Underbite

[Kezzaleather]

Hiya. Ive just got a horsefield tortoise today from a friend of a friend who know longer has time for him. First time tortoise owner so a bit nervous. Anyway he has a fairly large underbite and already concerned. Previous owners said he eats fine. I will definetely take him to the vets for a check up in the next couple of days but just wanted to know if anyone had any experience with it and what the outcome will be. Hes 4 years old

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings. That really is a major underbite.

Take a read of the care guide. Most don’t like the type of substrate you currently have - the white bits encourages your tort to peck at/eat substrate.

Russian Tortoise Care Sheet

Russian tortoises have great personalities, are very hardy, tolerate a wide variety of enclosure parameters, stay small, and are generally a good "starter" tortoise in my opinion. Here is how I like to set them up: Indoor Enclosure type and size: Most people want to know the minimum size...

www.tortoiseforum.org

@Yvonne G might have some ideas for the overgrown beak.

 

[KarenSoCal]

That care sheet is good, but it's been updated. Here's the new one...

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

www.tortoiseforum.org

 

[zovick]

Hiya. Ive just got a horsefield tortoise today from a friend of a friend who know longer has time for him. First time tortoise owner so a bit nervous. Anyway he has a fairly large underbite and already concerned. Previous owners said he eats fine. I will definetely take him to the vets for a check up in the next couple of days but just wanted to know if anyone had any experience with it and what the outcome will be. Hes 4 years old

The tortoise has a very severe underbite, but it may be correctable with time and patience. It would need to be trimmed back a little at a time over a period of up to a year or so. This is because trimming away all that needs to be taken off at one time would expose the jaw bone itself and cause bleeding and possible infection. A knowledgeable vet could do this trimming for you, but as I said, you would need to take the tortoise in for a trimming about every 8-10 weeks or thereabouts so that it could be accomplished without damage to the jaw bone under the horny plate which will be trimmed. It is also possible that a better result could be achieved if the tortoise were anesthetized for these procedures which would add to the cost.

PS: I am a dentist and I have done this same thing for tortoises I have received with bites similar to the one yours has.

 

[Yvonne G]

In my experience, having raised a group of intergrade Manouria tortoises from eggs, what I've 'guessed' is this is caused by lack of calcium. I sold some babies from this same clutch, and following up with those babies, none of them developed the protruding lower beak, while all of mine did. Comparing their care and feeding with mine, the only thing I came up with was they had a steady supplement of calcium, while mine didn't.

The only way to fix it is how Zovick advised, PLUS making sure calcium is available to the animal.