cuttlebone?

[anjani919]

What exactly is cuttlebone ? I was told my lil 8 month old CDT should have one to keep his beak trim and to get some regular nutrients. He is completely healthy, but is indoors for now until I can build him/her a safe outdoor enclosure. So its best he get all the vitamins he needs. Will the cuttlebone benefit my lil guy at all?

 

[mainey34]

A cuttlebone you will find is generally used for birds. We use it for added calcium. Put it in the enclosure and your tort will nibble on it. Make sure you scrape the back off. Some soak it and scrape it off.

 

[Jlant85]

My torts don't touch them! Any advice on how to introduce them?

 

[hunterk997]

It's not like food, so you probably won't notice it being nibbled on. After awhile pull it out and look at it and you'll see little marks an knicks in it.


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[JoesMum]

Put your cuttlebone under the pile of leafy greens you feed each day; it gets chewed by accident

 

[Beck]

Re: RE: cuttlebone?

Make sure you scrape the back off. Some soak it and scrape it off.

What's on the back of them? You mean the metal that is sometimes on there to hook to a birdcage, or is there something else?


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[lisa127]

Most box turtles love them and actually eat them. You can buy them special for turtle (not birds) and then they don't have the backing on them. People say they are more expensive that way, but they are really not if you shop around. I get a pack of two very, very large ones for 1.99.

 

[JoesMum]

Re: RE: cuttlebone?

Most box turtles love them and actually eat them. You can buy them special for turtle (not birds) and then they don't have the backing on them. People say they are more expensive that way, but they are really not if you shop around. I get a pack of two very, very large ones for 1.99.

The ones we buy for birds in the UK are just cuttlebone... no backing or anything... and are fine for torts as they come. It never occurred to me that they got processed in any way elsewhere!

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

The ones we buy for birds in the UK are just cuttlebone... no backing or anything... and are fine for torts as they come. It never occurred to me that they got processed in any way elsewhere!

Cuttlebone comes from cuttlefish, a mollusk related to octopus, squid, and nautilus, and more distantly to snails. It's a small, internal shell made of calcium, and people offer it to their birds and tortoises so that they can gnaw on it. This allows the animal to not only get enough calcium in its diet, but it also helps keep the beak trim.

The "backing" on commercial products is the actual cuttlebone from the cuttlefish. The chalkier stuff is added on there as a softer form of calcium. When feeding birds, people are instructed to mount the cuttlebone on the side of the cage with the chalky side facing the bird, since the true cuttlebone side can be a choking hazard for them (most bird species kept as pets do not feed on mollusks). However, tortoises naturally feed on snails, so they can handle the harder cuttlebone. Of course, the softer part is good, too.