & of course whole cuttlefish bones.

 

[hermantort]

Id agree, that beak could use a bit of trimming.

A few things I do to keep our Sullys beak trimmed - no chopping of food, hard Mazuri pellets, i feed entire Hibiscus branches with leaves that are slowly chewed up, a large hard piece of slate paver, a terra cotta feeding/water dish, and a few large sedimentary rocks near the food & of course whole cuttlefish bones.

i do use a slate for him to eat off of but it doesn't seem to be grinding it down enough, and i've tried to use cuttlefish before and he just does nothing with it. he does really like hibiscus tho, once it starts growing back here i'll give him the whole branches like you said, i've never done that before so hopefully that will help. thank you!

 

[hermantort]

The vet was mistaken. Your tortoise could definitely use a beak trim. It needs about 1/8" to 1/4" taken off to allow the tortoise to eat properly. I would suggest finding a good exotics vet to do this for you.

i don't usually take him to the vet that i did this time because the one we usually go to is about an hour away and i thought for a beak trim i can take him to a more local one but he still decided to not trim it and it cost me $70 so i can't really afford right now to take him to the one that's far away since that visit cost so much.. ☹️ if i would've known that it was gonna be that expensive for him to not even trim it i would've went to our regular one 🙄

 

[hermantort]

Both cactus and pumpkin are hard fir a tortoise to bite. Zucchini is medium hard.

i could try the cactus and zucchini but i'm not sure where to find pumpkins in my area this time of year

 

[Mrs.Jennifer]

i could try the cactus and zucchini but i'm not sure where to find pumpkins in my area this time of year

You could try trimming it with toenail clippers after a soak. Just take the length off. You can also file it with a coarse emery board to smooth it out.

 

[zovick]

i could try the cactus and zucchini but i'm not sure where to find pumpkins in my area this time of year

None of these food items mentioned here are going to wear enough off that beak (as it now is) to make any difference. In order to abrade (wear) the beak to any noticeable extent, the material eaten needs to be harder than the beak.

You can try trimming it with toenail clippers as Mrs. Jennifer said. That will be a start until you can get to a different vet.

 

[MenagerieGrl]

Yes, My Seymour when roaming the yard will attempt to bite rocks, in an attempt to keep his beak worn down...
Provide some slate or other flat rock to feed On, and as mentioned above, some Cuttlebone. Although your buddy may just turn up their nose at the cuttlebone...

 

[hermantort]

Yes, My Seymour when roaming the yard will attempt to bite rocks, in an attempt to keep his beak worn down...
Provide some slate or other flat rock to feed On, and as mentioned above, some Cuttlebone. Although your buddy may just turn up their nose at the cuttlebone...

thank you! i'm going to try rocks and branches and see if maybe he'll go for those

 

[zovick]

thank you! i'm going to try rocks and branches and see if maybe he'll go for those

You still need to cut away about 1/4" of that beak to help the tortoise eat properly. If you are expecting it to wear down from the tortoise biting at different objects/materials as mentioned above, it will take forever.

Those things will later be helpful in maintaining a correct and sharp beak, but won't by themselves correct the problem.

 

[squirtal]

i just took my tortoise to the vet to have his beak trimmed and the vet didn't really think it was necessary, just that we needed it to grind down/chip off naturally. so i was wondering what tips do you guys have to help keep a hermann's tortoise's beak down? he has a slate that he eats off of but i guess it's just not doing enough so any other ideas would be great. thank you!