Trimming the beak

[hettisurmail]

I desperately need to trim one of my Hermanns beaks. There isn't anywhere that will do it within one hundred miles of me so I will to do it my self. I've never done it before and have know clue how to. Non of my other tortoises have a long beak like his so I don't get why his is getting so long. He eats off slate and has pebbles and stones in his enclosure. Please can someone tell me how to trim his beak without hurting him.

 

[Yvonne G]

Using the side part of a toe nail clipper, start at one side of the beak and clip, clip, clip tiny pieces out of the edge, going around from one side, across the middle and finish up on the other side. Just take tiny pieces at a time. When you have it all clipped, then you can take a file to it and smooth it out.

 

[stevenf625]

I desperately need to trim one of my Hermanns beaks. There isn't anywhere that will do it within one hundred miles of me so I will to do it my self. I've never done it before and have know clue how to. Non of my other tortoises have a long beak like his so I don't get why his is getting so long. He eats off slate and has pebbles and stones in his enclosure. Please can someone tell me how to trim his beak without hurting him.

I feed my tort on a piece of sandstone,but I don't think he hits it with his beak enough to really trim it either.

The ideal beak maintainer for my tort would be a creme brulee dish like whats shown below - but with a rough, unglazed outer rim.

Put two mazuri pellets in one of these against the inner wall.
If your tortoise is like mine (a 5" Herman) he'll climb part way on top of the dish from the non-pellet side and start eating.

I don't know if its the white color of the dish, but almost every time my tortoise takes a bite, he'll miss the pellets and will instead bite the rim of the brulee dish. Once he realizes he's biting the rim, he drags him mouth up and off the rim, retargets and takes bite out of the pellets.

If the outside of the rim was rough, it would be an excellent upper beak trimmer.

 

[hettisurmail]

I feed my tort on a piece of sandstone,but I don't think he hits it with his beak enough to really trim it either.

The ideal beak maintainer for my tort would be a creme brulee dish like whats shown below - but with a rough, unglazed outer rim.

Put two mazuri pellets in one of these against the inner wall.
If your tortoise is like mine (a 5" Herman) he'll climb part way on top of the dish from the non-pellet side and start eating.

I don't know if its the white color of the dish, but almost every time my tortoise takes a bite, he'll miss the pellets and will instead bite the rim of the brulee dish. Once he realizes he's biting the rim, he drags him mouth up and off the rim, retargets and takes bite out of the pellets.

If the outside of the rim was rough, it would be an excellent upper beak trimmer.

What's a Mazuri pellet??

 

[stevenf625]

.

What's a Mazuri pellet??

Its a purina brand food pellet. It has quite a bit of protien in it so its not ideal food, so I never feed much of it - hermans seem to love it.
Need to add some water to soften them up
I'm going to try buying some glass etching cream and see if I can use it to strip the glaze off the outer sides of the brulee dish.

 

[hettisurmail]

.

Its a purina brand food pellet. It has quite a bit of protien in it so its not ideal food, so I never feed much of it - hermans seem to love it.
Need to add some water to soften them up
I'm going to try buying some glass etching cream and see if I can use it to strip the glaze off the outer sides of the brulee dish.

I don't think they sell it here.

 

[tylerfitz420]

Try Amazon

 

[Ed mitch]

http://www.mazuri.com/mazuritortoisediet.aspx


Or
For the mazuri

 

[hettisurmail]

http://www.mazuri.com/mazuritortoisediet.aspx


Or View attachment 209720
For the mazuri

I might be able to get some online. It's really hard to get anything when you live in the middle of know where . If I do manage to get mazuri how do I use it. Any tips??

 

[Ed mitch]

I might be able to get some online. It's really hard to get anything when you live in the middle of know where . If I do manage to get mazuri how do I use it. Any tips??

Just give it a little soak and they should love it!

 

[hettisurmail]

Just give it a little soak and they should love it!

Thank you so much for your advice. What tortoises do you have?

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Using the side part of a toe nail clipper, start at one side of the beak and clip, clip, clip tiny pieces out of the edge, going around from one side, across the middle and finish up on the other side. Just take tiny pieces at a time. When you have it all clipped, then you can take a file to it and smooth it out.

But how do you keep the tortoise from withdrawing his head while clipping?

 

[Reptilian Feline]

Could you use a dremel type soft grinding thing on a low speed setting? Whe have used that for our dogs' nails. Kind of like a motor version of a nail sander?

 

[Yvonne G]

But how do you keep the tortoise from withdrawing his head while clipping?

You grasp the head behind the jaws and hold the head out.

 

[stevenf625]

To follow up on my brulee-dish beak trimmer idea.
I used a dremmel tool with attached stone bit and was able to grind away the glaze off the top of the rim and off a large portion of the exterior diameter of the dish.
So rough porcelain is now exposed.
I then packed the inner edge of the dish with pumpkin mush towards one side of the dish and gave it to Rhialto this morning during his soak.

As expected he chomped down on the rough edge of the dish several times, dragging his upper beak up and off the rough porcelain while eating.
I

 

[clare n]

I've had all my tortoises for some years now and this is the first year I'm having this same issue! A real beak growth spurt going on. the slate and stones haven't worked this time for some strange reason. I've read this thread and had a look at loads of videos, ive now have tried the clippers, I managed to chip away at a little with them, one of mine is so strong for his tiny size! I'll keep going but I must admit the force I'm having to pin his head out with is a scaring me a bit. A little at a time every couple of days I suppose....

 

[William Lee Kohler]

You grasp the head behind the jaws and hold the head out.

And I thought you lovedyour tortoises. You brute!