Hard plate vs compostable plate

[MalB]

Hello. I started feeding my 1-year-old redfoot, Arya, on compostable plates. This way I just discard the plate when she's finished and do not have to wash the dishes separately from my dishes which adds another task to my already busy day! And I read somewhere that tortoises need hard plates to help them keep their beaks at the right length. Should I go back to regular dishes?

 

[MalB]

Btw- the compostable plates go directly into compost.

 

[Maro2Bear]

A hard feeding surface is just one way to help with proper beak filing. Food types, additives like cuttlefish bone, mineral blocks, general overall size & composition of your enclosure and substrate all play a part.

 

[Tom]

Hello. I started feeding my 1-year-old redfoot, Arya, on compostable plates. This way I just discard the plate when she's finished and do not have to wash the dishes separately from my dishes which adds another task to my already busy day! And I read somewhere that tortoises need hard plates to help them keep their beaks at the right length. Should I go back to regular dishes?

I'd be more worried about the tortoise eating the plate.

I've never bought into the whole "they need a hard surface for eating to keep their beak filed down" thing. My torts eat from a soft pile of greens and they don't scrape their beaks on the dishes, plastic fast food trays, terra cotta saucers, ground, plastic butter tub lids, or any other surface that I feed them from.

I have never had any tortoise of mine get an overgrown beak. Not one. I've had them come to me as rescues with overgrown beaks, and the beaks sort themselves out without me doing anything within a few weeks. I believe this is a diet and living conditions issue. Proper diet and living conditions prevent beak problems. Not feeding surfaces.

I have two sets of terra cotta saucers for each enclosure. When a bowl gets soiled, I remove it and drop a clean one in its place. Then I simply scrub out the dirty one with a dedicated plastic dishwashing brush, rinse, and let it air dry out in the sun. I repeat this daily or more, as needed. No need to run them through a dishwasher. Whether you do them separately or not, those bacteria are still in your dish washer with your own dishes. We have a separate sink in my house, the "dog sink", that is next to our clothes washer and dryer that I use for this purpose. I wouldn't want to scrub out poopy nasty tortoise dishes in the sink where my own food dishes get washed. In previous living situations where I didn't have a dog sink, I used a bathroom sink for this operation, and simply cleaned up afterward.

 

[MalB]

Lol. So far..she is not eating the plates!

 

[Tom]

Lol. So far..she is not eating the plates!

They serve us breakfast on the film sets and I frequently share my breakfast with my dogs. On one particular day, I set the remainder of my breakfast burrito on its paper plate in my dogs crate. When I went to retrieve the plate a few minutes later it was gone. I thought my other trainer removed it, but no. A large handful of vaseline down the throat solved that problem on that day...

Now I just keep the plate.

 

[MalB]

Oh my. Glad your dog survived!