Nail question

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Guggie

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Tortoise nails. I know they can get too long; I know that rocks & slate will help keep them short; I know that they are able to be clipped; and I know it's possible to clip them too much and hurt them. Tweek's nails seem to be wearing down nicely all by themselves; one of them is actually rather short. My question is, is it possible for a tort's nails to wear down too much, to the point that they hurt the tort? If it looks like they are wearing down too much, should I take action?

Thanks in advance!
 

Yvonne G

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No, because the action of the nail on the dirt/rock/etc. is very slow, and causes the "quick" to retract up further away from the tip. When you cut it, it happens suddenly and the quick has no time to retract.
 

Tom

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I've have never had a problem with nails wearing down too short naturally. If there is something so abrasive that it could cause such a problem, I would expect to see plastron and foot damage, before there were any nail problems.

A pic would help confirm whether or not things are "normal" with Tweek's nails.
 

zesty_17

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Yes. If a tortoise's nails wear down, it can cause injuries to the feet. Usually, in captive environments this is caused by obesity and overfeeding. The toe nails should mimic the way your own hands are shaped-with a short first finger/thumb, longer in the middle, and short again at the pinkie. At this past year's turtle conference they were presenting information taken with galaps and several other large tortoise species from all over the country in both zoos and private collections, and they all showed this toe-nail correlation to improper diet and overfeeding leading to obesity. Because of the obesity, many of the torts also had joint issues, mbd, and a whole host of other things including some swelling around the throat that looks like goiter-but is not. I am working on getting the presentation or at least some sample photos from that presentation to share, but should you notice any of the uneven wearing on your own tortoise's feet, it may be a good time to reevaluate the types and especially amounts of food they are getting. On the extreme end of obesity, when you look at the tort's foot you will notice that they walk with most of the weight carried on the inside of the foot pad, closer the the body, with those toe nails and foot pad worn down. I have seen some torts with the pad so worn that the scutes were indistinguishable. And the middle and last toe nails are overgrown, the tortoise is obese especially of the pinky toe nail is longer than the middle one, this means that the pinkie is not wearing down at all when the tort walks, putting increased pressure on those joints which will eventually cause significant problems in the long run. Tortoise feed are like elephant feet, they are designed to carry HUGE amounts of weight in relation to body size and should distribute that weight evenly, if they don't or have too much weight to carry and "buckle" then they are being overfed by the owner. It is reversible, but like anything with torts will take a long time, just as this issue takes a long time to hurt them. Hope this helps.. it is so much easier to describe when i have Bubba or Ralphie (2 aldabs i work with) in front of me as models. :)

zesty_17 said:
Yes. If a tortoise's nails wear down, it can cause injuries to the feet. Usually, in captive environments this is caused by obesity and overfeeding. The toe nails should mimic the way your own hands are shaped-with a short first finger/thumb, longer in the middle, and short again at the pinkie. At this past year's turtle conference they were presenting information taken with galaps and several other large tortoise species from all over the country in both zoos and private collections, and they all showed this toe-nail correlation to improper diet and overfeeding leading to obesity. Because of the obesity, many of the torts also had joint issues, mbd, and a whole host of other things including some swelling around the throat that looks like goiter-but is not. I am working on getting the presentation or at least some sample photos from that presentation to share, but should you notice any of the uneven wearing on your own tortoise's feet, it may be a good time to reevaluate the types and especially amounts of food they are getting. On the extreme end of obesity, when you look at the tort's foot you will notice that they walk with most of the weight carried on the inside of the foot pad, closer the the body, with those toe nails and foot pad worn down. I have seen some torts with the pad so worn that the scutes were indistinguishable. And the middle and last toe nails are overgrown, the tortoise is obese especially of the pinky toe nail is longer than the middle one, this means that the pinkie is not wearing down at all when the tort walks, putting increased pressure on those joints which will eventually cause significant problems in the long run. Tortoise feed are like elephant feet, they are designed to carry HUGE amounts of weight in relation to body size and should distribute that weight evenly, if they don't or have too much weight to carry and "buckle" then they are being overfed by the owner. It is reversible, but like anything with torts will take a long time, just as this issue takes a long time to hurt them. Hope this helps.. it is so much easier to describe when i have Bubba or Ralphie (2 aldabs i work with) in front of me as models. :)

you'll notice in the pic (this is the same tort) that her pinkie toe nail is about the same length or flightly longer than the middle toe nail, indicating that she is on the heavy side for her respective size. She shows no current issues, and the diet has been changed, removing all fruit, adding 2 types of hay, collard greens, behavioral training (exercising-lol) to help with this before it turns into something big. She has not gotten to the point in which her weight is shifting, as you can see she still holds her leg directly beneath her as she reaches the food, but over time if not corrected her posture would surely change with the increased weight.
 

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