Nails

[Thorpy]

Hello all,

George is around 2 years old, had him about 2 months, he is awesome

About 2 weeks ago I added slate into his enclosure after reading about them wearing down naturally. Am a worrier and I can't see his nails wearing down any, so have a look at the pictures and let me know if you think they need clipping?!

Cheers in advance

 

[Grigor.Love.]

By the looks of it, yes. It's really very easy if your tort cooperates. Clip clip.

 

[Neltharion]

I would have to agree. They do look like they could use some clipping. You may want to give him a soak, then clip them. Slate will help keep the nails shorter if they're already short.

 

[slowpoke]

how do you go about clipping their nails , is it like a dogs where you can only go so far where ever that pink line starts ? my torts are fine , just asking incase i ever have to do it ...

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Thorpy:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

What would you like us to call you?

May we know appx. where in the world you are?

Those are some pretty long, Freddy Kruger-type nails! If you don't feel comfortable clipping them yourself, you should take him to a vet and have them clipped. A tortoise that is allowed to live outside during good weather seldom has this problem.

 

[Thorpy]

I can see where the nails start to go almost see through? I just gonna cut to there

I'm from Manchester, England

 

[GBtortoises]

"I can see where the nails start to go almost see through?"

I agree with the others that they are a bit long. You have to be especially watchful of the nails on the back feet. Because of how the feet are used for walking, long nails on those feet tend to grow back inward towards the foot pad.

If the nails are translucent you can usually easily see the quick, which should be darker than the area around it. This contains the blood vessel. You would want to stay at least 2-3mm out from that when trimming. It is sometimes easier to accomplish nail trimming with two people. One to hold the tortoise and limb firmly while the other person does the clipping.

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

Be very careful! If you cut too close, he will bleed.

 

[Thorpy]

I bottled it!

Goin vets on Saturday!