Tips for beak health?

[gia474]

Recently have been seeing and reading about some poor box turtles with overgrown beaks (and even claws) and it’s come to my attention that despite the usual basics, which don’t really seem like anything special, I’m unaware of anything else to ensure my babies don’t run into issues after some time. Are there any long term owners out there who have some advice? This isn’t common in the wild so how else do they keep them trimmed down naturally? Anyone really, just especially curious if there are any secret tips people have figured out after long-term keeping. Currently, I’m aware of what I feel are “the basics”: feeding on terracotta or slate stone, cuttlebone, tougher (crunchier?) foods like pellets perhaps? But definitely avoiding the “mush” for every meal. And as far as claws: some rough flat stone to walk on in enclosure, plenty of good digging / burrowing substrate.

Is this really it? Am I missing something obvious or perhaps a secret trick? Lol. It’s just been on my mind a lot lately and would much rather take every precaution to prevent (especially) an overgrown beak if possible.

Thanks so much for any input! 😊

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

You seem such a sweet owner! I love new members like you! I can’t really help much here as I have no experience with turtles but hopefully someone can come along to advise, I know that feeding on slate works for tortoises but idk about these guys🙂

 

[gia474]

You seem such a sweet owner! I love new members like you! I can’t really help much here as I have no experience with turtles but hopefully someone can come along to advise, I know that feeding on slate works for tortoises but idk about these guys🙂

Thank you haha 😊 ..curious to hear what others have to say!

 

[mark1]

from my perspective , overgrown beaks and nails are health problems, metabolic, not mechanical..... most likely diet and sunlight......... what i think prevents it , proper diet , natural sunlight and brumation........... all the box turtles below been in my backyard for 15-24yrs, they eat no "hard" food, if they eat off a dish it's plastic, they have never seen a cuttlebone, nor been given a vitamin of any type, they eat mostly off the dirt........liver disease is a known factor in overgrown beaks of birds, brumation is, imo, a healthy process for the liver and pancreas of turtles.......

 

[gia474]

from my perspective , overgrown beaks and nails are health problems, metabolic, not mechanical..... most likely diet and sunlight......... what i think prevents it , proper diet , natural sunlight and brumation........... all the box turtles below been in my backyard for 15-24yrs, they eat no "hard" food, if they eat off a dish it's plastic, they have never seen a cuttlebone, nor been given a vitamin of any type, they eat mostly off the dirt........liver disease is a known factor in overgrown beaks of birds, brumation is, imo, a healthy process for the liver and pancreas of turtles.......

from my perspective , overgrown beaks and nails are health problems, metabolic, not mechanical..... most likely diet and sunlight......... what i think prevents it , proper diet , natural sunlight and brumation........... all the box turtles below been in my backyard for 15-24yrs, they eat no "hard" food, if they eat off a dish it's plastic, they have never seen a cuttlebone, nor been given a vitamin of any type, they eat mostly off the dirt........liver disease is a known factor in overgrown beaks of birds, brumation is, imo, a healthy process for the liver and pancreas of turtles.......

Interesting! This is really helpful thank you! It makes a lot of sense to me actually. Definitely answers my question as to why this isn’t seen in the wild. I much prefer a more natural approach. So, I currently have two very young three toeds and live in the northeast so brumination very much terrifies me and I don’t plan on allowing it to happen at this point in time. We have a very short warm weather period so an outdoor enclosure would be used for maybe 2-3 months at the very most. What would you recommend in my case?