Strange beak growth ?

[Tony the tank]

Well today I trimmed one of the leopards beak..which was very long...then I noticed on the other leopard...that the beak was very long on the sides of his jaw...I have never seen that before..is this unusual?.....I was able to trim it but not sure how I can prevent it from happening again...

Thoughts?

 

[coreyc]

Have you been feeding them on a flat rock or slate?

 

[Yvonne G]

Can we see a picture? I doubt there's much you can do about excessive growth at the sides of the beak. This normally doesn't happen.

 

[Tony the tank]

Cory..these are the ones I just picked up two weeks ago.....I feed them on a rough stone now...not sure what the previous owner did... But also not sure how the stone would control the sides of the beak from growing...

---

Yvonne... No pics..But I was able to trim the sides... Using a cutoff wheel on my dremel.. And being very careful..(the sides were completely covering his lower jaw..) I used the other leopard as a gauge....

Did I screw up trimming it?? Should i have left it alone??As soon as I put him down he started to eat like nothing happened..

 

[boutselis]

Cory..these are the ones I just picked up two weeks ago.....I feed them on a rough stone now...not sure what the previous owner did... But also not sure how the stone would control the sides of the beak from growing...

Olivia had some long sides on her beak but seemed to take care of it herself.
Olivia seemed to scrape her beak on a rock from time to time. I have never watched her do it but there was a flat rock near her house that had obvious marks from her scraping. Definite grooves the width of her beak. I didn't realize her beak had changed until I noticed the rock and wondered where the marks could have come from.

 

[ascott]

I would bet you did aok---especially since it was back to business as usual for the tortoise

I would imagine that the flat slate would not necessarily offer the angle for the sides to be managed that way....perhaps you can supply a round, size appropriate rock (not enough as an increased flipping hazard) in the event the tortoise wants to scratch.....??

 

[Tony the tank]

I will try to put a stone in there he can bite... But the sides were so long that where I trimmed it ..Is really thick..maybe a bit thicker than a 16th of an inch and blunt...he is eating but he needs to pull on his food to tear it...

 

[HerpDaDerp26TV]

I use a cuttlebone and In having good results; helps give them the calcium they need too.

 

[Yvonne G]

That's very interesting, Keith (boutselis). See we learn something new every day here on the forum. I, too, have seen my tortoises rubbing the sides of their beaks on stones or branches. It never occurred to me they were tending to their beak hygiene. The sides of the beak might be like human cuticle, it keeps growing and we push it back. So the tortoise's beak grows on the sides and he rubs it to tend it. I like it. Thank you!!!

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

I keep a very dried-up beef shoulder blade in each enclosure...sometimes the Hermann's torts seem to chew on it, presumably for a little extra calcium, but the Ornate Box turtles chomp down on their's a lot. Also always keep a flatrock in each enclosure as a feeding station.

My daughter's most recent Ornate aquisition had a terribly overgrown beak when we first adopted her, about 5 mnonths ago, and I had to trim it enough for her to eat (her previous owner told us "She doesn't seem very hungry these days...she goes right to the food but just stares at it a lot!".

After I got about 3/4" of over-growth trimmed off, we offered her some food and her appetitie had improved radically...she scarfed down a bunch of soaked dog food as fast as she could suck it down, shoving Orion (no dainty eater, himself) out of the way...gained almost a pound-and-a-half in the next 6 weeks!

Now her beak is almost "normal" looking, so I'm letting work the rest down in her own good time.

 

[Weda737]

I read somewhere about letting them graze to help trim the sides, like when they pull on the grass and clover stems they use the kind of serrated sides of their beak to tear the fibrous grass and it helps keep it trimmed up. I haven't kept torts long and I'm no expert, but I can see how this would make sense.

 

[priscillamatos]

I feel like my lil leos beak is over grown i dont know how to shave it down.i have rocks in his inclosher as well as kettle bone but if that dosent work how else can i do it i just adopted him he was in a real bad situation only being fed lettuse and thats wen they desided to buy it for him i rescuse lots of lil creators but this is the first tort and i feel for him you have all helped a bunch but a lil more detail into the fisacal shavin would be great