What is the best way to keep a nice clean shaven beak?

[bsstovel]

My little buddy's beak is nowhere near overgrown whatsoever, but I just want to be proactive because I know it can cause really terrible health and eating issues.

I feed my yearling sulcata out of a terracotta bowl and I'm sure he scrapes it a bit with his beak to help keep it trimmed. Is there anything else I can do to prevent any overgrowing? How do they keep their beaks slimmed down in the wild?

I know this is a very common issue with captive tortoises, but I'm just looking for solutions to the problem before it arises.


Thanks!

 

[Tom]

My little buddy's beak is nowhere near overgrown whatsoever, but I just want to be proactive because I know it can cause really terrible health and eating issues.

I feed my yearling sulcata out of a terracotta bowl and I'm sure he scrapes it a bit with his beak to help keep it trimmed. Is there anything else I can do to prevent any overgrowing? How do they keep their beaks slimmed down in the wild?

I know this is a very common issue with captive tortoises, but I'm just looking for solutions to the problem before it arises.


Thanks!

Its really not a common issue.

Feeding them the right foods is what keeps the beak in good shape. Whole leaves and cactus pads. Grass grazing and hay.

 

[bsstovel]

Its really not a common issue.

Feeding them the right foods is what keeps the beak in good shape. Whole leaves and cactus pads. Grass grazing and hay.

Okay perfect. Yes, my little Frankie has a 75%+ diet of St. Augustine grass and dandelions.

So, beak growth has nothing to do with maintenence of "grinding" it down, and all to do with diet?

I just see these horrible pictures on Reddit of these poor tortoises with overgrown beaks and it makes me feel worried for them. Don't want my little guy to go through that.

 

[Tom]

Okay perfect. Yes, my little Frankie has a 75%+ diet of St. Augustine grass and dandelions.

So, beak growth has nothing to do with maintenence of "grinding" it down, and all to do with diet?

I just see these horrible pictures on Reddit of these poor tortoises with overgrown beaks and it makes me feel worried for them. Don't want my little guy to go through that.

Those are usually little tortoise housed indoors in small cages with the wrong diet, wrong substrate, wrong lighting, and wrong temperatures.

I can't pin point exactly which element, or elements, causes the beak overgrowth, but in 30 years of keeping my own sulcatas, and many other species, I've never had one single case of an overgrown beak.

I had one large female sulcata given to me with a beak in pretty bad shape. I figured I'd let her settle in to her new home before I grabbed hold of her head and traumatized her with beak grinding. After a couple of months, I decided to trim up that beak and when I went to get her and looked closely at the beak, it had worn itself down pretty well all by itself. I decided to wait another month or two, and sure enough, that tortoise eneded up with a normal regular looking beak within 3 months of living with me. I never had to trim it or do anything to it at all.