Trimming overgrown beak

[geekinpink]

Sorry for starting another thread, I just have a question about their beaks, I've search the forums but mostly I see people teaching how to trim big tort beaks. What about for star torts?

One of my star does not like to bite on cuttlebone. How do I trim her beak? And maintain it for that matter? I read somewhere a while ago that corn cob or carrots will help? Is that true?

Hope someone can help, she's 4" big, Her upper beak is the one overgrown and it gets in the way when she eats

 

[coreyc]

Sorry for starting another thread, I just have a question about their beaks, I've search the forums but mostly I see people teaching how to trim big tort beaks. What about for star torts?

One of my star does not like to bite on cuttlebone. How do I trim her beak? And maintain it for that matter? I read somewhere a while ago that corn cob or carrots will help? Is that true?

Hope someone can help, she's 4" big, Her upper beak is the one overgrown and it gets in the way when she eats

Can you post a close up pic of the beak? I also would feed on a flat rock or a piece of slate

 

[geekinpink]

p20110705-011052

I hope you can see it, it was very hard taking the pic, she was squirming to hurry and get to the food.

Could it possibly be calcium deficiency? I give them calcium sprinkled on the food every other day...

She use to like biting on the flower pot which is her hide, but she doesn't do it anymore. Also the vet told me to mince their veggies before giving it to them, but when I noticed her beak seems to be getting longer, I stopped mincing their food.

I feed collard greens,opuntia, hibiscus, carrots, calabaza leaf, flower and fruit, 'saluyot'(local veggie). I also give them Mazuri 2x a week.

 

[N2TORTS]

You can use "heavy duty" toenail clippers,bird clippers, even a dremel" take small nip's at an angle to start then trim across
( dont try and take alot off , start small) . If needed in the future, with practice both you and your tort will become more successful in keeping him ' trimmed up' . Also, try tossing in the enclosure the large "bird natural cuttle bones " not the tort type you see packaged. I will assure you your tort will take intrest in it.

JD~

 

[dmmj]

overgrown beaks are simply an overgrowth of their beaks. nothing else really. On smaller torts you can use a nail clipper or my preferred method a nail file. I saw a dremel used on a desert tortoise at one of our meetings and now I feel confident I could do it, it can be nerving the first time, a trimmed beak makes life easier on them. A front face shot of your tort would make it easier to see the beak. To prevent overgrown beaks, you can feed them on a hard piece of slate or something so they scrape their mouths on it and file down the beak naturally. at the angle of your pic the beak does not look to overgrown much.

 

[geekinpink]

front picture

I tried to file but it's very hard and I didn't know how to do it, should her mouth be open?

I feed them on an upside down tile, their lower beak gets trimmed because they use it to pick up food, their upper beak on the other hand rarely graze the tile.

Is there a chance I do not need to file her beak?

 

[River14]

She is a very lovely litlle tortoise. I wouldnt think she needs her beak trimming. Does she love that plant?

 

[geekinpink]

Yes she does love that damn plant! lol, i don't care for it at all! I always end up with a spine or 2 no matter how careful I am. But now I use chopsticks to hold it while harvesting. Works perfectly hee hee


I've recently pruned my hibiscus plant and I decided to dump them on my star's pen, I saw them nibbling the stalks... is that safe? and Will that help wear their beaks down?

What about feeding a chunk of carrots or sweet potato(can they eat this?) once in a while, would that maintain their beaks?

 

[dmmj]

They can eat the branches, and that beak does not look overgrown to me. Eating the branches should help keep the beak trimmed.