Tortoise toenails

[Flying Jenny]

Hello all,

I have a young Hermann's tortoise of about one year old and we have done everything we know of that is posssible to make him (or her) live a happy life. We have a spacious tortoise enclosure with two levels for him and he gets only the best weeds (or grocery greens in a pinch) to eat. The problem is that two of his toenails on one of his back feet grew together and are stuck, and then another two toenails on his front foot opposite the back affected foot have suddenly grown together as well. I have an appointment for him with a reptilian specialist vet next week but I was wondering if anyone had seen this before.

He lives on a substrate that is made of topsoil and playsand mixed together about 50/50, but his "upstairs" level is made up of ExoTerra's jungle bark. He mostly only goes up there to poop or hide out in his HabiHut for a while- most of his time is spent downstairs.

 

[Bansh88]

Bitchen set-up! The vet should be able to clip like a gog's nail. Hopefully the quick isn't too deep. He should be fine.

I'd reccomend giving his living quarters some more hard areas to walk on. Some large flat stone would be good. Like some pieces of slate.

 

[Iluvemturts]

Your tort table does rock! I agree with Bansh88 flat slat is good.
Good luck at the vet...I'm sure he'll be fine.

 

[T-P]

Great enclosure.
Good substrate, great diet.
Nothing can go wrong.

You can get slate, shallow rocks for the tortoise to climb and maybe even if you buy a bag of slate bits (they are normally between 2 and 3 inches each peice) and pile them in a corner for him to climb?
i have this for my tortoises.

The vet should be able to clip the tips and just below the tips off, so they should grow normally again.

You can also put a cuttlebone in, with or without hardback, this keeps their beak and nails trimmmed!

 

[Flying Jenny]

Thanks, guys. This sounds like good news- I hope the vet will be able to trim those nails like you said.

I do have a cuttlebone in there for him, but he isn't very interested in it. I like the flat slate and the slate bits idea. Maybe that will help wear his nails down more. They do look quite long.

Thanks again for all the help. This is a really good forum; I am glad I found my way here.

 

[transtort]

put some rocks in his area.
check out my conversion kit...

Hi,
I would definately use pieces of slate to keep your torts nails short,more naturally.I would however,remove the bark as it harbors mould spores and can cause respiratory problems.

Julie

 

[barbie69]

Really neat set up! Cute little hermann's too!!

 

[cvalda]

that is AWESOME!

 

[c_pierce705]

That is an awesome enclosure.....wow, its nocer than my apartment! LOL. Good luck