Trying to eat rock?

[Rusky]

So today Rusky decided he was going to try and eat a rock. It's about half his size, but he kept smelling it and opening his jaws and trying to eat it. I sprinkle calcium on his food once in a while and he has a cuttlebone which he took a small bite from about a week ago. What is he up to?

 

[Bambam1989]

So today Rusky decided he was going to try and eat a rock. It's about half his size, but he kept smelling it and opening his jaws and trying to eat it. I sprinkle calcium on his food once in a while and he has a cuttlebone which he took a small bite from about a week ago. What is he up to?

Rock biting/ eating is often a sign of a vitamin or mineral deficiency. I recommend purchasing a multi-vitamin such as Miner-all or herptivite and add a small pinch to his food twice a week for about the first two weeks then cut back to once a week.
I learned that even an extremely varied diet can end up with some kind of trace mineral deficiency after my own tortoise began biting rocks. Adding the Miner-all quickly stopped the behavior.

 

[Rusky]

Rock biting/ eating is often a sign of a vitamin or mineral deficiency. I recommend purchasing a multi-vitamin such as Miner-all or herptivite and add a small pinch to his food twice a week for about the first two weeks then cut back to once a week.
I learned that even an extremely varied diet can end up with some kind of trace mineral deficiency after my own tortoise began biting rocks. Adding the Miner-all quickly stopped the behavior.

Thanks, I'm going to order some herptivite

 

[Yvonne G]

Sometimes they like to scrape their beak on a large rock to keep the beak trimmed.

 

[Rusky]

Sometimes they like to scrape their beak on a large rock to keep the beak trimmed.

I also was thinking about that. His beak isn't long and he was opening his mouth wide, but I don't know.

 

[Bambam1989]

Sometimes they like to scrape their beak on a large rock to keep the beak trimmed.

When mine first started I thought it could have been that. But he soon was biting down on the rock so hard I was worried he would damage his beak. A couple days after he began(the same day the multi vitamin arrived) I actually found dark gray gritty stuff in his poop. He was successfully grinding small amounts of rock off. That was the only speed bump I've had so far with his care.